Page 48 of Until Presley

“Stop, please,” Presley begs. Her tone tells me something isn’t right. Then the phone clatters to the ground. The call remains connected, and I’m glad, because the next thing we hear has my heart in my throat.

“Oh my God, wake up, Presley. I didn’t mean to hurt you.” I hear Clara’s voice but don’t hear my girl at all.

“Clara, what’s going on?” I yell into the phone, but she doesn’t answer me.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just get so upset that you’re so perfect, and my mother is always telling me to be more like you. Please, Presley. I can’t go to jail.” She pauses, and then the next thing I hear makes my knees start to buckle. “Someone call an ambulance. My sister is hurt. She won’t wake up.”

I bellow my anger in a long, loud cry of pain.

I’m being pulled and pushed around as the phone disconnects. I call back over and over, but there’s no answer.

“Call us when you hear something.” Walker’s voice breaks through the fog of worry, and I glance down to see I’m sitting in the passenger seat of a helicopter. I don’t know how I got here, but I’m glad my friends are there for me.

“I’ll have you in Miami in about thirty-five minutes,” the pilot says. “Otto said to tell you he arranged for a car to pick you up at the landing pad.”

“I don’t know which hospital they took her to.” I turn to him, and I must startle the guy because he leans away from me.

“Don’t take it out on me, man, I’m just trying to help.”

“I’m sorry. My girl was attacked and collapsed. I need to get to her. I can’t lose her.”

“Okay.”

I try her number again, and this time someone picks up.

“She told me she broke up with you.” Her father’s voice comes across the line. It’s only been about twenty minutes since her phone dropped the call. She told me her parents were in Miami, but them being at the hospital with her shocks me at first.

“I’m her family. I should have been notified, and no, we didn’t break up. Put Presley on the phone. Now,” I bark, and he hangs up on me. I swear I’m going to punch the fucker in the face when I see him.

I use the Find My app and find out which hospital she’s at.

By the time we land, I’m going crazy. Her father turned off the phone, but I’m glad I was able to get her location beforehand. The car service drops me off at the entrance to the emergency room, and I jump out and rush inside.

“Ham Martinez for Presley Blanchard,” I tell the admissions representative, who looks on her computer.

“You can’t go back there. They won’t let us, so you can’t either.”

I swing around at the sound of his voice.

There stands her father, Sean. He’s shorter than me, his receding hairline still brown at the sides, with no gray in sight. Behind him, his wife and son stand up, but it’s the red-haired young woman next to them I advance on.

“I recorded what you said. You can’t get out of this now. If she’s really hurt, you won’t be able to hide from the justice that will find you.” I stop short of threatening to kill her.

“I don’t care anymore. I’ll take whatever punishment I deserve. I’ll plead guilty. I shouldn’t have attacked her before, but she has always been so weak and meek. She took my mother from me,” Clara cries, and I’m only taken aback for a moment.

“Your tears won’t save you. You’ve had it out for Presley for years. It’s because of you that she was stabbed. I’m not going toallow you around her anymore.” I turn toward her father. “And you, you’ll be lucky if I ever allow you around her or our future children. You’ve never been there for her, and that’s all she’s wanted.”

“Mr. Martinez, your fiancée is waiting for you,” a nurse says, and her family gasps.

I can’t ignore the rush of emotion through my system. Presley listed me as her fiancé. As soon as the nurse opens the door to the private room, I rush to her side. She turns to look at me, and I see the tears in her eyes.

“What’s the matter, bride to be?” I smile at her, hoping it stops the tears. I hate to see my girl crying. “Come on, sprite, you know what your tears do to me.”

I lean down onto the bed and take her in my arms. She wraps around me, holding on tightly, as if she’s afraid I’m going to leave her.

“Ham, I love you so much. I’m so sorry.” Her voice is muffled against my shirt.

“I know you do, baby. But there is nothing to be sorry about. You’re safe, and I recorded everything. Clara isn’t going to bother you at all. She said she was going to plead guilty.”

---