When Love Walked In

Chapter 15

There’s a throbbing pain in my head. Can this be compared to a hangover? I turn my head to the side and look at the digital clock on my bedside table. With a jolt, I sit up. It’s nine o’clock? That can’t be right. From the view of my window, it’s still dark out. But I remember going to bed—.

Loud voices from downstairs interrupt my thoughts. I can hear multiple voices, one overpowering all the others.

Damien. “I want to see her!” he whisper-shouts.

Someone hisses at him to lower his voice. “She’s still sleeping you idiot!” Taylor.

I can hear someone else whisper faintly to Gustavo. Alex. I expect the rest of the Blackjacks voices to surface as well but am surprised to be met with silence. “How long has she been sleeping?”

I throw back the heavy comforter and slowly make my way to the door. “Ever since she had that nightmare and went back to sleep.” My steps are silent across the carpeted floor and I feel like a burglar in my own house as I sit on the third step, leaning my head against the wall. Even when I know I won’t be able to see them from this angle, I can hear their voices more distinctly.

“I can’t believe you guys never told us. We are her friends. We should know.

Damien’s voice is like daggers to the heart. “You think it was easy for her to tell me? You guys have no idea how much she’s hurting inside.”

“Damien’s right,” Gustavo said. “What Amber had to go through . . . you’d have to experience it first-hand to understand . . . and even then you still wouldn’t know. Nobody knows. No one understands. You guys weren’t there when the police finally found her. Everyone thought she was freaking dead! You didn’t see the look in her eyes. You know they wouldn’t let her get near her parents for a whole month? They broke her . . ."

I close my eyes as I remembered the flashing lights. Someone had wrapped me in a blanket and left me to sit in the back of the ambulance car, a cup of water in my hands, untouched. There was still blood under my fingernails from when I had stabbed Tristan again and again. From a distance, I could see my parents in tears, held back by French officers. My mother was pleading to them in French. “My baby! Let me see my baby!”

I had no life in me. I was a body with no soul, emptiness. The medical officers had to inject me with a needle to keep me from running to my parents. They said it was to protect me from my parents, and from myself. I wanted to be rid of the emptiness.

I was brought back to reality by the thundering of Damien’s voice. “Did she say anything? When she woke up, I mean.”

“She just kept screaming.” I heard him sigh. “She thought I was someone else.” There was silence. And I took that as my cue to make myself known. With a shaky breath, I climbed down the rest of the way and threw myself into the fire. Taylor and Alex sat on one sofa, Gustavo the other, while Damien couldn’t keep off his feet. “Hey, guys,” I said.

They all turned to me in surprise, unsure what to do. All except for Damien. He didn’t hesitate before taking coming to my side in two long strides, taking my face in his hands. “Hey . . . Are you okay?”