Solicitude

Chapter Twenty

Alexander Peterson's Point of View

"Kathleen! Stay with me, baby. Open your eyes, please!" I screamed through all of these commotions but she didn't move. I begged her, over an over again but she's not showing any signs of consciousness.

"Sir, let us do our job," the paramedics said, trying to get me away from the love of my life. I was there but I didn't protect her, I failed her.

When he pulled that trigger, my life stopped. I wish it had hit me instead and not her, she deserves so much better in this world of cruelty.

"Please save her, do everything," I told the officers that picked her up and placed her lifeless body on the stretcher before carrying her to the ambulance.

My world was spinning, it was like hell and deeper. Why would this happen to her? She's strong and beautiful but always meant to be broken, what had she done to receive this pain?

I sat in the ambulance while looking at her beautiful face. An oxygen mask was placed over her mouth and nose while the man tended her leg, she was losing a huge amount of blood.

The blood didn't scare me like it usually would but the thought of losing her scared me the most. I can't, my time with her will never be enough, I've been closed my entire life and she opened my world, she was a light to my darkness.

A bullet won't be the end of her, it shouldn't be, I thought to myself. The ride to the emergency room was frantic, two men doing their jobs to keep my sweetheart alive and breathing.

My mind took me everywhere, different scenarios of my life without her and I couldn't bear to look at Kathleen right now.

When we finally reached the hospital, I was told to stay back and not enter the operation room and the best doctor and nurses rushed in and proceeded to take the bullet out of her leg.

I didn't know how long I stayed in the waiting area until my phone beeped from a notification. When I checked the time, it was currently three in the morning, meaning that I've been here for almost four hours.

Fr: Theodore - He's been arrested bro, I'm on my way to the hospital.

Theodore, my investigator and my best friend, thanks to him, I was still able to save Kathleen. I should have known from the moment that she put her phone down and I heard her scrambling her feet, something was wrong.

How could have I been so foolish of myself? Doing a courageous thing, I called Mr. Bellisima, Kathleen's father and as badly as the situation is, Kathleen's father and mother turned from worried to frantic and rushed themselves to the hospital, waiting for her operation to finish.

"We never should have left her packing, all alone in the house. W-was she..." before her mother could have finished her thoughts, I said, "If I came any minute later, he would have but no, I caught him before that."

"Don't blame yourself, Alexander. I've seen your love for our daughter, it's the bastards fault. He was like a son to me!" Her father spat.

We stayed outside until finally, her doctor approached Mrs. Bellisima. "You have a lucky and strong daughter, Kathleen miraculously survived that great amount of blood loss. Just a little leg therapy and she'll be able to walk just like before," she explained with a smile.