Blood Between Us

CHAPTER 13– Between Life and Death

Leo’s POV

I held her in my arms, still, broken, barely breathing.

“Call an ambulance!” I barked at my driver, who was already on the line.

My voice cracked.

Blood dripped from her nose. Her bottom lip was split. Her hands still trembled even in unconsciousness.

I held her tighter.

Like she’d slip away if I blinked.

“Stay with me, Olivia,” I whispered. “Don’t do this.”

The ambulance took fifteen minutes.

Fifteen minutes of hell.

I rode with her, holding her hand, whispering her name over and over like a prayer. A lifeline.

She didn’t stir.

Not once.

---

Hospital – Emergency Room

Machines beeped. Nurses shouted codes. Gloves snapped. The world spun around me while I stood there, frozen.

A doctor walked out after thirty agonizing minutes.

“She’s stable,” he said, and I felt air enter my lungs again.

“But?” I asked.

“She has two fractured ribs. A concussion. Internal bleeding was controlled. We’ll monitor for the next 24 hours. She needs rest. And… she was protecting her abdomen.”

My heart stopped.

“The baby?”

He nodded slowly. “Still alive. Somehow.”

I almost collapsed.

She’d been shielding the baby.

Even when she passed out.

Even when that monster tried to break her.

---

Olivia’s POV

It felt like I was drowning.

Voices floated above me, warped and distant.

Machines hummed. Something beeped steadily.

And through it all… a whisper.

“Stay with me.”

Leo.

I wanted to move. Speak. Reach out.

But my body was wrapped in pain and sleep.

Still, something inside me clung to his voice.

It reminded me I wasn’t alone.

And somehow… that gave me the strength to float back.

---

Leo’s POV

I sat beside her, not moving.

Not blinking.

Just watching her breathe.

Her hand twitched.

Then her lashes fluttered.

She opened her eyes.

Barely.

“Olivia…” I leaned in. “You’re safe now. You’re okay.”

Her lips moved.

Barely a whisper.

“You… it was you… that night…?”

My breath caught.

She remembered.

And now… there was no more hiding.

“Yes,” I whispered.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you. I didn’t even know…”

A tear slid from the corner of her eye.

Not because she was weak.

Because she had survived.

But I knew this wasn’t over.

Whoever did this was still out there.

And the next time they came...

They wouldn’t get the chance to touch her again.