David's POV
I, David Earl Argent take you, Dawn Araceli Montgomery as my lawful wife...
All my life, I'd always thought I'd experienced enough to know what real anguish was. I thought I knew what real pain felt like, but bursting through those doors and staggering into a scene where my wife lay down on the floor, curled up in her pool of blood made me realize I only knew the tip of the iceberg.
Time stooped utterly as the world around me disappeared into a clangor of agony. It was like my life had taken a big hit from an avalanche. The feeling... It ate me inside out, hurting so bad, so awfully bad that my lungs closed and my body went rigid.
My knees buckled. I crumpled to the floor next to her. "Dawn.." My voice broke as I took her hand and placed it on my cheek, hoping that it would pulse but it was cold, too cold and her body was as pale as a lily crowned with moonlight.
My heart bled.
"Dawn, baby, it's me, David please say something." Her chest barely moved, oh God. "Dawn?" I shook her, calling out to her, desperate to hear her speak, or blink, or open her eyes to look at me. "Dawn, say something!"
"We don't have time for this David!" Tanner who I'd called earlier thinking he would arrive before me, snapped, barging in through the door. "We need to get her to the hospital. We can't wait for the ambulance to get here."
I turned to him, eyes bloodshot and burning with tears. "Tanner, she's not answering me... she's not—she's not —" I choked on my words, shaking my head, confused, shattered. I was supposed to protect her, I was supposed to be there at all times but I didn't, I wasn't, and now she was...
"David!" Tanner yelled, charging toward me and slapping me right across the face. "Get your shit together and pick your wife up!"
Air rushed into my lungs. I snapped out and blinked. He was right. Nothing else mattered at this moment except getting Dawn to the hospital. I stood and lifted her carefully into my arms. She moaned something incoherent, her eyes fluttering open and when a breeze of my name left her bruised lip, my heart leaped. Hope blossomed in my chest. "I'm right here baby," I told her, walking out. "You're gonna be okay, I just need you to stay with me, okay? Stay with me."
Tanner ran out before me and kept the door open for me as I placed Dawn into the back seat and entered.
He rushed into the driver's seat and started up the car while I remained in the back, holding Dawn in my arm, afraid to look between her legs because it was a mess there.
"David..." She whimpered, clutching my shirt, shivering. "I'm sorry..."
Her words made my ears bleed. I held her tighter, kissing her sweaty forehead, desperately praying to God for mercy even though I didn't believe in him. "Shh... You're going to be fine," My voice stuck to my throat as I struggled to hold my tears back. "Everything is going to be fine," I assured, my heart aching as I did. "We'll be at the hospital soon and it will all be over," I whispered, repeating the word over and word, believing that if I said it enough times she would be because seeing her in so much pain made me so fucking angry. What the hell was I thinking leaving her at home alone? I had only one job! Just one job!
I didn't know how much time was passing but I didn't stop squeezing her to me until we arrived at the hospital and the paramedics rushed in along with a doctor who stopped me from walking with them into the emergency room.
"You can not go in there, sir," he instructed, shoving me back with his hands when I wouldn't stop.
"David, calm down," Tanner advised, grabbing my hand but I broke free and charged forward.
"No I want to be in there with her, she needs me."
He got in front of me and held my shoulders. "Hey listen! What she needs right now is for you to hold on and not make a scene. The doctors are going to do the best they can so calm the fuck down!"
It felt like a knife had been stabbed into my throat. I inhaled sharply, watching the stretcher disappear into the emergency room, begging the universe to let her survive.
To have and to hold...
I doubled over the bathroom sink and emptied my gut. I didn't know if it was the smell of dried blood or my anxiety making me throw up but I emptied my stomach, dry heaving until there was nothing left, nothing but pain and ache.
Spitting one last time, I turned on the faucet and gripped the edge of the sink so tight my knuckles turned pale.
The agonizing scream she'd released when she fell sat fresh in my memory, sounding over and over again, taunting and taunting. I shook my head. She wouldn't leave me, she couldn't. Not after everything. The thought of a life without her made my chest unbelievably tight. We had so much to do, so much to talk about. She couldn't leave me like this. If she did...then there was no point anymore because I'd rather be dead than in a world where Dawn didn't exist.
I washed the blood away from my hands and face. I rinsed out my mouth right after, grabbed a paper towel, and wiped. I tossed it into the garbage once I was done and walked out. The minute I did, Becky approached me, her face going pale at the sight of blood on my clothes.
"Oh my God." She gasped, covering her mouth with her hand. "What happened David? How is Dawn?"
"I don't..." My voice cracked halfway. "I don't know..."
