Page 58 of Forget Me Not

CHAPTER

THIRTY-TWO

Kaden

I hate hospitals. My mom ended up in them so many times over the years, and then I ended up in one because of her. If we were here, it meant something was wrong. And things were wrong more than they were right growing up.

I spent a lot of time in this exact waiting room as a child. I was a pro at it. I would watch people while I was here. I’d watch families come in and out of here. I’d watch them sit and grieve, waiting to hear news about their loved ones. I’d watch the doctors as they came to talk to the families. If they were smiling, it was good news. If their faces were solemn, I knew what was coming.

I watched families break down as they figured out things weren’t going to be okay, that it was worse than they thought, that their nightmares had become their reality. I waited for the day I was told that news about my mother. I always walked into the hospital prepared for it. But it never came. Because when it was her time, the doctors weren’t there to notify me. I saw it myself, and the sad part was I was prepared for that too.

This, though. Sitting in the hospital waiting room, blood from the woman that I love covering my hands, waiting to seeif she’s alive. This isn’t something I was prepared for. I look around to see others looking over at me, and it hits me. The families I’ve watched sit in this waiting room over the years, the people that were so stricken with pain and fear, I’ve now become one of them.

“Kaden. Let’s go to the bathroom. You need to wash your hands. Theo said it’s going to be a while until we hear anything.”

I look up to see Demi standing in front of me. Her eyes are red, but all things considered, she seems to be holding it together pretty well. I stand up and follow her to the bathroom. It feels like the world is spinning around me, but I’m stuck in a haze I can’t seem to get out of.

“I’ll be right out here if you need me. Asher is getting us some coffee and will meet us back in the lobby, okay?” I nod at her, barely registering what she’s saying. I walk into the bathroom and over to the sinks. It’s silent in here, the urinals and stalls all empty.

I turn on the faucet and put my hands under the running water. Some of the dried blood immediately rinses off my hands. I watch it circle the drain, bright red against the white porcelain. I feel wetness on my face, and I look up in the mirror to see tears dripping down. I don’t remember the last time I cried. It feels almost unfamiliar.

I stare at my reflection. My eyes are red, my cheeks wet, my hair a mess from yanking it out of my head. I look like a fucking mess. Maybe I deserve this shit, but I’m fucking positive Logan didn’t. I grab the soap and start furiously scrubbing my hands. Determined to get every last drop of blood off of them.

“Kaden?” Demi’s voice echoes through the empty bathroom as she slightly pushes the door open, peeking her head in. She walks inside, coming to stand next to me at the sinks.

“This is the men’s room. You shouldn’t be in here.” I keep rinsing. Demi reaches over to turn off the faucet, then places her hand in mine.

“They’re clean.” She looks down at my hands. She reaches over to grab a few paper towels and hands them to me. I take them, drying my hands. “She’s going to be okay.”

“You don’t know that.” I look down at her.

“No, I don’t. But it’s better to believe that than to start thinking about the alternative.” She quickly wipes a stray tear that falls down her face, turning away from me. “Let’s go.”

I follow her out of the bathroom and into the lobby, where Asher is waiting for us. He hands me a cup of coffee and I sip it mindlessly. Nobody says anything as we sit there. I sit in a corner seat, Demi next to me and Asher next to her. King and Darla show up a little while into the waiting. He walks up to me, squeezing my shoulder, just letting me know he’s here, and then sits across from us.

We wait for what feels like hours, but I can’t say I have a good concept of time right now. Finally, Theo and Gabby walk out with who I’m assuming is the surgeon, and I immediately stand up. Everyone follows my lead.

“Hi, I’m Dr. Cowen. I was one of Ms. Hart’s surgeons. Which one of you is family?” He looks between all of us.

“I called her mom. She’s getting on the first flight out from Florida,” Demi says.

“Okay, is there any other family here I can speak with?” the doctor asks.

Demi goes to open her mouth, but I cut her off. “I’m her fiancé.”

He looks at me skeptically for a second but finally nods his head. “Can you come with me, please?”

I immediately stand up and follow him. I follow him through the double doors and into the elevator.

“She’s okay. She’s in the surgical ICU. She hasn’t woken up from surgery yet, but everything went the best it could have. I’m going to take you to her room now.”

I feel a gust of air leave my lungs, knowing that she’s alive. That she’s okay. I follow Dr. Cowen out of the elevator and through the ICU. Toward the end of the hall, he opens the door to a room, and I follow him inside.

My throat feels tight as I walk into the room and see her lying in the bed. She has various IV lines connected to her and tubes down her throat. She has a huge bruise covering the left side of her forehead and a cast on her right arm from her hand to right below her elbow. That same arm is also in a sling.

“She was extremely lucky, all things considered,” the surgeon begins speaking. “She has a grade two concussion that we are monitoring closely. She has three broken ribs, as well as a distal radius fracture. Her shoulder was dislocated, but we were able to reduce it. That’s what the sling is for. She had a lot of internal bleeding when she first came in, coming from a ruptured spleen, so we had to perform a splenectomy to remove it. The surgery went well. However, she did lose a lot of blood and we are keeping a close eye on her. Right now, we just have to wait for her to wake up.”

“Thank you,” I manage to mumble, moving to sit in the chair next to the hospital bed she’s lying in.

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