True Love

Chapter 7

Raiden, Lisa and Anthony walked into Jasmine’s hospital room together, noticing all the tubes sticking out of her. Raiden happened to notice the sad, defeated look on her face. To him, she didn’t look like herself. She looked beaten…frightened.

He walked up to her and stroked her hair. “Jasmine, please open your eyes. It’s me Raiden. Jasmine he…” He was interrupted by a moan that escaped from her lips and the slight movement of her hand that he held.

Lisa walked to her other side and just stared down at her. She had to play her part. She was tired of the façade she had been putting on. Before Jasmine came back into the picture she did truly consider her one of her best friends. But it changed. Seeing the easy connection she had with everyone, how everyone immediately accepted her when it took her years to have that connection. Still to this day, people still treat her like an outcast. And Jasmine comes along and they love her. She got the attention not only of Draco but of Raiden too. The brothers were supposed to be hers. She had an 8-year relationship with Raiden, and she was working on Draco, and it was so easy for her. She just climbed onto his lap, grinded on him, kissed him and she had him. She couldn’t confess that she was cheating on Raiden, especially with his brother, but he wasn’t the only one she was cheating on him with. In part, she appreciated Jasmine taking up much of Raiden’s time and attention, but she still hated that it was all about Jasmine, so she couldn’t let her win. She needed to take her out. That’s why she hired that man to assault Jasmine. She needed to play her part though.

“She’s going to be okay right, Raiden, and this while Draco is cheating. He said he loved her so he should come back…right?” Lisa willed her eyes to water.

“I sure hope so.” Raiden said, sitting in the armchair still holding on to Jasmine’s hand.

-3 weeks later-

“Hey Doc, how is she?” Raiden walked in with fresh flowers. It’s been 3 weeks since she has been here, and Raiden comes every day.

“She’s doing well. She’s responding to voices and sounds. Her ribs are just about healed. New bones have formed. It’s just really sore. Her lungs look excellent too. We removed the breathing tube, so we are monitoring her lung to make sure it doesn’t collapse again. Infections are cleared too. The scarring on her throat is better. We hope it hasn't damaged her vocal cords completely. There was bruising originally, but with the scans it looked better. We just did a scan on her and saw the swelling in her brain had gone down. It’s a good day.” The doctor turned and looked at Raiden, noticing the dark circles under his eyes. “And how are you doing? You have been in this room every day, all day long. Have you gotten any sleep?”

“That’s good to hear! All we need is for her to wake up.” Raiden placed the flowers on the nearby table. Taking a deep breath, he turned back to the doctor. “As for me…as well as to be expected. There are a lot of other issues that are happening at home, but I don’t want them to affect Jasmine. The priority is for her to get better.”

“I’m happy she has you in her corner.” The doctor smiled and slowly walked to the door.

“Always doc.” Raiden nodded his head at the doctor and watched him return the nod and walk out the door.

“Hey beautiful. It’s me, your one and only favorite person.” He turned to the window and opened the shade.

“That would be you.” Jasmine whispered, since her voice and throat were still sore.

Raiden paused and stood there, his back still to her. He slowly turned around and saw her eyes were a bit open staring at him. “Please tell me I’m not hallucinating.”

Jasmine smiled, “No, I’m awake.” Raiden smiled brightly at her and went to her and gave her a lingering soft hug.

“You’re awake. God, I missed you.”

“Same here.” She whispered. “So, tell me what happened and my cheating boyfriend.”

“How…” Raiden looked at her in shock with wide eyes. “We…should be talking about you and how you are feeling.”

“You are my best friend as much as I am yours. I have the same ability to read you, as you too. And I don’t want to talk about what happened…please.”

“I’m sorry Jasmine…about all of it. The attack…about Draco.” Raiden looked at her sorrow.

“It’s not your fault, Raiden. Truthfully, I don’t know whose fault it is really. I don’t know what I did to make Draco do that to me, I hope he explains. I can’t be mad, I almost died. I don’t even know how long I’ve been in the hospital truthfully.”

Raiden nodded and opened his mouth to answer when he heard the door behind him open. He grabbed her hand when he saw who was coming in.

Draco.

Raiden turned around and saw that Jasmine turned her head the opposite way.

“Hey Raiden…I ahh got here as soon as possible.” Draco said, not wanting to look at Jasmine.

“Really now…that’s funny because it was 3 weeks ago when I called you to tell you Jasmine was in the hospital. Didn’t know it took that long to fly from Italy.” Raiden countered, staring straight at Draco.

“Look, I don’t want to do this now. I came straight from the airport. I’m exhausted.” Draco took a deep breath and rubbed his face. He looked towards his brother when he heard Raiden chuckle.

“Exhausted…you’re exhausted. Jasmine has been fighting for her life for 3 weeks straight. She’s f*cking exhausted. I’ve been here every single day from dawn to dusk. Sometimes staying overnight, making sure she is well and taken care of and also dealing with bullsh*t at home. I’m exhausted. So tell me Draco, what are you exhausted from? The plane ride or the wh*re you are fu…” Raiden was cut off by the light squeeze Jasmine gave him in his hand he was still holding. “You know what, forget it Draco, now isn’t the time.” There was an uncomfortable silence between the brothers.

Raiden heard Jasmine sigh heavily. “You’re not going to even ask about me.” Jasmine said hoarsely, turning her head at him, opening her eyes as much as she could.

Draco immediately looked at her in shock that she was awake. Raiden turned around and looked at her a bit in shock that she wanted to say something.

Raiden noticed a hurt and sad look on her face. Even through the bruises, he could read her face. She was about to break down until she felt the squeeze that Raiden gave her. It encouraged her to hold on and continue. That seemed exactly what she needed.

“Okay then Draco, I’ll start. How are you? How was your trip?”

“Um…uh fine. I’m good and you?” Draco could of slapped himself for that stupid question.

Jasmine chuckled, “I’m great Draco. Just great.”

Draco licked his lips in nervousness and shifted uncomfortably.

“You know, for her boyfriend, Draco, you don’t seem very happy to see her. You haven’t seen her in a month. You know three of those weeks she spent in a coma.” Raiden asked, wanting to see at least some reaction from Draco.

“Yea…baby.” Emphasizing the BABY, which caught Raiden off guard, making him tense up. “You’re acting like you don’t know me…you…you said you loved me…guess it was a lie.” Jasmine's voice cracked, her voice getting worse becoming more hoarse.

Raiden looked over at her and noticed she was holding back tears but also noticing on the monitor her heart beat was increasing.

“I doubt this is how you treat someone you love Draco. Standing so far away, and it’s not like Raiden is in the way, there is another side of the bed. You can barely even look at me.” The heart rate monitor started to give out a beeping warning sound because her heart rate was increasing.

“Jasmine calm down baby, don’t…” Raiden tried to tell her to calm down, but she interrupted him by screaming as much as she could at Draco.

“I KNOW EVERYTHING DRACO, I KNOW YOU CHEATED ON ME. I KNOW…” Jasmine stopped as she felt a sharp pain in her chest and head. She shut her eyes and tears escaped from the corners. She grabbed for her head as her whole body started shaking, while her heart rate was still increasing.

“Jasmine… Jaz baby what’s wrong?” Raiden grabbed for her. “Draco go get a nurse.”