Her brows crinkled up. "How did this happen, when did—"
"David!" We both turned our heads to see Paula storming towards me with full force. "What the hell happened?!" She exclaimed, pulling me by my shirt, and when I didn't answer, she slapped me right across the face, so hard that Becky was forced to release another gasp, but the monetary pain I felt was incomparable to my internal anguish.
"What happened David?! What did you fucking do to my sister?!" She yelled, tears gathering at the sides of her eyes as she beat my chest hard, pushing.
I staggered back, releasing a breath. "I don't know... I don't know..."
"You idiot! How could you let this happen?! How!" She yelled, slamming her fists into my chest as uncontrollable tears began to burn down her eyes.
"Paula, you need to calm down. She's his wife too." Becky chirped in, crying, trying to coax her into letting go but with every fiber in her bone, she resisted.
"You better hope nothing happens to her or else I will kill you, I swear, I'll kill you, David Argent!"
"Paula!" Becky exclaimed, dragging her away.
For better or worse...
Broken wasn't a strong enough word to describe how I felt. I slipped down the wall and sat on the floor with my head resting on my knees.
My eyes lifted and shifted to the clock on the wall. With every dreadful tick, my heart died a little inside.
Tanner walked over to me and stretched his hand out with a fresh shirt in it. "Here, change out of that one."
"I don't want to, I won't get up from here or do anything until they tell me my wife is okay."
He groaned in frustration and threaded a hand through his hair. "Stop being stubborn at a time like this and do the needful." He tossed the shirt over my head, covering my face with it. "I'll go get all of us some drinks, you better be changed when I return."
When his footsteps receded, I got up. I didn't go to the restroom to change, I couldn't miss a single moment. I unbuttoned my shirt there, shrugged it off, and forced the fresh T-shirt over my head, that was when a doctor walked out, calling out for me.
"Mr. Argent?"
"That's me," I said, rushing to him. "I-is my wife okay?"
"What about the baby?" Paula all of the sudden chimed in, pushing me out of the way.
The doctor stared at us and released a soft sigh before speaking. "Due to what we can not explain, she's been forced into early labor and has lost a lot of blood and the impact of the fall has also triggered internal bleeding."
"What are you doing about it?" Paula asked.
He breathed down. "We haven't been able to operate on her yet because her blood pressure is high. We've been trying our best to get it down but I'm afraid, with her current state, she might not make it."
I shook my head, refusing to let the thought materialize in his head. "Please, save my wife," I begged. I needed her to live. I needed to see her smile at me again. I needed to hear her voice.
"We will try our best but I cannot assure you anything at this stage."
"I don't care how you do it just bring Dawn back to me. Please."
For richer for poorer...
It was about two in the morning when my stepmother arrived, rushing in through the hall.
"Oh, David," she hugged me. "I came as fast as I could. How is she?"
I held her tight, trying not to fall apart again. "I don't know mum, they wouldn't let me see her,"
"Oh honey." she caressed my face and cleaned off the dried patches of my tears. "You must stay strong okay, she needs you as her strength right now."
"I'm trying but scared. I don't want to lose her. I can't—I can't."
"It's okay. Everything is going to be fine. Dawn is a fighter, she is going to make it out of this."
"What if she doesn't?" Fresh tears burned my eyes. "What am I going to do mum..." I choked, burying my head in her shoulders as I sobbed uncontrollably, soaking her dress.
In sickness and in health...
By five in the morning, I sat on one of the chairs, staring blindly into my cup of coffee, trying to think of anything other than what had happened but my mind kept going back to how I'd found Dawn laying on the floor with blood dripping from her thighs.
I shouldn't have agreed to it. I shouldn't have allowed her to keep the pregnancy. It was my fault, everything—my fault, and I couldn't do anything but watch fate play with the life of the woman I loved yet again.
When the emergency door opened and a nurse called out my name again, I blinked, realizing I had squeezed my cup so hard the contents spilled over, drenching the floor. I tossed it away in the trash can beside me and slowly lifted my head to her. If she'd come to tell me something else was wrong, I didn't want to listen.
"Sir Argent?" She called again and seeing a small smile appear on her face made my brows furrow.
I sat up, gulping. "How is my wife?" I inquired but paused the moment I heard a baby cry resonate from inside the room.
"Who?" She asked, grinning from ear to ear. "Your daughter or your wife?"
My heart stopped and my eyes widened. "...Daughter?" I inhaled a shaky breath. "My...daughter?"
"Congratulations Mr. Argent, how do you feel about meeting your daughter?"
