Syn's Deep In My Blood - Book 2

People Change

"Can you please do something right for the first time in your life and tell him to go? He did enough for us." Jess's father yelled at me, her mom still in his arms in shock, ignoring Zack's presence among us in the emergency waiting room.

God, it was just so hard to believe she did it...

They had just taken Jess, still alive, to make a stomach wash and try to take the pills out of her system when they had already controlled the bleeding during the ambulance ride. And I just couldn't stop thinking why the hell I wasn't there earlier to prevent it. If only I had taken the earlier flight with them... I could've convinced her not to...

"Why don't you talk directly to me, sir? Huh?" Zacky was losing his self-control, and I had to intervene, separating his body from her dad, that had stood up to face him. "I'm not leaving her, whether you like it or not!"

"Can't you see this is all your fault? You destroyed our daughter. She gave up her brilliant career because of you. You knocked her up, drugged and abandoned her. What more do you want from her?"

"Zack, leave it. Let's go outside, c'mon. You need some fresh air." He was as red as pepper, gasping his enraged breath on me as I tried to hold him back.

"At least I didn't leave her behind like you did. I came back to take care of her, something I know you two aren't capable of!" Zack shouted one last time, and I got him to turn his back to finally leave the room.

"Zack, she's gonna be okay. She's alive. That's what matters now." I tried to calm him down in an empty corridor, but he looked helpless and hectic.

"Did you see how much blood she lost? And... and her mother's pills, god, how many did she take? I called her and left messages every single day we were apart, but she never picked up. I thought she... she had moved on, you know? I thought she was happy with someone else, I thought..." I placed my hands on his shoulders, trying to make him stop moving his head around in such a chaotic movement.

"Zack, just breathe. Stop thinking for a while. Don't let them get to you." He just hid his red eyes with his left hand, and I brought him into a hug. "I left her messages every day too, sometimes just to hear her voice on the recording, telling her how much I needed her there with me and how you missed her. Do you think she heard them?"

"I don't know, Emily... Maybe our messages stopped her from moving on with her life? They are right. This is all our fault." He gasped those words really close to my ear while his head was resting on my shoulder.

"Zack, she loves you, you know that. She would never move on without you. You're good to her, don't listen to them. No one is to blame for what happened. She needs us both now." I kept moving my hands on his back to comfort him and felt him breathing heavily and shakily as somebody else's approached us.

Zack pulled away from our hug, and Brian was standing in front of us with frowned, worried eyes. Oh damn it, could this day get any worse?

"How's she?" he asked and came to give a big bro hug to Zack, who looked miserable from miles away.

"We don't know yet... She's bad, man." Brian kept staring at his friend with worry and then glanced towards me, a different kind of look, but still worried.

He didn't move a finger to come closer to me or hug me, and I appreciated that. The last thing I wanted was to remember his warmth and his power over me, so it was best for us to stay away from each other.

"How's Jimmy? Did they land safely?" I asked in a cold tone.

"Yeah, Matt and Johnny are still taking care of things at the hospital; they're staying and explaining everything to his family, so I told them I would come here to check on Jess and you two. Do you guys need anything?"