Page 133 of Brassy Bigwig

And I know what she says is true. Shelby would never tell me a lie, especially not one so cruel.

“Where is he? I want to see him. I have to see him.”

“He’s downstairs in the ICU. He has a punctured lung, and he lost a lot of blood. He needed surgery to repair it.”

I need to go to him.

Throwing the covers back as best I can with one arm, I ungracefully swing my legs out of my bed and try to stand as everyone screams at me.

Big mistake.

I fall back down onto the bed.

“Chloe, stop! You’re going to bust through your stitches,” I hear my mother say from across the room.

“Yes, and the nurse has to check you out, take your vitals. And there is also a police officer outside who needs to speak with you,” my father adds.

“I’m not doing or saying anything until someone takes me to see D.”

Shelby is the first to move. She marches out in the hallway, and I hear her speaking with someone. A moment later, she comes back into the room with a nurse in tow.

“Ms. Gainesworth, so lovely to see you awake.”

“Take me to see Dimitrios Andino, now.”

I’ve never been mean to anyone in my entire life, and I don’t like who I am right now, but until they let me see him, this is who they’re going to get.

“I’ll make you a deal,” the nurse begins. “I’ll radio for a wheelchair for your transport, and while we’re waiting on it, you let me give you a once over.”

I stare at her, breathing heavily with exasperation through narrow eyes as I consider her offer.

“Fine.”

After calling for my transport, she takes my blood pressure, which I’m sure is through the roof. Then she checks my eyes and vision before changing the dressing on my shoulder wound.

“What happened?” I ask Shelby as the nurse works.

With tears in her eyes, she tells me the story one of the officers told her and my parents.

“Thankfully, D called Officer Huntington on his way to you. When the cops got to the house, they said Reed was straddling you on the bed, shouting that if he couldn’t have you, no one could. When he tried to stab you, the officer shot him, and he died instantly. The force of the shot pushed him forward, which is how you got stabbed in the shoulder and not the heart.”

“I saw the blood splatter, but I thought it was mine,” I tell them. “And D?”

“They found a very faint pulse. By the time the paramedics arrived…” she swallows nervously, “he was moments from death.”

“Okay, I’m finished here, Chloe. Let me go check on that wheelchair for you,” the nurse says.

“Thank you,” I tell her.

“Oh, Chloe,” my mother sobs as she comes forward. “I’m so glad you’re okay, sweetheart.”

“Yeah, you really had us worried sick there, sugar cookie.”

I want to smile at the nickname my dad gave me twenty-one years ago, but I can’t.

“Okay, your ride is here,” the nurse comes into the room with a wheelchair.

Once she locks it into place, she helps me down off of my bed before hooking my IV to the metal pole sticking out of the back of the chair.

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