Page 83 of The Pursuit of Happiness

The knowledge that he was willing to do something like this to her just to ruin me twists the knife in my gut. I’m the reason for her suffering. “What did you do to her? Did you touch her?” I’m spitting in his face as I yell, but I don’t give a fuck. I’ll do much worse to him.

He laughs, “I didn’t get to. Her knight in shining armor showed up.”

I shake him, “What did you give her?”

“The same shit I gave you two the night at the club. Maybe a little more,” he smirks, “She’ll be knocked out for the rest of the night and she won’t remember anything tomorrow.”

I growl, “This whole time, you were planning on taking me down. That’s why you were such a dick and then pretended to be my friend. To be all of our friends.”

He smiles, “Look who finally figured it out.”

I punch him again, “You did this to her.Youdid this.” I punch him again. “You fucking drugged her, you druggedme. And you set us up and leaked the video to the world.”

I hear distant voices coming from somewhere down the hotel hallway, but I can’t focus on anything but his mangled face beneath me. I want to punch a hole through his fucking face right now. “You fucking piece of shit,” I rage as I land another punch. His eyes close and his head turns to the side and just as I’m about to throw another punch, an arm grabs me and pulls me back.

I feel another one pinning me down from the other side and I try to struggle out of the four arms holding me down, but it doesn’t work. I’m feral, absolutely animalistic as I attempt to free myself. I watch as a flood of police officers enter the room and immediately move on Rogan. I hear a radio for an ambulance and something about placing him under arrest, but I’m still thrashing. I want to kill him for doing this to her. Tous.

A dark voice commands in my ear, “Slater, you need to cool down. They’re arresting him. It’s over.” I turn my face and find Dallas staring at me, pinning me down from one side.

I don’t stop thrashing and the voice from the other side of me adds, “Your girl needs you right now. She needs you to keep your calm. Think about her, not him.” This time when I turn my face, I find Harvey staring intensely into my eyes.

Aria. Aria needs me. I stop thrashing and turn my face to find an EMS worker tending to her. Another one appears and they talk in codes and the only words I can hear are “drugs,” “possible overdose,” and “code blue.”

I try to shove out of their grips again and this time they letme go. I leap to my feet and rush to her side. The EMS workers try to keep me back so they can work on her and I keep a safe distance from her so as not to interfere. When I’m this close to her, I whisper, “Come on, baby.”

Two stretchers appear and I realize one is for Aria and the other for Rogan. As they place her on the gurney, I follow them out with her and I chance one last look over my shoulder to find them handcuffing Rogan to the gurney they have him on. This nightmare is finally fucking over, the mystery solved. The only thing that matters now is her waking up and coming back to me.

Chapter 19

Aria

My head feels likeit was run over by a fucking truck. The pounding is incessant and immensely painful. My body feels sore and weak all over and I don’t dare move in fear of making something worse.

What the fuck happened? Why do my eyelids feel so heavy? I try to blink them open and it takes a great effort. When I finally manage to open my lids, a bright, white light nearly blinds me and causes me to wince.

My vision is blurry and when my eyes finally come into focus and adjust to the light, I take in my surroundings. I’m in a hospital room and it seems to be morning or noon. I try to lift my head, but my neck is sore. Instead, I roll my head to the side and find a figure sitting in a chair next to my bed. His face is in his hands and his elbows are on his knees. I recognize the blond mass of hair immediately. Sly.

I try to open my mouth to call out to him, but my mouth is so dry and my lips feel so chapped. I try to lift my head again and I groan. His head shoots up immediately and he gives me a wide eyed expression. When our eyes meet, I immediately start tearing up. I lick my lips to moisten them before I push the words out, “Sly, I’m so sorry for leaving. I should’ve listened. I-” I try to explain my reasoning but my mind is coming up blank. I can’t seem to remember anything past leaving Sly’s house and going to the after party. I don’t recall anything after ordering a drink at the bar.

He wipes the tears from my cheeks and shakes his head, “Shh,baby. It’s okay. Everything’s okay now.” He has an exhausted look in his eyes and so much pain etched into his features.

I know right away that something is off. “What’s wrong?” I panic.

Sly takes a deep breath and sits at the edge of the bed, brushing hair from my face. “Do you want water?”

I shake my head, “No. I want to know what happened.”

He looks down for a moment before he responds, contemplating his response. “Rogan drugged you last night. He drugged you and brought you to the Renaissance hotel and he- he was gonna-” he stops himself and squeezes his eyes shut, wincing.

“He was gonna what?” I’m panicking, my breathing is erratic.

“I found you in that room passed out on the bed with your dress unzipped. He propped the phone up and he was going to do God only knows what to you before I got there,” his voice cracks on emotion.

My eyes widen, “You found me?”

He nods. “I got there before he could touch you or worse.”

I relax, exhaling. Sly saved my life. A detail comes to mind and I give him a betrayed look, “The phone. The blue phone. It was in your drawer. Why was it in the drawer?”

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