He Let My Heart Stop So I Called The Cops

Chapter 2

The second I hung up, the door to my room flew open. Grant had finally come. "Nora, how bad is it?"

He reached for my face, but I turned my head away. He froze with his hand in midair, then slowly pulled it back, his tone changing with it.

"I brought the backup battery back before I left. I know I did. So how did this still happen? Did you forget to charge it?"

That stopped me cold. If he really left the backup battery by the door, then someone must have hidden it again after he was gone.

Grant turned and tugged Vanessa in from the hallway where she'd been hiding, and planted her at my bedside. "Vanessa, apologize!"

Vanessa bit her lip, her eyes red, the picture of wounded innocence.

I gave her a cold look. "Don't bother."

Grant frowned and put on a whole show of taking my side. "Nora, you're my girlfriend. She owes you an apology, period. Once she says it, we put this behind us."

I looked at him and finally understood what he was doing. Last time, he'd done the exact same thing. He'd made Vanessa apologize, then declared the whole thing over for me. To him, my life was worth a flimsy apology from her.

Vanessa dabbed at her tears and sniffled. "I'm sorry... I had way too much to drink that night. I really didn't know what I was doing. Why don't I stay and take care of you today? Let me make it up to you."

"I don't need her looking after me," I said.

Grant patted my arm. "Nora, Vanessa can be impulsive, but she's not a bad person. Just give her a chance to make up for it. When you get out of here, I'll throw you a party, and we'll put those things behind."

He stood up and glanced at Vanessa, his voice stern but unmistakably fond. "I'm gonna go grab my girl something to eat. You stay right here and take good care of her. If you screw up again, just wait till I get back."

Vanessa pouted and muttered, "Fine, I get it. You don't have to be so mean. Guess it's out with the old and in with the new, huh?"

Grant smiled slightly as he turned and walked out of the room.

The second he was gone, Vanessa dropped the act. She plopped down right beside me and started playing a game on her phone.

"Ugh, this sucks. My phone's about to die, and I'm gonna drop a rank." She glanced around the room until her eyes landed on the outlet by my bed. My artificial heart's backup power cord was plugged into it.

She looked me dead in the eye as she pulled the backup cord out, inch by inch, and plugged in her own charger.

A shrill power-loss alarm blared through the room. The pump in my chest slowed all at once, my vision went black, and I could barely breathe.

The door burst open. Julian rushed in, shoved Vanessa aside, and plugged my power back in. "Page the code team! Get a backup controller ready!"

When Grant came back with a bowl of chicken soup, he didn't even glance at my bed. He grabbed Vanessa's arm and checked it over and over. "What happened? Who pushed you?!"

Vanessa was sobbing so hard she could barely breathe, and she pointed at Julian. "This is all your fault, Grant! You made me come apologize! I was nice enough to stay and look after her, and her doctor shoved me to the floor!"

Grant pulled her into his arms, patting her back and murmuring to calm her down. "Okay, okay... my fault, it's all my fault..."

I lay in my hospital bed watching them, and suddenly, it all seemed laughable. He had never once comforted me like that.

With me, all he ever did was warn me, over and over. "My ex is a total drama queen. Don't you dare turn into her."

So I learned not to make scenes, not to fuss, not to cry, and not to ask questions. I was as easy to manage as a machine that never broke. But in the end, the one he babied was still the one who threw tantrums.

Just then, the police arrived. Two officers flashed their badges and walked straight over to Vanessa. "Ms. Price, you're under suspicion of deliberately hiding another person's life-support equipment. We need you to come with us for questioning."

The color drained from Vanessa's face, and she ducked behind Grant on instinct. "Grant, I'm not going. I don't wanna go!"

Grant whirled on me. "Nora, you seriously called the cops over this?! Tell them it was a misunderstanding right now, and stop blowing this out of proportion!"

Julian kept his voice low, but every word shook with anger. "Mr. Mercer, that woman just unplugged the backup power to Nora's heart. If I'd been 30 seconds later, she'd be dead!"

For a split second, Grant went white, and his gaze flicked to my bluish lips. But he only hesitated for 2 seconds before he pulled Vanessa even closer to shield her.

"Officers, the person who reported this is my girlfriend. She got the wrong idea about me and Vanessa and called you in the heat of the moment. We can settle this between ourselves."

One of the officers frowned. "At 2:17 last night, Ms. Price hid the backup battery in your building's storage room. The building's security cameras caught all of it.

"We've also secured the hallway footage and the equipment logs from what happened here just now. And when someone's life is put in danger, that's a criminal case. It's not something you two get to settle on your own."

Grant faltered, then turned to me. "Nora, change your statement. Just tell them she didn't do it on purpose."

I looked at him and said nothing. My silence only made him angrier, and he ground out a threat through clenched teeth. "If you won't change your statement, then we're over."