The rest of that night was a blur. One moment I was holding Levi in my arms. The next moment I was laying on the ground with a screaming Coraline looking down at me and an anxious Tina pacing back and forth on the phone. At a certain moment I called out for Levi, which seemed to have made Coraline lose it even more. And then the next moment I opened my eyes again I was in an ambulance.
Every once in a while I could hear voices. Nurses, doctors, Coraline, Terrence, Tina, Oliver... But there was one voice that I really wanted to hear, and I wasn't hearing it. Their voices faded in and out of my head.
"We need to stop the bleeding as fast as possible!"
"How is she still alive after that?"
"Levi's car is messed up. What a shame, it was such a sweet car..."
"The blood transfusion was a success."
"Oh my God, Scarlett can't die like this!!"
"She's not going to die."
"Why isn't she awake yet?!"
"What about Levi? Is he okay?"
Eventually I opened my eyes again. I was laying on a hospital bed this time. My body was in an immense amount of pain.
"Scarlett!" Coraline's voice echoed.
I noticed that I had an oxygen mask on. I wanted to smile and tell her I was okay. I didn't want her to lose another baby because she was worried about me. I wanted to talk to Tina and cheer her on with Oliver. But I barely had the strength to keep my eyes open.
"Scar, wait, don't close your eyes," Tina's voice said.
But it was too late. I was back into a dark, unfamiliar world of unconsciousness.
"She's going to be fine."
"What is he doing here?"
"You need to get out of here."
"Who is he?"
"She's still my wife. I need to be with her."
Colt? Was that really him? No matter how out of it I was, I could easily recognize his voice. But this time I had to concentrate extra to know whether he was truly worried about me or not. Was Carly with him? I didn't want her breathing the same air as my actual best friends.
"Scarlett, are you alright? I miss you so much."
"Now you miss her?"
"Can I be alone with her, please?"
"Over my dead body. I'm not leaving her alone with you."
I was gone again. The next time I was conscious the room was silent. I glanced around the room slowly. I saw two figures, but they were standing too far away from me. They were speaking in hushed tones.
I tried turning my head to look at them, but my neck was in a cast, making it hard for me to move at all. But at least I was able to lift my hands up a bit. The two people ran up to my bed. They were Tina and Oliver.
"Scar! You're awake!" Tina said, tears streaming down her face, "Can you talk? How are you? Gosh, I'm so glad you're okay..."
"You gave us quite a scare," Oliver remarked, and then to Tina, "I don't think she can talk yet."
"Damn..." She held my hand gently. "I've missed you so much. Coraline is worried sick about you. You better recover soon."
I didn't have the strength to tell her what I wanted to, so I tried smiling at her. I had to ask her about Levi, no matter how shitty I was feeling. I opened my mouth slightly and said Levi's name. Tina's smile that followed was a good sign.
"He was in the ICU, but he's doing better now," Oliver told me.
I nodded and closed my eyes again. Levi was alive. That was all I needed to know.
I seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep after that. But it was just what I needed. When I woke up again, I had more energy than before. And this time Coraline and Terrence were there with Colt. Colt was standing next to my bed holding my hand.
"Scarlett..." he breathed relieved. I pulled my hand away from him. "Fair enough."
"Scarlett!" Coraline appeared next to Colt. "How are you doing?"
I nodded at her slowly.
"I'm so glad you're okay," she said, wiping her tears away.
I caught the look in Colt's eyes when I grabbed Coraline's hand instead of his. He didn't like it.
"How... is... Levi?" I asked her. My voice sounded terribly hoarse.
"He's stable now," she said, "I'm sure if he was conscious right now he would have also asked for you."
"What... happened?"
"Some idiot crashed into you guys and caused you to crash into another car," Terrence said, "He or she drove off after causing the accident. It was a hit-and-run."
"Do you remember anything?" Colt asked me, "How the car looked like or anything at all? I'll make sure that guy never gets out of prison for what he did."
I shook my head slowly. By the time the accident happened, the airbags were impeding me from seeing anything.
"Damn it," Colt hissed.
"The most important thing now is that you need to get plenty of rest," Coraline said, "You hit your head pretty hard. You had a concussion for a long time."
That explained a lot.
"I... want to... see Levi," I brought out.
"I know honey," Coraline said with a frown on her face, "It's going to take a bit more before you can see him."
I looked at Colt now. "What are you... doing here?"
"I'm still your husband, legally," he responded, "Even if I wasn't, I would still be here."
I looked away from him. "Carly?" I asked.
"I told her what happened. She's not sure if she should come or not." He sighed. "She doesn't think that you would want to see her. Do you?"
I shook my head. She was the last person that I wanted to see right now.
"Okay then," he said simply.
"I'm going to go check on Levi," Terrence told Coraline.
She nodded in reply. Seconds later it was just us three in the room.
"In which room is her boyfriend staying?" Colt asked Coraline.
She gave him a suspicious look. "Why would you want to know that?"
Colt shrugged. "I have something to say to him."
"He's not responsive right now."
I glared at Colt. If he was thinking of doing something to Levi, I wasn't going to let him. I grabbed his hand as tightly as I could.
"Stay... away... from him," I said.
Colt pulled his hand away from me and gave me a cold stare. "What, you think I'm going to do something to him?"
"Yes," I said simply.
The corner of his lips twitched. "Fine, then I'm staying here."
"Fine..."
What was he plotting? Or was I just overthinking things?
