One Chance: a Ted Sweeran fanfic

Ch 42

There will be one more chapter after this one! I hope you've enjoyed this fanfic and know that I appreciate all of your amazing comments, votes, and especially every single read! You guys truly are the best! xoxo Alexis

Taylor's POV

As I walked through the ICU of the hospital the all too familiar sterile scent of the building greeted me, and I could feel my heart getting heavier in my chest with every step I took. How could it have ended this way? I had almost lost Ed once, and now I was losing him again. I had lost so much these past few months: my friendship with Abigail, the ease with which I had been at around Harry, Cara, my child, and now Ed.

I'll admit that my body was in some kind of ultra shock mode as everything was just numb and I was in denial of the situation. It wasn't until I saw Harry sitting on the bench outside of Ed's room with tears streaming down his face that I was shocked back into reality. I had never seen Harry cry before, and this public display of emotion was what it took to break my walls down. A single tear fell from my eye as I sat down next to him.

"How is he?" I asked, terrified to hear the answer.

Harry slowly turned to me and brushed the hair out of my face slowly, then staring intently into my eyes reported, "He's actually a lot better than I had thought. He's stable which is good, but..."

"What? What is it?" I persisted, relieved that Ed was stable but scared to hear what Harry would say next.

"Well, he landed on his feet, which broke both of his legs, but then they fell out from under him and he fell on his back, which caused significant damage to the spinal column," he paused, then laced his cold fingers through mine, and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "Ed may never be able to walk again."

I sucked in a breath. What? Ed not being able to walk was something I had never imagined. Images of throwing little Sheerans into the air and catching them in a fit of laughter, walking our little girl down the aisle on her wedding day, teaching our little boy how to play football all flashed through my mind, and I let Harry's grip on me fall away as I buried my head in my hands.

"Harry, where's my happy ending?" I wailed as I sat up and rested my head on his shoulder. After a moment's pause, he began rubbing his hand through my hair and said, "I'm so sorry."

"Why are you sorry?" I questioned, terrified that he had betrayed me as well.

"I...I told Ed that you slept with me, and God Taylor I'm such an asshole, I'm so sorry, but I just was so torn and when Ed said he kissed Cara, I lost it," his tears were streaming down his face now, and he was aggressively pulling at his distressed curls.

"Harry," I choked on my words, "how could you do that? You know I was so weak I didn't know what to do and you took advantage of that?" I was disgusted. Out of all the crappy things that had happened to me, I wasn't prepared for this. If Ed had died thinking I had been unfaithful, I wouldn't have been able to live with myself, even if he had kissed Cara. I was angry, but I was also so, so tired of all the fighting and betrayal.

So instead of slapping him right then and there, I asked, "So where's Cara? I hope she's okay," I asked. I hadn't heard a word about her since she had vanished from my flat.

"You don't know anything?" Harry stared at me incredulously, yet I could see the relief on his face that I had decided not to push the previous topic any further. For now.

"No, all I know is those people who kidnapped me pushed Ed out of a window or something crazy like that."

Harry sighed then with a solemn voice explained, "Taylor, it was Cara, she was behind all of this. She loved Ed the whole time, never me, and I was just so desperate to control my feelings for you, I mean um, another person, that I was too stupid to see it. I have known her for years, yet I never had any suspicion about her motives for marrying me. It turns out we were both settling," he chuckled at the irony of it all.

"So where is she now?" I asked after giving that a moment to sink in.

"She's dead."

This was the last thing I was expecting to come out of his mouth. "Dead? How? I only saw her a few hours ago." Even though she had betrayed me I still had gotten incredibly close to her. After all, I was ready to take my own life that one day when Ed had totally forgotten about me, and it was her who had told me not to give up. If it wasn't for her, I might not be here right now, yet she was the one to die because of this all.

"She was trying to escape after Ed jumped out of the window to escape her, and some police officers confronted her. She knew exactly what she was doing when she gunned down one of the officers. The poor chap had a family at home, that was the worst part of this all. They shot her three times and she was dead. I think she thought Ed was dead so she basically killed herself. Bit of a twisted Romeo and Juliet story, huh?"

"Yeah, except for the fact that Romeo is mine, not hers," I huffed. Then something occurred to me. "Oh God, Harry what about the baby?" I was horrified of the idea of the bullet going through the unborn child.

Instead of looking concerned, Harry just got angrier. "All part of her sick games to look innocent, there was no baby, they found a pregnancy pad strapped across her belly."

Harry undoubtedly felt like a fool, and who could blame him? All of us were fools, ensnared in the wistful promises of love, yet failing to  see what was hidden behind the façade of our passions. Maybe it was time to give up love all together. What had it brought me? Nothing but a messed up life and heavy loss.

"So, if Cara was behind this all, what about Abigail?" My heart ached when I mentioned her name.

"She was released immediately. Apparently Cara had left some confessional love note type of thing for Ed in her hotel room in case things didn't go well. All it did was clear Abigail's name, she confessed to everything. Abigail is already on a plane to America, though, I think she wanted to get away from all this mess." Harry gestured to the hospital as if to prove a point.

"But that's enough from me, why don't you go see Ed, I think he's sleeping but I know he'll want to see your face when you're awake."

I nodded and got up, as I was about to open the door however, I turned around and leaning down, kissed Harry on his temple. "Thank you," I whispered.

Harry looked somewhat shocked and was only able to give me a stunned shake of the head as an answer.

Then, taking a deep breath, I twisted the handle, and walked into the room.