I was mortified.
I had texted Leo for help instead of Dominic.
I felt so stupid, as my ex-boyfriend was fighting with Brad because he had invaded my privacy.
Brad pushed Leo by stretching his arms and legs, and Leo fell onto the floor. Brad began beating him up, and Leo began screaming with pain.
"No, no, Brad, please, please stop," I sobbed, tears rolling down my cheeks. "Please, Brad, I know you're a good man. Just leave the guy alone."
"Get out of my way, girl!" Brad shouted, pushing me onto the bed, and then continuing what he was doing a moment earlier.
I tried, I really tried to stop him, but every time, the cruel man, his nose turning purple and bleeding out ferociously, would stop me.
"Brad, Braddy, please, I beg you, stop. He's innocent. He hasn't done anything wrong. I'll do whatever you want me to do, but please, leave the poor guy alone."
"Right."
Finally he stopped beating Leo, who laid there, without a movement, on the cold floor, grabbed me by my fists and pushed me onto the bed.
As he was taking off my panties so he could enter me, a hand grabbed his leg and Leo stood up, shaking, bleeding from his right temple.
"You do not, harm my girl."
"Wh-"
The fight began again, but this time, Leo ruled.
But at a certain moment took over, pushed Leo to the bed - he landed on his tummy, head the the upper side of what had been a bed - took him by the hair and to bump him on the cold metal that soon turned red with blood.
I stood there horrified , my hands on my mouth. as the door opened on a panting blond man.
I recognised Dominic.
How come Leo AND Dominic were here? Who was the one I had asked to rescue me?
"Here!" Dominic shouted, and policemen arrived, grabbed Brad by the shoulders and took him away.
Dominic ran to me and pulled me close to him, but I didn't move, still staring at the immobile body of Leo on that bed, as blood was slowly pouring out of his forehead.
I rushed out quickly of Dominic's hug and went on the bed, cupping Leo's head in my hands.
"Oh my God, Leo...Oh my God...Wake up, Leo, come on! Come on, Leo...Wake up...Wake up..." I cried. "HELP!!! Help me here, please..." I yelled.
They took Leo in an ambulance to the nearest hospital. As the ambulance drove away, Dominic and I stood there, he put my coat on my bare shoulders. I became crazy, if Dom hadn't been there, holding me close to him, whispering to my ear some comforting words, I would have gone away and followed the ambulance, shouting and panting like an escaped woman from a psychiatric hospital.
"I can take you to the hospital if you want," he said.
"You...You'll really....really take me?"
"Yeah."
I grabbed my purse, put on my dress then my coat and we went.
***
"Mr. Thompson?"
It was six in the morning and we were sitting Lizzie, Nick, Dominic, George, Mom and I in the waiting room of the Operation Rooms ward of the gigantic hospital the ambulance had taken Leo to at twelve and a half. The doctors took him right away to an OR room, as he needed immediate surgery.
All because of Brad.
All because of me.
"Yes?"
"Your son suffered multiple organ failiure, hemorrhage in the brain, but we could at least stop the bleeding in the brain. He should regain normal function. We have him on a respirator - the machine is breathing for him - and he should be getting a liver transplant as his liver function was compromised. I could test some of you to find a liver match. Anyone care telling me how this happened?"
Everyone, remaining silent, turned to me.
I swallowed with difficulty.
"H...He...he got into a fight....with...with a man who...who was twice his age and size at least. Doctor, is...is he gonna be alright?"
"We'll see about that. For the donor...anyone?"
***
The doctor took blood samples from all of us to run some tests, just to make sure whether someone was a match or not.
Lizzie and her dad sat in Leo's Intensive Care Unit room, and the rest of us stayed in the waiting room. I couldn't think straight, I nearly couldn't breathe, I was shivering despite the heat that was on.
Leo could die.
And I would be the reason of his death.
"I..." began Mom, who usually never cared about other people's sicknesses and accidents, "I um...I'm gonna get us something fresh to drink, okay?"
"Let me come with you, Caroline," said Nicholas.
They left Dominic and I alone.
''Can I ask you something, Dom?"
"Sure," Dom replied, his voice dry, fixing the empty seats in front of us.
"How did you know? How did you know that I needed help?"
"You asked for it, silly."
"Asked? Asked for help?"
"Yeah. In your text."
"My....my text?"
Hadn't I sent the text to Leo by mistake?
"I thought I had texted Leo for that."
"Leo? Why did you think that? I even replied to you."
"Oh, really?"
I took my phone out of my purse. There was, indeed, an unread message. Do not move, coming right away.
"Then how did Leo come?"
"Well, he rang at my door soon after you left. I told him you were on you way home. He said he tried to call you several time but your phone was turned off. So he went to your mom, who told him you were at my house. So he came looking for you. I guess he did find you."
"Shut up."
He stayed silent, I hid my face in my hands, guilty and feeling terrible.
Usually, Dom would have cupped my sad face in his hands, looked at me in my teary eyes and persuaded me everything was going to be alright, everything's gonna be just fine, Leo was gonna wake up and life would turn back to normal again.
Except he didn't.
That was unusual. Dominic Cooper, the level-headed, considerate, tolerant, dependable, self-confident Dominic Cooper, was supposed to be moral support, caring, secure. He hadn't been all those things. He had ignored my signal. Okay, fine. He brought the police to Brad, if he hadn't, God knows where and it what state I would be if he hadn't (I tried my best to send away an image of me lying on a bed, naked, sticky with blood and, worst-case scenario, pregnant or dead from uterin bleed out, at seventeen. Yuk yuk yuk)
He sat there, on the very uncomfortable seat, his arms crossed on his chest and his eyes pale and sad, he seemed lost in his thoughts and unhappy. I had given him the most fabulous sex in the world, I had put my life at risk, I am terrified, he's my boyfriend, he should be all about paying attention to me.
"What's wrong, Dom?" I asked, the question going out as a whisper, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"Nothin'." He replied dryly.
"I don't think that's true. Why do you look so sad? I'm quite certain it's not because you're worried about Leo since you told him to get lost when he came knocking on your door."
"Fine. Why did you come back to me?"
"What a silly question. Because I love you."
"You don't. You still love Leo."
"No, I don't. I have no feelings for him."
"Yes, yes you do, you just don't know it; but I can tell. The way you jumped when the cops came, the tears when they took him away, the nervosity and sadness in your eyes while we were waiting a couple of hours ago..."
"I care about him, Dom. He saved my life. God knows what could have happened to me out there if he hadn't intervened."
"No, that's not just care. It's passion. Trust me, you still do love him. Deep inside you, you know it."
"No. I love YOU."
"You love him. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't have gone that crazy if it were ME."
"Are you saying I'm some kind of cold-hearted bitch?"
"No. I'm saying that you are a heart-breaking bitch."
He stood up and left.
That was the last time I ever saw Dominic Cooper.