I was in and out of sleep a few more times. Soon enough they could remove my oxygen mask and I was able to sit on my bed. I could move my arms more, and sometimes I would do some exercises for my legs so that they wouldn't get too stiff.
Despite Colt's constant visits, I had to admit that he was doing his best to help me out. When I was still bedridden, he would cut some fruits and feed them to me. Now that I could move a bit more, he would tell me about things that happened in the outside world, specifically things that were in the news. It was the only way I could keep up with what day it was. He avoided to give me too much negative information, but he told me the important things. Colt never spoke of Carly unless I brought her name up. No, I couldn't simply forgive him for what he did to me. But I had to give the man credit for being there for me.
The only drawback I had with being so much with Colt was that I was craving Levi's presence.
"Hey Colt," I asked him one time when it was just the two of us, "When is the divorce going to be finalized?"
Colt glanced down at his phone to avoid looking at me. "I don't know."
"How long has it been since we signed those papers?"
"Four or five months, I guess."
"It should be soon then..."
Colt sighed frustrated. "Do you want to leave me that badly?"
"We've had this talk a million times," I said, rolling my eyes.
"I won't stop asking you either."
"It just... wasn't meant to be, Colt," I said, looking outside the window right next to me, "I can't forgive you for cheating on me, especially on Carly. But I'm so sick of saying this every time. We've both moved on."
"We've only been married for two years," he argued.
"You should have thought about that before you cheated on me."
Colt nodded. "You're right..."
"You agree with me? What the heck?" I replied in a mock-shocked tone.
He cracked a smile. "Funny. I'm just saying... I'm thinking of breaking up with Carly."
Oh hell no, he wasn't doing what I think he was doing...
"No, you won't," I said after sighing, "We all know you won't."
Colt raised an eyebrow. "What makes you so sure I won't leave her?"
"You had years to do that. Now that I'm leaving you're using that as a plot to keep me with you. I'm not stupid, Colt. You were messing with her from the start of our relationship."
He was taken aback by this. "What... What are you talking about?" he stammered.
I was about to tell him that I hired a private investigator to find out all of his secrets, but I decided against it. If I told him that, he would definitely take it out on Levi. I wouldn't be there to protect him if Colt were to hurt him.
"Am I wrong?" I asked.
"Of course you're wrong."
Wow, he lied to me with such confidence... I gave him an incredulous look.
"So if I call Carly up right now, she's going to say that I'm wrong as well, right?" I prodded further.
Colt crossed his arms. He always did that when he felt powerless and tried to hide it. "Go ahead."
"Fine." I grabbed my phone on the table next to me. I started dialing a random number until I realized that I had forgotten Carly's number. I stopped to look at him. "What's the point in doing this? She was the one who told me about it."
Colt looked annoyed now. "Is that so?"
"She sent me a long text after I found you two together," I said, "I don't understand why you just can't be honest with me. I trusted you."
He tried recomposing himself, but it wasn't working. He was so mad that he couldn't speak.
"You don't have to get mad at her about it," I told him simply, "I was going to find out sooner or later. You can't hide something from someone you're living with. You changed your phone's passcode. That 'tomato sauce' too... It was obviously lipstick. I knew something was up." I looked right into his eyes. "You're arrogant, manipulative, and you think that you can always get what you want. Now do you understand why I can't stay married to you?"
"But I love you," he tried, "Why can't we just start over?"
"Because I've stopped loving you."
The words I said hit him like a truck. He turned completely pale. He backed off and left the room without saying goodbye. Strange. Although I was sitting on a hospital bed, this was the strongest I've ever felt. Colt couldn't keep up his façade anymore. He knew that I knew the truth. It didn't matter how I found out. What mattered was that I should have heard it from Colt himself, not from Carly or Levi. My husband should have been honest to me.
In fact, if he was messing around since our high school days, he should have never asked me to marry him.
That same night I decided to call the police up. I told them everything, starting from the creepy text messages to the silent calls. And of course, I told them about the car accident. About an hour after my call I got a visit from two detectives. Tina was with me at that moment, so I asked her if she could wait outside until I was done talking to them.
Tina had no idea I was being followed and harassed at all. Coraline knew a bit about it, but she didn't know that it was the text that lead to the accident.
"So you're saying that it was the person who sent you the text that caused the accident?" the female detective asked me.
"Yes," I said, "We were getting calls all night long. And we got one text that proved that the stalker saw us go into the movie theatre." I gave the male detective my cellphone with the text. "See? It couldn't have been by chance. And then there was this text that happened seconds before the hit-and-run." I showed them the text with the word 'Boo'.
"Would you mind if we kept your phone for a while?" the male detective asked, "We're going to trace the call and find out who this person is."
"Sure."
"Do you have any people who have a grudge against you for some reason or another?" the woman asked me.
I thought about it for a moment. I wanted to be as compliant as possible with this investigation. Both mine and Levi's lives were on the line.
"I... suppose so, but I don't think..." I felt uneasy all of a sudden. "I'm... in the middle of a divorce. I caught my husband cheating with my best friend. I don't think Carly could do something like that though..."
"Carly? Her surname?"
"Carly Gomez," I stated. I watched the male detective scribble her name down.
"And your husband's name is...?" he asked me.
I frowned. "No, Colt wouldn't do that... He's heartless, but he's not crazy."
"Colt? Colt Winchester?"
I gave him a surprised look. "Yeah, do you know him?"
"The real estate guy, right?"
"Yeah, that's him..."
The male detective nodded. "He helped my daughter get her first house. My daughter was his last client. I heard he quit being a real estate agent last year."
WHAT?!?