Book Three - Fighting For You

Chapter 7

Hi guys, sorry for the delay. I hope this makes up for it. :) Happy reading.

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I don’t remember much from that moment. What I do remember is the strangled cry that emanated from me at the sight of Sam’s lifeless body on the floor. Then I remember rushing to his side and crying into him as I beg him to be okay. It’s after that everything becomes a blur. There were so many people—police officers, ambulance workers, school staff but I couldn’t tell you what they looked like.

Now, sitting in the hospital waiting room, all I can do is remember snippets of a moment in time that feels like a dream. There is one image in my mind and that is of Sam lying in his blood. The words ‘critical condition’ are the only words that are running round and round in my head. I heard them spoken in the ambulance as Sam was rushed to hospital. As for my emotions, I can’t feel anything apart from total emptiness and shock.

When an arm snakes across my shoulders, I turn to look into a familiar pair of brown eyes. Simon. I fall into his chest, sobbing as his arm tightens around me. For a long while neither of us speak. I don’t think I can. I’m too heartbroken at the thought that I may have lost Sam. Speaking of which, what the hell is taking them so long?

The doors to the emergency room open and I sit upright, eager to see who it is. It’s a doctor and my heart skips with hope as he walks toward me. But then he ignores me and walks past. I slump back into the chair and wipe my tears away. How could things have gone so wrong in such a short time?

“You okay?” Simon finally asks, taking my hand.

I turn to look at him and see for the first time how stressed he looks too. I vaguely remember calling him once I was at the hospital but that’s all I remember.

I shake my head as more tears spill down my cheeks. “I don’t know what happened, Simon.”

Henry’s call just moments before I found Sam run through my mind. Was it him? Would he really stoop that low? As I think about my encounter with him in the park, I turn cold from the memory.

If you want to keep your family safe, you have to do something for me.

Yes he did say that, didn’t he? Of course that’s gives me no proof that it was him but it certainly looks suspicious.

I’ll have to take matters into my own hands.

My heart races as I remember those words he spoke as I left the park. Maybe it was him. But how can I prove it? If I tell the police it will be Henry’s words against mine. They’ll question him, he’ll deny it and that will be that. Why didn’t I record our conversation? I should have known Henry would be capable of something like this.

Yeah right, Emily. You were the one who was convinced you could take Henry on. If you had someone with you, at least you’d have a witness.

I groan and bury my head in Simon’s chest. I’ve just dug myself into a hole and Henry knows it. How the hell am I going to get out of this now? I was so determined to look after my family I just made them even more vulnerable by thinking I could handle this alone. Why oh why was I so stupid?

“What’s wrong?” Simon asks as he strokes my hair.

I sit up straight and shrug. I don’t want to tell him anything until I have a plan. I’m petrified he’ll blame me. He has every right to of course.

“I just wish this didn’t happen,” I say.

“Have the police talked to you yet?”

“I think so.”