Scared of Beautiful (Scared #1)(56)

I have stayed silent for too long, and pistol or not, I have to speak. I ignore him and talk directly to my mother. “Walk away, you don’t need to do this,” I say to her simply.

“Oh but she does,” my father retorts. “Because if she doesn’t, this will happen.” He yanks her into him and pushes her into the wall, before delivering a slap so violent that it causes her to fall sideways. The world moves in slow motion as her head connects with the corner of my marble hallway table. A small trickle of blood drips from her temple onto the carpet as she lands. A scream gets caught in my throat. “You bitch!” my father yells as Blake rushes over to my mother. He grabs the pistol and waves it unsteadily towards my face. “You’re going to tell them you did this. And I tried to stop you. After we get rid of the witnesses.” He motions with the gun to Blake. I avert my eyes so as not to look over my father’s shoulder at the two armed policemen flanking the doorway.

“Put the weapon down!” one of them yells.

Blake immediately pulls out his phone and dials for an ambulance, as my father startles and drops the gun to the ground with a hard thud. Blake continues to check my mother’s vital signs as I rush over, tears streaming down my face.

“Is she okay?” I sob.

“I can’t say yet,” he says solemnly. “The ambulance is on the way.” He reassures me minutely that she still has a pulse, and I hold her hand. The minutes feel like hours as we wait for the paramedics. When they arrive, they immediately move her to a stretcher and into the ambulance.

Blake and I scramble down to his BMW parked out on the street and race behind the ambulance to the hospital. When we arrive, they tell me that she will go straight to get a CT scan, and that I should wait in the designated area. Blake grabs my hand and leads me through the locked doors using his access card, and we situate ourselves in one of the intern lounges to wait.

“How did the police know to come?” I say vacantly, trying to sip on a coffee. Then it hits me. “That call you made. You called them.”

Blake nods. “I have seen my share of aggressive people in hospitals,” he says. “Plus, I was all out of heavy duty sedatives.”

I laugh at his joke. “Thank you for being there,” I say, my eyes welling up with tears. Blake pulls me into a warm hug and just holds me there. My knight in shining armor. Too bad I can never love him. Jackson. I had forgotten all about him with everything going on. My heart seizes painfully. He can’t be my priority. Not now.

After about an hour of waiting, a nurse pops her head into the door and I jump up anxiously. It’s not news about my mother. It’s two detectives there to take our statements. They inform me that many of my father’s threats were overheard by the two policemen who arrested him as they came up the stairs. Blake gives an informal statement, as do I. The detectives tell me that it is almost certain that he’ll do time for assault and grievous bodily harm. What he says next stops my heart. That if she dies, the charge will be upgraded to murder. If she dies.

Blake puts an arm around my shoulder. “Let’s not make assumptions like that detective, not until we hear from the doctors,” he says flatly. After they tell us to make our way to the police station to give a formal statement when we can, the detectives leave.

I fall asleep curled on the couch in Blake’s arms. It’s so easy here with him. So easy to imagine a life of being loved in simplicity. No baggage, just a fresh start. Jackson. Before I drift off, his face floats into my mind. I push it out. He didn’t want me. He didn’t care enough to stay here, and by leaving he put himself in a situation where he could land in jail. He didn’t care enough about me to make sure he came back. The lawyer will help him. Jade will understand.

The next thing I feel is a small nudge against my arm. “Maia,” Blake whispers.

I open my eyes to see an older, grey haired man with a pleasant demeanor and a concerned look on his face. “Maia, I’m Dr. Carson.”

I shake his outstretched hand. “Dr Carson?” I say looking at Blake.

“My father,” he nods with a smile.

“Your mother is out of surgery, Maia, and she has been moved to the ICU,” Dr Carson says clinically.

“Is she okay, can I see her?” I ask anxiously.

“Not just yet,” he continues. “The fall caused a bleed in her brain. We managed to drain it and relieve the pressure, but she’s in an induced coma so that we can monitor for any further effects of the trauma. In a few days when we’re satisfied, we will attempt to take her out of the coma, and pray for the best.”

“The best?” I ask.

“At the moment, with the drugs she’s on and after the recent trauma, she is showing less brain activity than we’d like to see. But it’s early still. Too soon to tell much. Take her home, you can come back in the morning,” Dr Carson says to Blake. He nods and gives his father a brief hug before we leave.

Blake insists on staying in my apartment, and relegates himself to the couch after he’s sure that I’m resting. He really is the perfect gentleman, I think as sleep eludes me. Jackson. I push the thought away. No. Worrying about Jackson and his games is the reason why I was so self-absorbed that I forgot about my mother. He was right. We are no good for each other. Before I drift off, I take the sim card out of my phone and place it into my bedside drawer, and as I close the drawer, I ceremoniously close off any contact I have with Jackson. The idea forces my gut to wrench, but my priorities have been wrong for too long. Maybe in time, Blake will become something more than a friend. And I could learn to love him, too.