Page 113 of Grey

“No one told you?” he sounded alarmed, for real this time.

“What, that Olivia slept with the whole crew?” I asked half-heartedly.It wouldn’t surprise me, I thought wretchedly as I waited for him to say something.

“You’re fucked in the head, you know that right?” He was angry, blood boiling mad. “No one’s talking, but she had to be flown in to Cedars Sinai and she’s in critical condition. Didn’t her mom or Brett tell you?”

“Our parents are on vacation,” I murmured, feeling like someone had slit my throat and punched me in the gut.

Critical condition… I didn’t need any more explaining of what that entailed.

CHAPTER66

Grey

One of mystrict rules was not to race in regular traffic, only in the canyons. But tonight, I had broken that rule. It took me less than fifteen minutes to get to the hospital, speeding like a maniac on fire.

Apparently, Josie and Gavin had been there since yesterday and I had just found out later than the rest. I could’ve thrown hell for that, but at this point, I needed to focus on Olivia. Josie was the one who got the call from the hospital, stating Olivia had been admitted through air transport and her Josie’s name was on her emergency list. Harassing her about not calling me wouldn’t do much good. She somehow hated me for marrying Edith and hadn’t spoken to me since. We were around each other, yet she’d ignored me whenever she could. I couldn’t fault her for that, but this particular situation was different. This was important.

Like the rest of us, we hadn’t had any clue about how and why she got here. We hung out with the same crowd more or less and none of them seemed to have seen her as of late. They said that she declined a lot of invitations to hang out and always reasoned that she was “busy.”

Busy doing what? If she hadn’t been out with our friends, then who had she been with? I wanted to pick through everyone’s thoughts, however I needed to see her. Fuck. I was dying to see her—make sure she was breathing… to make sure that she was alive. Because, fuck, this was my fault.

Had I been gentler with her, this wouldn’t have happened. If I had made sure she wasn’t going to do anything stupid, or if I could’ve just swallowed my pride and called her because I couldn’t stop thinking about her, this wouldn’t have happened. She loved me, and I could’ve used that to my advantage, yet I had never imagined that she would do something like this. Olivia, she wasn’t like this. This sort of shit happened to me, not her.

Since neither my father nor Laura were around, I wasn’t authorized to make decisions or be informed about her condition until I made a call to Olivia’s father. I hadn’t met him nor had I spoken to him before, but it was comforting to know he immediately knew me. He was out on location for his job and wouldn’t be back to Sydney for two weeks. He made me promise to give him updates, and if there was anything major to report, I needed his permission first before making anything official.

When I was cleared to see her, I actually stood at the door, gathering courage, before I opened it because I wasn’t sure how I’d react when I saw her.

Opening the door and seeing her for the first time against those starch white sheets made me growl in anger. Her face was bruised up in all shades of purple. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to punch the wall or cry next to her. Slowly walking towards the bed, my throat constricted as I stared into her face.

Flashbacks of the first moment my heart stopped—when I had seen her for the first time—bombarded me. This was Olivia, the girl who’d brought me to my knees.

“Where were you, Liv…?” I asked as I scanned her arms, which were in no better shape compared to her face.

Pulling the chair to the side, I sat next to her, afraid to touch her as I checked to see if she was breathing every five minutes. And when the nurse came by to check her vitals, she was kind enough to give me the rundown of what the doctor had on the chart since I had no clue how to read his sloppy handwriting.

What she told me made my blood boil, feeling hot and cold…

* * *

Olivia didn’t wake up until the next afternoon, grumbling and groaning for the first thirty minutes before I got the nurse to check her out. She requested ice water the second she spoke, sounding scratchy and with no energy to speak of.

She barely gave me eye contact as the nurses asked her questions about how she was feeling before they told her they were going to notify the doctor she was up and we should be expecting her visit very soon.

She only glanced at me when they both left, seeming unsure what to say. I remained silent because I was so frustrated and angry, wondering what in God’s name had taken place before she got here. What messed me up more was that no one we knew had any idea about where she had been. I had made sure my crew went through everyone who threw parties the past few days, double-checking if they had seen her. It was all negative, making me even more suspicious.

“What happened?” she croaked out with her eyes barely opened.

“I’m not too sure…” My throat hurt by just speaking, pretending as if seeing her in a hospital bed didn’t faze me. “Do you remember anything?” I wanted to reach out and touch her cheek, her hand or even a finger, just to let her know I was here, however I wasn’t sure if she’d want that. Upsetting her in the state she was in would only hurt her more, so I had to fight the need to feel her warmth even just for a second.

She paused, opening her eyes wider than the last time before she gave me a pained look—horrified eyes—and she shut down.

“Liv? You don’t remember?” I pressured, needing to know something.

She shook her head before whispering, “No.” Then she opened her eyes, frowning. “Where’s Rob and Patrick?”

I tensed, hardening my body as I stared after her. “Who are they?”

She made a dragging sigh before she closed her eyes again. “My friends. I was with them.”

---