PERMANENT HOLD Falling for a Billionaire

16: The Boogieman

CONTAINS ADULT THEMES AND TOPICS: (18+)

____

Daniel:

There was something very wrong.

Aspen would hardly ever look at me, and when she would, her eyes would dart all over the place as if she couldn't handle looking me in the eyes. One minute we were talking and laughing, and the next she was looking at me, and her eyes were completely blank. It was as if suddenly it wasn't Aspen at all.

And if it wasn't Aspen, what was it?

It frightened me and made me want to get her help even more. I was able to schedule an appointment with a therapist that worked with the hospital. I was trying to convince her over text to come to the tower so that I wouldn't have to schedule security to leave with Aspen every day. That would only put more on her, seeing as the reporters weren't dying down any time soon. The therapist was slowly relenting, the more money I threw at her. Surprisingly, she still didn't ask for much.

We had made so much progress after the girls were taken out of that home. Aspen was more open, even if it was only a little bit. Ymir, Lucy and Esther all seemed more happy, and Margaret seemed less stressed about her baby.

At first I thought maybe I shouldn't have kissed her. Maybe she was having second thoughts. But then I realized that she was still okay with me touching her, so it wasn't that.

Then I thought maybe she found out about my feelings for her. I mean, it would take more than a blind man not to know that I cared about her, but maybe she found out that I loved her. I had told Andrew. What if she overheard us talking or Andrew had accidentally spilled it? What if she was afraid of talking to me now?

Finding out about her dreams had answered a lot of questions. I had woken up multiple times the past few nights, not knowing why. But a couple nights ago was the last straw for me. When I woke up, Aspen was screaming long, tortured screams—the type of screams I imagined her to be making down in that basement.

At first I had looked all over her body, trying to figure out what was wrong—but then I realized she was still asleep, and I remembered what she had told me about the nightmares. So I tried waking her up. But she wouldn't wake up. No matter what I did, she stayed like that. Then I started to get scared.

I called a doctor, but from what they told me, she was having night terrors, and there wouldn't really be a way to wake her up until she do so on her own.

That was the one answer I couldn't take. Not when the woman I cared so deeply for was battling her demons in her mind right next to me.

I spent thirty minutes, muscles completely tensed, sitting on the edge of my bed watching her and waiting for her to wake up. When she did, her eyes were completely glazed over and she was trembling. She flinched away from me when I reached for her, which hurt more than anything. For a solid five minutes, she steadied her breathing, closing her eyes tightly and clenching the sheets. I noticed that they stuck to her because they were drenched in sweat.

I couldn't even think of a dirty joke, I was so scared.

"Aspen?"

She looked at me—but at the same time, she wasn't looking at me. She looked detached. I reached forward and touched her shoulder. Her whole body was convulsing.

"Just a dream—" she gasped.

"Yeah, it was just a dream," I reassured her. I got back on the bed, closer to her, and held her to me.