Losing Him (Mitchell Family #8)(37)
“Are you family, son?”
I nodded. “I’m her fiancée. I’m the only family she has besides our son.”
“I see. I’m sorry this has happened to your family.” He lifted a piece of paper and looked at the chart. “Do you know who Heather’s general doctor is?”
I lifted up my hands. “I have no idea. She works at the hospital as a nurse. I’m sure she sees someone there.”
“I was her doctor when she was a little girl.”
“He was my doctor, too!” Van added.
The doctor looked up at Van and smiled before continuing. “Heather had a dislocated hip, a broken arm, and she broke her neck. She was lucky that she wasn’t killed instantly from the impact. Now, from the force of the impact, she was thrown to the other side of the car, which caused serious injuries. Heather took a serious blow when her head hit the passenger side window. We’ve done several tests and are watching for swelling on the brain for the next seventy two hours. As far as the extent of all of her injuries, well we won’t know that until she wakes up and tells us. Of course you will need to consider that in some serious cases the patients don’t wake up from this kind of accident. I don’t want to give you false hope. It’s my job to let you know the severity of the situation.”
“So we just wait? That’s not acceptable. There has to be something else we can do.” I was desperate.
“Unfortunately, we have to wait and see if she wakes up. That will be the best news for us, right now.”
“I want to see her!”
He smiled and patted my shoulder. “Come with me.”
I didn’t turn around and look at the girls as I followed him. It was nice that they stayed, but I wasn’t planning on leaving her side. She needed me and I wasn’t going to walk away again. This accident was because I’d walked away. I’d never forgive myself for that.
Heather was unrecognizable.
She was hooked to all sorts of machines and her face was bruised badly. I cringed when I saw it. The amount of bruising was bad on the one side of her face that it was doubled in size. Her hair was full of dried blood and pulled away from her face.
The doctor, that I didn’t even notice his name, pointed to a chair beside the bed before leaving me alone in the room. I pulled the chair as close as I could before standing over her body. She was strapped to the bed, to prevent movement I assumed. Her arm was in a cast and her neck was in a collar so she couldn’t move it. Bandages were on her forehead and over her one eye where the bruising was.
I could feel burning in my throat as I took it all in. My hands shook when I reached to touch her for the first time. She was so fragile that I didn’t want to hurt her. It was hard to even speak without choking up. “I’m here, baby. I’m here.”
She didn’t respond, not that I expected her to. My God, the amount of injuries on the outside of her body made me wonder how much was wrong on the inside.
I put my head down beside her fragile body and prayed that God would spare her life and give me a chance to make it up to her. I’d done her wrong and she didn’t deserve this. She deserved to be loved and I wanted to be the person to do it.
After all the fights and the sleepless nights of imagining being happy without her, I knew it wasn’t where my heart was at. All along I’d wanted to be with Heather. She was my future no matter how hard I was fighting the truth. There was nothing that my family or friends could do about it anymore. I was done fighting.
“Heather, please wake up. I need to tell you something. Please open those beautiful eyes, baby.”
I reached for her hand and rubbed my thumb against it. Her long nails had blood and dirt in them, reminding me yet again of what she’d been through. I felt like the biggest * for what I’d done. All of the head games and indecisions on my part had been the reason for all of this.
Heather thought she didn’t deserve to be happy, but the truth was, I didn’t deserve her. She was a better person than she knew.
Sure, she’d lost her way and let her emotions go into overdrive, but her heart was just so big she couldn’t help it. After everything she’d been through in her life, she clung to the possibility of being loved.
The constant beeping of the machines kept me focused on why I was in the hospital room, begging her to wake up. I pulled her hand up to my lips and kissed it, holding it against my mouth as I spoke. “Please don’t give up. Jacob needs his Mommy. He can’t do this without your love.” I paused for a moment and choked back the tears. “I need your love. I’m so sorry for all of this. Baby, I’m so damn sorry.”
I kept her hand against my face as a few tears found their way down my cheeks. I didn’t give a damn who saw me, because it was my fault she was laying in this condition.
I’m not sure how long I’d sat there next to her, waiting for any kind of response. When I couldn’t go without something to drink any longer, I got up and headed to grab a soda before coming back. Because this wasn’t my town, I had no idea how strict they were going to be about me staying, but I wasn’t planning on leaving. They’d have to get security if they thought I was going to get up and leave her there alone.
A nurse guided me to a refreshment station and I drank a whole soda before grabbing another to take back to the room with me. As I was walking back, I saw Van walking down the hall with her arm in a mans. At first, I thought it was her husband, but after a second look, I was taken back.