I immediately got up from my chair, feeling a squeezing in my chest but it was not of pain, it was something more, something like a wave of elation, undesirable by words and adjectives.
I had a daughter.
"You should come and see her," the nurse urged, opening the door and stepping aside for me to go in.
Still trying to register what I had just heard, I walked into the room slowly and immediately caught the sight of the love of my life laying on the bed, eyes closed with a bandage wrapped over her head and a thick cloth draped over her legs.
The heart monitor by her beeped normally. It made something blossom somewhere inside me. Inhaling deeply, I took a step closer to her but paused when I heard another tiny cry again ring across the room.
It was coming from the baby swaddled in a pink blanket. My baby. My daughter. Oh, God. I was a father of two now.
"Care to hold her?" The nurse suggested and I nodded, eagerly stretching out my arms to receive her and the moment I did, a bone-deep affection clawed my heart.
She was so tiny and miniature that it made me huff out a laugh. "Hey, baby..." My lip trembled. I bit it, grazing my fingers across her cheek, marveling at how soft it was. "She's...beautiful. So beautiful,"
"Mr. Argent," another nurse called with a huge grin on her face. "What have you decided to name her?"
I turned to Dawn. She hadn't said anything or opened her eyes since I stepped in. I walked closer, smiling as my chest swelled with pride. Maybe I was wrong all this time. Maybe there was a way to cheat fate and I'd done it today. "Look, princess, it's our Ileana," I mumbled, touching her cheeks. It was warm. Thank God.
She opened her eyes slowly and stared at me with a small smile stretching on her parched lip. "Ileana..." Her voice was barely a whisper. A tear slipped down her face. "Ileana Earl Argent."
I wiped her tears with my thumb, grinning. "So perfect." I pressed a kiss to her sweaty forehead. "I love you, Dawn."
"I love you too." She whispered, shutting her eyes back once more.
I stood back up, finding it extremely hard to tear my attention away from the little bald creature squirming in my arms. "You're home now my little angel. You're home," I placed a soft kiss on her forehead and chuckled when she folded deeper into her blanket.
I had another shy princess. This one was going to need a lot of spoiling.
"She looks just like you," I told Dawn, still not able to tear my gaze away from Ileana. "Well except for the nose and lip which is mine and I bet her eyes will be mine too." I joked, hoping to get a reaction from her but when she didn't answer, I shifted my gaze up, my body stiffening as I did.
Her eyes were rolling back and her body turned pale but it wasn't until the heart monitor began to beep uncontrollably that realization hit me.
"Dawn?" I placed my hand on hers and shook her softly, my heart beginning to pound rapidly against my chest.
She was cold again, slipping away from me.
"Her heart rate has dropped and she's bleeding! Get the doctor in here right away!" The head nurse exclaimed, barking orders at everyone and it seemed like I was the only one who froze in place as people ran around the theatre room, some immediately placing an Ambu bag over her mouth and pumping air. "She's not breathing!"
I tried to find my voice but I couldn't. "Dawn..." I croaked out, staring at her but she wouldn't look at me.
A nurse approached me with her mask on and seized Ileana from my grasp. "Sir, you have to leave."
I shook my head, "Dawn?" I called again, willing her to look at me but she didn't.
"Sir please you need to leave." She compelled, pulling me towards the door.
"No..." I protested weakly, my eyes blurring with tears. "Dawn!" I raised my voice. "Dawn please look at me!" I begged.
"Sir, please." She opened the door and pushed me out.
"No please!" I implored, taking a step forward but a doctor stepped in front of me and placed a hand on my chest.
"Stay out."
"But...but—"
"I'm sorry, sir but you cannot be in here." He shoved me out and shut the door against my face and I stood there, holding my breath, eyes wide in shock as I tried to process what had just happened.
"David, what happened?" My mother asked worriedly but I remained frozen in place, saying nothing.
Tanner placed a hand on my shoulder and shook me. "David, talk to us."
A tear slipped down my face as my fists tightened by my side. What could I say?
That I had a beautiful daughter but my wife was dying?
That no matter how much I tried, my cruel fate always accomplished ruining my life?
What was I thinking?
Did i think could outrun it?
Did I think that if I played dumb I could avoid it?
I inhaled deeply and simply walked away from everyone and everything.
An hour later, the doctor walked out of the room with a sour expression on his face. I ran to him, my chest heaving as my eyes desperately begged for an affirmative answer but deep down, I knew I wasn't going to get what I wanted and the look on the doctor's face confirmed it.
He opened his mouth to speak, but paused and shook his head slowly. "Excuse me for the words that I'm about to say but... "
Until death do us part...