Love Again ✔

25. Guilt

"Don't do that." He shakes his head, his eyes finding mine in the rearview mirror. "Don't blame yourself, man. She was doing so much better lately with people. Fuck, she even came to the game, Theo. You couldn't have known a small family gathering would end like this."

But I should've though. I should've known, because I've been watching her all day and it was a big fucking possibility. I just thought we could have the goddamn cake then stay at my room till tomorrow, and everything would be find after that.

"We're here, come on." He turns off the engine in front of the emergency entrance and we rush out of the car.

"Can someone please help?" Tyler asks loudly once we walk inside, and multiple eyes snap toward us.

"What happened?" A nurse hurries our way with a stretcher for me to lie Rose on and I carefully do.

"She had a panic attack. It was bad and she just suddenly collapsed." I explain briefly and two more nurses follow, one checking her pupils, the other her blood pressure.

"Too high." The one checking her blood pressure announces and they start pulling the stretcher away from me and down the hall.

"What does that mean?" I ask in panic, following them down the hall. "Will she be okay? Where are you taking her?"

"She'll be alright, don't worry." One of the three stays behind to explain, as they drag Rose's strecher further away, but my eyes trail after her. "They'll stabilize her blood pressure, then help her gain back consciousness. But we need you to fill in some papers in the mean time. Are you a relative?"

"She's my girlfriend." I state firmly and he only gives me a nod in return, walking a few feet away then back to me with some papers and a pen.

Tyler and I sit down and I begin to answer the questions in front of me, my mind unable to focus.

"How is she?" My father walks in with my mother a few minutes later.

"She'll be okay. They'll wake her up, they said." Tyler responds and my mother breathes out in relief.

"We're so sorry, son." Mom sits next to me, her hand attaching to my shoulder. "We tried to contain the situation as best as we could, but she just headed to the door and we were too scared to touch her."

I give her a nod and clench my jaw because the way she put it makes my angel sound like some damn wild animal.

Charlotte and Mark join us soon after and when they see how tense I am they realize I'm not in the mood to chat. So everyone remains silent as we wait.

The more time passes the more anxious I become. What the fuck is taking them so long?

Tyler notices my leg bouncing up and down, and he walks over to the desk with another nurse behind to ask her for updates.

He and the woman exchange a few words before his face visibly pales. I'm about to rush over to know what the fuck is wrong when he turns around and reluctantly makes his way over to me.

"What's going on? What did she say?" I ask, my heart still unable to calm. I know I won't be okay until I make sure she's safe. I need to know that she believes she is, that she'll give me a fucking chance to fix the damage I've done.

"They steadied her heartbeating and she gained back consciousness, but she started panicking again so they had to sedate her." He says carefully, and my heart drops to my stomach.

"She panicked again and they gave her a sedative?" I ask, another fire brewing inside of me at the amount of terror my Rose had to endure, all because of me.

"Yeah, they're transferring her into a private room now. She said we should wait until she wakes up on her own this time. She says Ella should be surrounded by her family, people she trusts." He runs his hand through his hair in distress, and I feel like I have no way out of this fucking nightmare.

"That's alright." My father nods his head, grabbing our attention. "We'll wait outside her room. She doesn't have to see anyone she doesnt want to see, son. It's her choice."

I nod my head and we sit back down to wait some more. Unable to stop my guilt from eating at me, I place my elbows on my knees and cover my head with my palms as the tears rush out again. She's been doing so well, trying her hardest to be strong and brave for me. And I fucking abused that. I took her strength and love for me for granted. I should've never asked her to come here, because I knew she would want to do this for me even if she wasn't ready. She knew how much I wanted her to meet them, and she didn't want to make me sad. She's so fucking considerate and brave and she trusted me to keep her safe. Only I didn't. I allowed all of this to happen. All day long, I've been allowing it, when I should've been protecting her instead.

"Where's my fucking daughter?!" A loud voice echoes through the walls and my head moves up to see a man looking around, angry but afraid, followed by a crying woman. The woman looks just like my angel, but older and with shorter hair.

The man's furious eyes find Mark and he walks over. "Are you Theo?!"

Mark shakes his head and moves his eyes to me in a silent question of what to do. The man is smart enough to follow, and his eyes soon find mine. I stand up as he storms over, and before I could utter a word, he grabs my shirt and slams me against the wall. "Where's my goddamn daughter?!"

"Eddie, stop! Stay calm!" Rose's mother hurries next to her husband, grabbing his arms in an attempt to make him let go of me, and I notice how panicked her voice is.

"What the fuck did you do to her?! She said she was fucking safe with you! She promised you'd never let anything bad happen to her! And then I call her and someone picks up to let me know that she's in the fucking hospital?! What the fuck happened to my daughter because of you, you manipulative piece of shit!" The man sounds as angry and disappointed in me as I feel, so I can't blame him.

"That's enough." My father steps closer, fixing his jacket as he stands straighter. "I suggest you let go of my son and handle this calmly."

Rose's father lets go of me, his angry eyes suddenly turning hard with ice cold rage, and he turns to my dad instead. "Calmly? You want me to calmly discuss with your son how he put my daughter in the fucking hospital?!"

"I'm sorry." My voice is laced with shame, guilt and self hatred as I speak before my father does. "I never meant for this to happen. I'm so sorry."

"Oh, you'll be." Eddie promises.

A nurse walks over, grabbing our attention. "Excuse me, but this is a hospital. We have patients here who need you to be quiet so they can rest. If you feel the need to argue please step outside or I'll have to call security."

"Where's my daughter? Ella Stevens." Rose's mother asks, dismissing the nurse's warning because none of us care about anything more than my angel right now.

"She's been transferred to a room on the third floor. She's still unconscious, but you can see her." She states, her eyes moving across all of us. "Only relatives are allowed. Room 309."

Rose's parents hurry to the elevators and I stay behind with my family, all of us looking at each other for a few seconds.

"Let's go." My mother speaks up. "We'll stay until we make sure she's alright. When she wakes up she'll want to see you, Theo."

"Will her father allow that?" Charlotte asks nervously, her arm clutching around her husband's. "We can all see how angry he is."

"They're adults." My father bites the words out. "They can make their own decisions and he can't stop them. If she wants to see her boyfriend, I'll make sure she damn does."

"Come on." Tyler grabs my arm and we head to the third floor.

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Are we mad at Maddox or not? Do we blame him? Let me know how you feel.