Happily Forever After (Book 4 in Nemi Forever Series)

Chapter 30

Nick

I never knew this kind of pain. I couldn't breathe. The pain in my chest was severe. I had no feelings anywhere in my body, except for my chest. The pain in my knees from hitting the cement was nothing compared to this stabbing pain in my heart. I couldn't hear anything. I couldn't hear my own ear piercing screams. I couldn't hear any of the sounds that surrounded me. I didn't want to hear anything. I didn't want to feel anything. I just wanted to jump off this bridge. If Olivia hadn't come & put her arms around me, that is probably what I would have done.

I sobbed & sobbed in Olivia's arms as she cried, silently with me. Someone finally got me to stand after a while, but that was difficult since I had been on my knees for so long. Joe or Wilmer were holding me up. Petit was speaking to me & I have no idea what he was saying. He was probably apologizing for the loss of my wife & babies. My babies. They would never be born. I would never see what they looked like. Demi was 28 weeks pregnant today. If they had been born today, they had a survival rate of 90 percent. They had features. They would have looked like babies & I will never know them. I wanted to kill someone. I was suddenly so angry. My tears were burning my eyes & the more I felt the burn, the angrier I got. I tried to stop my sobs. It was almost impossible. The ache in my chest made it hopeless. The vision of that SUV going over the side of the bridge kept replaying in my head & it was slowly killing me.

Some significant amount of time had to have passed because I heard helicopters. They were here, quickly. I looked around, in a daze, to see media vans & reporters all around us. I had to have been a blubbering mess for quite a while. The news vans were a hundred or more feet away from us because of the police, but I could still see them as they had their telephoto lenses pointed in my direction. I didn't even care. Joe was pulling me away from the spot where it felt like I was kneeling for ages. I didn't resist. I wanted to run, actually, as far away from this place as I could. About halfway to the spot where our car was parked, I stopped. Joe turned around & was talking to me. I couldn't hear him. I just watched his face. It was as if I was in a plastic bubble.

I started shaking my head. Why was I shaking my head? Could I hear him & not realize it? Was I answering him? I looked beside him to see Wilmer, whose face was stained with tears. He loved Demi, too. Not as much as I did & they weren't his babies, but he was suffering. I felt bad for him. Olivia was next to me, her arm around my waist. She was sobbing. I could see in her eyes, she blamed herself. I felt bad for her, too. Most of all I felt bad for Demi. I couldn't save her. I wasn't her hero. I didn't want to be here right now. I wanted to be with her. Even if it meant... I looked again at Joe's face. He'd been crying. His eyes were red & a few tears had left a trail in the dust on his face. The thought of jumping off that bridge was slowly leaving my head. But why?

"Nick?" Joe was shouting in my face when I could suddenly hear. "Can you hear me?"

I nodded, slowly.

"I'm getting you out of here. We need to get you home." He said in a quieter voice.

"I'm not leaving." I said in a lifeless voice.

"They aren't going to be able to get the car up here for a while. There's nothing more you can do." Joe said in a soft voice.

I looked up at him, trying to see his face & not the scene that kept playing in my head. They started walking & I followed, reluctantly. I needed to get this out of my head. Out of my head. I didn't want to see it over & over. Why couldn't I stop seeing it? I gasped, stopping, abruptly. Olivia stopped, then after a few moments, so did Wilmer & Joe. They all stared at me, concern all over their faces. Joe looked ready to pounce. He knew I had the thought of running from them & jumping off that bridge to die with Demi & my babies. He knew me better than anyone. Something wasn't letting me do that, though. It felt like a large hand was holding me in that spot. And I felt something else was happening to my heart.