I Don't Cower: The Only Exception

High

POV: Ashley

"She broke thirteen bones. We put two rods in her leg. One in her tibia and another in her fibula. We had to put a lot of screws and plates in her wrist. She had some internal bleeding in her stomach and spleen, and her right lung had collapsed. Her stomach had a pretty decent size laceration along it from the trauma it experienced, but since they didn't feed her which means there was nothing in her stomach, she didn't go into sepsis. It's going to take at least five months till she can walk again. She can't have crutches because of her wrist, so a wheelchair is her only option." The doctor was talking to someone as my eyes fluttered open. "Mrs Lovato, she cannot afford to get hurt again while healing. Please protect her. She was the one who hired me and helped my five year old son at the time who has down syndrome."

I looked at the familiar doctor to see him with a small, scared smile.

"She'll be okay as long as she strictly follows the treatment and care plan."

"You're the single dad one?" Demi asked the doctor, and neither of them realized that I was awake.

"Yeah, she's the reason why my seven year old is healthy."

I lifted up my fingers on my good hand the best I could to catch their attention.

"Good morning, Mrs Lovato." The doctor smiled brightly at me.

"Baby!" Demi's face lit up, but when she went to hug me the doctor stuck his arm out to stop her.

"Forgive me, but that would hurt her lung at the moment." He looked genuinely scared.

"Right, sorry. Don't worry. I'm not mad at you for that. I'm grateful actually." She assured the doctor before slowly leaning in and kissing my forehead. My my nose still had tons of tubes in it. "I was so scared baby girl."

I looked down away from guilt.

"We talked about the running away issue. You can't do that."

I weakly nodded my head just enough to be seen.

"I'm not mad at you baby. I just can't lose my wife." She placed another gentle kiss on my forehead.

"She can go home in two days. I just want to be safe with her lung and the bleeding from her kidney. One more hit to her spleen region and it would've ruptured." The doctor gave us a basic run down on the next few days and then the rest of my treatment before leaving.

"Mrs Lovato, may I speak to you?" One of our men peaked his head into the room. The only reason why I know it's one of ours is because of the all black suit with the custom royal blue vest. Only our men have the vests.

"Ashley is the co-owner of Lovato industries. She can hear it." Demi snapped at the guy.

"Sorry Mrs Lovato. I just didn't want to scare her." The guy took a deep breath. "Swift made it to the roof and escaped via heli before we could get to her. We have no idea where she is."

"Where was the air patrol I asked for in case of that exact situation?" She snapped at him.

"They couldn't see or hear it. It was cloudy and one a.m., and they didn't have their lights on. She slipped out under the radar. She probably flew to a higher altitude and took off." He was quick to explain since he probably didn't want to lose his job.

Demi stayed quiet for a second.

"We can-" he went to speak, but Demi cut him off.

"Find her. If you can't find her, get her family and do exactly what they did to Ashley to them to draw her out. Hit her where it hurts." She had a cold expression on her face. One I haven't seen since she was torturing Reagan, and then ya know. Ya girl shot her.