The Wedding Issue

Chapter Thirty Three - What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger

One of the medics was patching up my shoulder wound to try to control some of the bleeding until they took us to the nearest hospital. I tried to ignore the pressure in my shoulder that somehow extended to my chest. All I could do was stare at Claire, lying so peacefully on the ground. Somehow she looked like she was the victim in all of this; like she was the one who needed saving. If I didn't feel any shred of guilt for her before, I definitely felt it now.

I could still see the look on her face when I fired the gun. There was an array of emotions playing in her eyes; fear, resentment, a sudden pang of realization then a look of utmost defeat. She didn't have to say the words for me to understand that she thought them; I won. She went down with what I could only call a sense of relief. It was finally over. She was finally free from the love-web the three of us created unknowingly. That look instilled a great load of fear in my gut.

'Genevieve', Killian snapped me from my reverie.

I looked at him and remembered why I was doing this. I remembered that there's always going to be that part of me that will always fight for him no matter the consequences. It occurred to me that maybe he was the reason why I couldn't open up my heart to anybody else. From the moment I met him, I knew there was something about him that was going to be trouble; the good kind of trouble that gave you butterflies and made you weak in the knees. As if somehow I knew no one other than him was worthy of my love. Not forgetting to mention the weird déjà vu I got when I first met him. It was like there were some suppressed memories in the back of my mind about him that I couldn't quite remember yet.

It didn't matter. I could always make new memories with him.

'Benji will drive us to the hospital', he said as he offered his hand to help me off the couch.

'Is Claire going to be alright?', I asked him as they were gurneying her out of the penthouse.

'She lost a lot of blood. Only time will tell', he whispered.

'I didn't mean to hurt her. I was such a bitch to her', I said as I recalled the horrific scene I painted before her eyes about Killian and I doing the dirty.

'Hey, it was self-defense. You were only protecting yourself', he tried to snap me out of my misery.

I shook my head in disagreement. A part of me believed that there was some way we could've made it out of here tonight without hurting ourselves or each other.

'Don't go there, Genevieve. She brought this on herself', he added to reassure me.

I nodded reluctantly. I didn't have the will power to argue just yet.

The ride to the hospital was brief, or maybe I was too lost in thought to keep track of time. All I could think about was the look on Claire's face. There was something unsettling about her behavior tonight. Come to think of it, there was a part of today's scene that made the ugly side of me make an appearance too. I shuddered in my place as I thought of all the things I was capable of in such an intense situation.

Lying.

Stabbing a person.

The will to kill for love.

This is not the person I intended on becoming. I should fix this.

Dr. Tanner was only too disappointed to see me back in the hospital so soon, and with a bullet wound none the less. He looked at Killian and shook his head with discontent.

'You've got your hands full with this one', he addressed Killian, then made the way to the nearest room so he could pull out the bullet that was wedged in my shoulder. The X-rays showed that the bullet didn't do as much damage as it appeared from the outside, but I had to wear a shoulder brace and was going to have a nasty wound mark that most probably would never completely fade. My very first battle scar.