Page 13 of Fighting for the Forbidden
“I’ve no idea.” It’s only now that I see the fear in Jenny’s eyes.
Jenny takes my hand in hers, and we sit back in silence, both lost in our own thoughts and prayers. I’ve never been even slightly religious, but I’ll do whatever it takes right now to ensure that I see them both again. I’ve already lost six years with Ben. I can’t even comprehend—
“Are they okay?” Erica asks, rushing into reception a while later followed by Betty, who’s trying her best to keep up.
“We don’t know.”
Betty pulls Jenny into her arms, and it’s the final straw because she sobs on her shoulder. I know she was trying to be strong for me, and I appreciate it, but I’d rather she didn’t keep it all inside.
I watch, feeling totally useless as Erica marches up to the reception desk and demands to know what’s going on. The receptionist is busy trying to calm her down when a familiar figure walks through the door.
“Joe,” I cry, racing towards him and throwing my arms around his shoulders. He winces and sucks in a sharp breath.
“Shit, I’m sorry. Are you okay? What Happened? Where’s Ben?”
Gently pulling me back to him, he slowly walks us towards where the others are not so patiently waiting to hear more. It’s only once we’ve sat down that I get a good look at him. He’s got a black eye and swelling down the side of his face. He’s clutching onto his ribs with a scratched and bruised arm.
“Shouldn’t you be in there?” Jenny asks, concern filling her voice.
“I’m fine,” he says, but he looks anything but. “It looks worse than it is. Ben broke my fall.”
“Is he…?”
“I don’t know, sweets. He was taken in a different ambulance, but he looked to be in a bad way.” A sob bubbles up my throat and Joe pulls me into him as Jenny cries behind me.
“You look like you’ve gone a few rounds with Mike Tyson. What the hell happened?”
“Ben happened.”
“Ben did this?” I ask, pointing at his bruised and swollen face.
“I confronted him about the strip club, and he lost it. The next thing I knew, we were both falling towards the ground.”
Anger licks at my insides that Ben would allow his emotions to get in the middle of work like that.
“It’ll be okay, sweets,” Joe whispers, but it does little to stop the fury raging inside me.
It’s well over an hour before a doctor walks out from the same doors Joe did and asks for Mrs Davis. All of us stand as he heads our way. The expression on his face is neutral; I can’t tell if he’s about to give us good or bad news. My body trembles and Joe once again tucks me against him.
“Mrs Davis?” he asks again once he’s in front of us.
“Yes, yes. Is my boy okay? Please tell me he’s okay,” she begs.
“Would you like to come through to the relatives’ room, and I’ll talk to you about his condition.”
“Condition. He’s alive?”
“Yes. I’m sorry, I really can only talk to immediate family.”
“I’m his…sister,” I say with a wince. It’s the first and only time I’ve ever referred to myself as that, and it feels wrong.
“Okay, well both of you come through then.”
Joe reluctantly lets me go and I thread my arm through Jenny’s as we follow the doctor through the doors.
We sit together as the doctor explains how Ben fell from the top of the scaffolding. Thankfully, the panels below broke their fall, but Ben had a potentially critical blow to the head as well as fracturing his arm and four ribs. He was unconscious when he arrived and they’ve now got him sedated until they can get him a MRI scan to assess any swelling on the brain. My hands tremble with fear. Although he’s stable right now, things can change very quickly with brain injuries.
“Can we see him?” Jenny asks.
