Page 120 of Hook

“Sir, are you still conscious?”

Cillian opens his eyes. “Just about,” he mumbles.

“It’s a miracle. Look hows much blood he’s lost!”

“We need to get you onto a stretcher and into the ambulance, fast.”

Another paramedic rolls the stretcher over and then together they lift him onto it, rushing him into the back of the ambulance.

“Can I go with him?”

“What’s your relationship?” The paramedic asks.

“His wife.”

Her brow furrows, considering I’m wearing a wedding dress. “Just now?”

I nod, as the truth is too complicated. “Yes.”

“Come on, you can ride in the back.”

My dad watches as I jump into the back of the ambulance with him. “I’ll meet you at the hospital, Gwendolyne.”

I sit next to him and reach for his hand, squeezing. “Stay with me, Cillian.”

“Always, princess,” he murmurs, but his voice is weak and he can barely keep his eyes open.

“We need to get to the hospital fast,” the paramedic says to the driver. “He’s losing too much blood and needs a transfusion.”

My stomach dips and I sit back out of their way, watching as they try to stop the bleeding. Another paramedic places an oxygen mask on his face. They’re speaking amongst each other frantically, but I barely hear anything above the roaring in my ears.

The heart rate monitor they’ve connected him to is getting slower and slower.

I’ve fallen into a nightmare I can’t wake from.

Cillian might die. The father of my baby and the man I love. I can’t help the guilt that floods through me that I ever left. If I’d admitted what I felt instead of denying it, then I never would have left and none of this would have happened.

If he dies, I’ll never forgive myself.

41

CILLIAN

Five weeks later…

“Is he going to wake up?” An angelic voice speaks in the distance.

“We can’t say for certain. He lost so much blood and in turn we don’t know whether there was any damage to the brain. It all depends how long he was without enough oxygen.”

I groan, my body aching all over as slowly I’m being pulled back to the land of the living.

Are they talking about me?

“Is he waking?” Her voice is the only thing guiding me.

My eyelids feel heavy as I force them open and immediately shut them at the blinding light burning my irises.

“He blinked!” I feel soft skin against my hand. “Cillian, can you hear me?”

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