A Love as Hard as This

Chapter 33

Author's Note:
Guys! Two people as of now have guessed her secret (3 including my real life bestie)! As for the others, some of you are on the right track, others are far away but getting there! Keep your guesses coming (and go back to the previous chapter because you're all going to kick yourselves when you know what the hint was, I promise!)
Also, I plan chapters ahead of time (as you guys probably know), and I've planned the end to this book! It's going to have about 45 chapters, and don't worry, y'all, it's going to have a sequel!! Yay!!

Noah's Perspective:

I was rushed out of the room as the doctors grabbed the paddles and prepared to start her heart. Looking through the window in the door, I tried to see something, but one of the nurses—Annie, I thought her name was—was blocking my view.

I stood outside the door worried, guilty, and utterly terrified. I could barely even stifle a breath. As far as I knew, she her heart wasn't beating. She found be dead already.

Emily clutched my shoulder in despair. I looked behind me, startled. She wasn't a physical person, especially not when someone was threatening Richelle.

The hospital had a smell to it that I never really liked. The drugs perhaps, or possibly even the smell of people being healed...or dying. It was unsettling to me. I knew that Richelle'd been here a lot before; she had asthma, so bad that she would have to come at least once a month, sometimes twice. I didn't know how she could stomach it being here, I certainly couldn't.

By now, I was shaking. Shaking with nerves, and fear, and sadness. I tried to look through the window once more, but found that the blind was shut.

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Richelle's Perspective:

I gasped and shot up like a rocket. My chest hurt like hell, so I looked down and saw marks, like tiny burn marks, on each side. Paddles, I thought. They'd had to use them for my mother, before they gave up.

Quickly realizing that my chest was still expose, I shut the hospital gown. I was tying it when someone cleared their throat from the corner. "Noah, what the hell?" I shouted, not even bothering to look at the source of the noise. "Look away, won't you?"

"Not Noah, love. Me." I turned around to see Annie. Her heavy British accent was comforting, and a small tear of joy crawled down my cheek.

"Annie!" I exclaimed, utterly overjoyed.

"Mhm. I'm truly sorry, dear. For everything that's happened to you in your little life. You should be old like me before you have to deal with such things, not young like you." she said, crossing the room to sit on my bed with me. She put her arms around me gently, enveloping me in a warm embrace, carefully leaving enough space between us as to not hurt my chest more.

I cried on her shoulder. "You don't have to be sorry. It's not your fault."

"It's not yours, either. Don't forget that I know you, honey. Better than you might know yourself at this point. I know your secret, and I know that you've got nearly nothing to do with it."

What she said alarmed me at first, but then I remembered that it was Annie. Annie who'd been with me through everything in my life. "But I do, Annie. I do." I argued softly.

"No, you don't. Your mother was not your fault.  Nothing was your fault, not even this. This was your emotions, hun, not you. The Richelle I know wouldn't do something like this."

I looked her in the eyes as I spoke again. "You don't know me anymore, Annie. I've done some terrible things. Gone along with some terrible things. Kept some terrible things."

"It's still not your fault. But I'll tell you what you need to do." I was all ears. "You need to surround yourself with good people, love. He's gone, he's never going to hurt you again, so you need to move on, and stop thinking about him. Go with that boy out there. I know he did that to you, but you can see clear as day that he regrets it with everything he's got."

"I know." I mumbled. Noah was a good, good person. He admitted what he'd done, first thing. He'd apologized. He obviously felt terrible, why else would he have stayed here the whole time?

"Okay. I'm glad." Annie smiled at me lovingly. "When he comes in here, pretend that you're still asleep, and see what he says to you. Then you'll know for sure."

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Noah's Perspective:

The doctor came out and told us that she was in stable condition for now, they were able to get her breathing again. I inhaled a sharp breath, then asked if I could go in to see her.

"Yes, but as long as—" He didn't finish his setback before I was through the door.

I was met by Annie, who smiled at me as she moved aside to let me get to Richelle. I nodded at her, thanking her. Tip toeing over to Richelle, I noticed right away that she looked so much better. There was already color in her cheeks and she looked so much more peaceful.

"She's sleeping," Annie warned me in a whisper as she left the room. I wasn't going to wake her up.

I did the same thing I'd done the night before, hoping maybe that it she was awake, she'd hear me. Pushing a strand of hair out of her face, I whispered, "I love you."

I waited for a reaction for a moment, then got up from the position on her bed and prepared to leave the room.

Then I heard a small voice, barely above a breath. "Noah?"