Five hours.
It’s been five hours of waiting. Five hours of sitting here in this goddamn room with that horrible image of her in my mind. How am I to stay sane with that picture intruding my thoughts?
“Sir,” says the nurse, appearing in the doorway I had previously bolted through. “You may see her now.”
I shot up and followed her through the corridors of the hospital. She led me to a room. It was different from the one she was previously in. That’s when I saw Nicole lying there on the bed.
I rushed to her side. She opened her eyes and smiled weakly at me.
***Nicole’s Point of View***
When Harry walked in my heart skipped a beat.
“Hey,” I say. “I’m surprised you’re still here. It’s been hours.”
“I wouldn’t leave.”
My smile grows, but it fades in seconds when I remember why I’m even here in the first place. “Where’s Melissa?”
“She’s okay. The police talked to her and set up a court trial. We’re gonna get her a good lawyer, and there’s a high chance she’ll be declared innocent. Your father was highly intoxicated, harboring a runaway, and Melissa’s case is being looked at as self-defense,” he explains.
“That’s great news.” And it really was. Usually no one even listens to our side of the story. They believe the adult and that’s that.
“How are you feeling?” he asks, clearly worried. The concern was written all over his face.
“Shitty,” I admit. He smiles and takes my hand. “I’ll be fine though. Just a broken rib and a bump on the head.”
“A bump on the head?” he asks, peeking at the blood soaked bandage wrapped around my temple. I shrug.
“I’ll be fine,” I repeat. “I promise.”
He didn’t look like he believed me. In fact, as I looked closer, I noticed what a mess he really was.
“Are you alright?” I ask him, my eyebrows knitting together.
“Yeah, yeah. You don’t need to worry about me. You’re all that matters right now,” he assures, shooting me another off smile.
“Harry,” I state sternly, looking over his features. “You’ve been crying.”
“Yeah,” he admits, almost hesitantly. “I have.”
He ran a hand through his already disheveled curls, and I felt a pang of guilt. This was because of me?
“Harry, I’m alright. You don’t need to worry about me so much,” I tell him. He shakes his head.
“I almost lost you. You could’ve…you could’ve died. I saw the car hit you and I...I panicked…I-“
“Shh,” I cut him off. He was getting upset all over again. I had never witnessed him like this before. “It’s okay. I’m okay. There’s nothing to worry about anymore, alright?”
He looks at me for a long moment with an almost pained expression in his eyes. What he said next I was never anticipating.
“I can’t do this anymore.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, masking the heartbreak that sentence had just inflicted.
“I can’t keep pretending like you’re a stranger to me. I can’t…I can’t avoid you anymore.”
I wasn’t sure how to reply to this, so I just let him continue.
“I love you more than I’ve loved anyone else before in my life, and I want things to go back to normal. I want us to live together. And I want to be able to tell whoever the hell I want that you’re mine, but I know none of that can happen again-“
“I understand,” I tell him, now tearing up myself. He looked like he was in pain. Physically and emotionally wounded. And it was all my fault. “I’ve ruined everything between us, and I’m so sorry about that, but we don’t need to go through this again.”
“You didn’t let me finish,” he says. So I sit quietly and wait for him to continue. “I’ve never really been one to believe in second chances.”
I did not like where this was leading.
“But I realized today, that’s what relationships are all about,” he continues. “As screwed up as this may sound, I still trust you.”
That one came as a huge shock to me.
“And I blame myself for what happened.”
I could not actually believe what I was hearing.
“Clearly you would not have been motivated to cheat if I had been there, and if I hadn’t up and left without notice then things would still be the same between us. So yes, it was wrong, but it’s because of me if you think about it.”
“Harry,” I interrupt. “That’s ridiculous. You don’t need to-“
“I’m still not done,” he reminds. I sigh and keep listening. “It’s not right of me to hold this against you and pretend like I played no part in it all. I’m sorry. And if you’ll still have me, I’d like to give this whole second chance thing a try.”
I was speechless. Completely and utterly speechless.
“Harry…You deserve better than me,” was the first thing I could think to say.
“Impossible. There’s no one in this world I would rather be with.”
I smile and look away, trying to sort out my thoughts. “You’ve really thought this through, haven’t you?”
He nods, still not taking his eyes off of me.
“And you’re sure?”
He smiles and squeezes my hand a bit tighter. “More sure than I’ve ever been about anything else before.”
I was still hesitant for some reason. How could he trust me after that? I loved Harry more than anything, and the last thing I wanted was to hurt him again.
“Nicole,” he says, noticing my reluctance. “I regret a lot of things, but there’s nothing I regret more than letting you go. I miss you every single day, every single minute that I’m not by your side, and I’m done with it. I need you back in my life and whatever it takes to make that happen I’m willing to do.”
“I don’t want to hurt you again,” I admit as the first tear tumbles down my left cheek.
He smiles sadly and wipes away the water making its way down my face. “You could put me through hell, and I would still love you.”
“But I don’t want to put you through hell. You deserve to be happy. You deserve to have someone who would never betray you and-“
He cut me off with a kiss. It wasn’t like the kiss in the car earlier that day. No, this was better. It wasn’t quick or rushed. It was slow and beautiful. I missed him. All of him. And I wanted him back more than anything.
“I love you,” I tell him once we separate, unable to stop the smile from creeping up onto my face.
“Is that a yes?” He raises his eyebrows. I chuckle softly and nod.
“That’s a yes.”
If he’s crazy enough to take me back, bad history and all, then there’s no point in arguing. He’s made up his mind about me, and I’ve sure as hell made up my mind about him. We belong to each other, and it doesn’t matter what happens. That will never change.
I guess after all Jamie was right. Fate has its ways. I don’t know what the future will hold for me and Harry. I don’t know where our relationship will lead, but I do know one thing. We love each other, and through the past year I’ve learned that love is a powerful thing. Demanding, yes, but also powerful. It can make you forgive, forget, move on…It can give you hope in the darkest of times. It can take the saddest life and turn it happy. Love can do a lot of things if you take the chance. It’s like a puzzle almost. It’s confusing and frustrating. Sometimes you can’t figure it out, and sometimes people just give up. But if you stick around through the mistakes and persevere to the end, when you finally find a place for all the pieces, it’s a beautiful thing.
In my case, I didn’t have to look for love. It found me all on its own. Maybe one day I’ll tell my kids about the foster girl that fell in love, but until then I can enjoy it. Just me and Harry and a lot of time to kill.
And I honestly don’t think it could get much better.
AUTHORS NOTE
this is the final chapter of The Foster Girl :'( I literally am so upset that it's over. This book is longer than most of my others and I just can't part with it. I really loved writing this (more than the others I'm currently writing). This story was like my baby and now I'm sending it away and I CANT HANDLE THIS OKAY. There's still the epilogue to look forward to, but I first want to thank every single one of you for reading this from beginning to end. And for anyone who ever voted or commented or even recommended my story to someone else, thank you so much. You have no idea how appreciative I am. You guys always say such nice things about my writing and it seriously makes my day ten times better<3 Some of you actually vote and comment on every single chapter and don't think I don't notice ;) you're my favorites. but truthfully, this has been so much fun to figure out, especially with all of you to help me along the way :) I never would've finished this book without you. I don't do sequels, so there will not be a second book to this, but if you want more of my writing there's plenty of it on my profile. I have like a gazillion books and I wouldn't mind a few extra reads xD i've said it a thousand times before and I'll say it again, I love you all so much and thank you a ton for reading The Foster Girl<3 it's been a pleasure :) x