love that heals

chapter thirteen: anguish

"A serious car accident happened along the US-1 highway at around five o'clock in Coral Gables, leaving its sole victim in critical condition. The twenty-year-old female, identified as Aria West of Sunny Isles Beach, is currently being transported to the South Miami Hospital after she lost control on the road and collided with a pole due to flooding brought about by heavy rains earlier in the morning..."

At that moment, Keon forgot how to breathe. He refused to believe that the person involved in that car accident was Aria. His Aria. No, it can't be her, he teared up immediately. It can't be my girl.

That's when he received a call from Marianne, Aria's mother.

"Keon..."

"Marianne..." he spoke shakily.

"Aria was in a car accident... she's in the hospital right now," she hyperventilated through the phone.

"I'll be on my way soon."

After hanging up, he received another call from Estelle.

"Keon, I can't believe this is true," she wept in worry. "She was on her way to a restaurant to have dinner with me... please, tell me that this is a nightmare and Aria is alright."

"I wish I could, Estelle," he choked back tears.

"I feel so guilty. I shouldn't have let her go alone. If only I had offered to pick her up at her house, maybe this wouldn't have happened"

"Please, don't blame yourself. No one is at fault for this."

"Hm..." her voice trailed off as she continued to sob.

"Listen, I'll see you at the hospital, alright?"

"I'll see you there, then..."

The first people Keon saw at the hospital were Aria's parents standing at the corner of the emergency room; it was obvious they had been crying a lot. He then walked over to them and gave them lengthy hugs.

"Keon... thank God you're here," Marianne sighed, squeezing him tightly.

"How is she?"

"The doctors are doing tests on her right now," Nick explained. "She's in bad shape, Keon, she was barely breathing when they brought her in."

"Gawd, this is awful," Keon teared up once again. "To think that I had a nightmare about her last night, and now she's injured..."

After talking to Aria's parents for a few more minutes, Keon headed to the cafeteria, where he saw Estelle, Ronan, and Austin. Soon after they spotted him, they ran to him and hugged him. It took a lot of strength for Keon to not have a breakdown in front of them.

"I can't believe it..." he sniffled. "The fact that I had a nightmare about her last night makes this even more painful."

"I sure hope we don't end up losing her," Austin spoke. "We lost Cash and Hunter already, I don't want us to lose Aria as well."

"Don't even mention it," Estelle cried.

"I can't wait until they finish those tests on her," Ronan shook his head. "I swear, I'll lose what's left of my sanity if nobody tells us anything about her condition any time soon."

After some time, Marianne arrived to give them all an update on Aria's condition.

"The tests are done..." she sniffled, looking concerned. "But she's not out of danger; we went to see her, and she's... she's not doing well."

"What do you mean?" Estelle's face dropped.

"She broke two of her ribs," Marianne explained. "She also had a traumatic brain injury. We don't know how severe the damage is... all we know is that she's in a medically induced coma until the swelling in her brain goes down. And she's not breathing on her own."