Broken Hearts

Chapter Four

As she lay there, withering in pain, I called an ambulance to take her to the hospital. Luckily, there was an ambulance a few minutes away from where we were. When they got there, the man had disappeared, fleeing the hotel. As Arabella was gasping for air, they put her on the stretcher and oxygen. “I'll follow in her car,” I told one of the paramedics.

30 minutes later . . .

Wheeled into surgery, Arabella was asleep in seconds. About an hour and a half later, someone came to get me. “Ms. Ash?”

“Yes?”

“The surgery was a success. We were able to stabilize her, but she's still out of it.”

“Oh my god, that's great, thank you so much. Can I see her?”

“Yes, you can, follow me.” Already in her room, I saw her. Aww, she looks so peaceful, I thought. “The anesthesia will wear off in a few minutes.”

“All right, thank you,” I told her as she left. Grabbing a chair, I decided to sit next to her bed until she woke up. Until then, I decided to read. I was a really big bookworm, reading my favorite book, Isla and the Happily Ever After.

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45 minutes later . . .

“Hey, sleepyhead,” I whispered.

“What happened?

“You don't remember? You got shot.” Trying to hold it together, I told her the whole story.

Suddenly, snippets from that night were clear as day. “I think I know who shot me.”

“You do?!”

“He had a tattoo of a green snake. My ex had the exact one.”

“Your ex was the one who shot you?”

“Positive. I saw his eyes.”

“What color?”

“Green.” I got up, kissed my sister's forehead, and went to my car, but here's my problem: I accidentally bumped into him, Bryce, the guy who broke my heart. “What are you doing here?” I asked, suddenly wondering why I started talking to him.

“I came to see someone.”

“Good, cool, glad you're moving on,” I rambled.

“I didn't move on from you,” he replied in that husky voice that made my heart swoon. Damn it, why does he still have this effect on me? “I'll see you later,” he whispered in my ear. He started walking away, leaving me with a hole in my heart that only he could fill. I miss you.

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In my mind. . .

“Wait!” I yelled out. As he turned around, he caught me in his arms. “I want you. I've always wanted you.”

“Really?”

“Yes, yes, yes!”

Not wanting to wait another minute, he smashed his lips on mine as I moaned passionately into the kiss.

But in reality. . .

Instead of making my way to the car, I decided to go back to Arabella and have Ricky, my police officer friend, come by to talk to her. I needed to talk to someone, and she was the only person I had. But as I was walking back to the hospital, I noticed Bryce talking to someone. After the guy I left, I decided to go and confront him. “Hey, I need to talk to you.”

“Yes?”

“Well, I needed to tell you something, but I forgot.” My knees weak like jelly once more, he caught me in his arms. “Do you want to go out?” I blurted out. Instead of answering, he kissed me, not letting me go. I'm dreaming, aren't I? I thought. “I'll take that as a yes,” I whispered as he kissed my cheek a thousand times.

“We never really got to finish our first one.”

“No, we didn’t,” I responded as I stared at his lips while biting mine. “I want you.” Grabbing his shirt, I pushed him onto his car, but he put his hands on my hips, stopping me. “What are you doing?”

“Stopping you.” Sighing, he replied, “I love you. I want to marry you.”

“Then what's the problem?”

He groaned aloud. “I just say that I love you because I know that that's what you want to hear. But what I feel for you is lust. Not love. I care about you. So what I'm saying is that I'm very attracted to you physically. But after we did what we did, and really started talking, I noticed that you are nothing like other girls. You're just as underappreciated and misunderstood as I am. You have so much more substance than any other girl I've ever met. And like you said, you want to get to know me as a person, not as an object of my s****l greed. I want to love you, but so far, by the bible's definition, I don't love you.”

“I can tell.” Anger boiling inside of me, I wanted to hit him, but I knew I couldn't. So, instead of going to Arabella, I decided to drive and go somewhere where no one knew me. That's what I did. Or so I thought.