I awoke in a sharply sterile white hospital room, the linens incredibly soft against my skin. This wasn't a normal hospital room, and it seemed like I was in a private room with state of the art tech surrounding me.
Something was wrong.
I'd tripped on a treadmill in the gym, Malcolm had spotted me and called for help. Sure I blacked out but that was from hitting my head too hard on the equipment, right?
And then my heart stuttered lightly in my chest and I remembered. No, I wasn't just in here because of slipping in the gym.
Then why was I in such an expensive part of the hospital? A ball of dread settled in my stomach as I weighed out the options of what had happened.
Amalia would have been notified, as she was not only my emergency contact, but Malcolm would have called her immediately.
When the doctors figured out I'd made an appointment for heart issues, would she have called my family? My mother...
She would've paid for me to be transferred to this section of the hospital, that much I was sure of. I really didn't have it in me to deal with her in that moment, which was why I was glad that when I hit the nurse call button, an orderly came in immediately, followed by a greying doctor with knowledge lining the creases in his weathered face.
"Miss Montgomery, you gave your friends and family quite a scare. How are you feeling?"
My throat was scratchy but I forced out a measly, "Fine."
"Good. Now normally we wouldn't have gone to such trouble to bring you back here, but you didn't wake up for quite some time, so we brought you back here and did a few scans of your heart while you were asleep since in your chart it shows you were having some trouble with it. We found something a bit concerning."
I waited for him to elaborate.
"Mitral regurgitation and signs of atrial tachycardia were present in your echocardiogram. Now, while it all looks mild we are going to start you on a restricted diet and exercise program and some medication to see if we can manage it properly. You're going to need to wear a monitor for about a week to make sure there's nothing else we're missing and you'll need to be discharged in the care of someone who can wait on you diligently, a family member or close friend but from the looks of the waiting room it doesn't seem like you'll be in want of caretakers."
My face flushed with the news I'd ben given. Mitral....atrial what? I had heart problems. Was it going to kill me? Was I going to die?
An electrifying sense of dread zipped through me.
"Am I going to die?"
His face grew serious and grim.
"Most patients with this early diagnosis go on to live a long and healthy life if treated properly. Everyone has something wrong with them, medically, and considering the rest of your tests you are otherwise a very healthy twenty-one year old. According to your roommate you hardly drink, don't do drugs or smoke. I think you'll be able to manage with well with medication but we want to run as many tests as possible. Now, as I've discussed your condition with you, do you consent to me filling in your parents on this as well?"
I didn't even look him in the eye, I knew they'd be in the waiting room. Of course they would be.
"Who all is out there?"
His face paled.
"Uh, well...there's a roommate, a brother, your two parents and a friend of the family...but not everyone who has visited has stayed the entire time so I'm not sure who all is out there this very moment."
"Okay, you can tell them what you've just told me."
"Great. I'll let them know and then they'll come in to visit you, if that's alright?"
I sighed.
"Yes, that's fine."
I didn't have to wait long, probably half a minute, before the doors swung open and my mother was standing before me. Flashes of our conversations and fights flooded me but I didn't have it in me to fight her anymore.
Maybe it was time to forgive her? To use this medical crisis to come to terms with the fact that we are completely different people. I needed to let go of the hate I had for her in my heart...maybe that was what was poisoning my system, all the hate and anger in my system.
"My baby..."
"Hi mom."
Her wistful eyes filled me up with pain and old torment, the old wounds opening up and a flash of rage tilted my entire world on its axis. No, it was too soon.
"Dad."
He scooped me up into a hug, careful of my IV's sticking out of my arms and his hug was healing and powerful.
Lucas trailed behind him and while I was still harboring resentment against him from the words he'd said to me out of anger, I hugged him as well. I didn't know if I could forgive him yet, like my mother, but this was a start.
Amalia wheeled herself over to my bed and grasped my hand within hers. Her touch was more comforting than my entire parent's combined.
"We barely registered what the doctor was saying, we were just dying to get back here to see you," my mother said.
I fought the urge to roll my eyes.
"Yes, but we heard that you would have to stay with someone for at least a week to make sure that there's nothing else wrong with your heart while they monitor you. I told the nurses to print off the new diet and exercise program for you as well, oh and we got in contact with Harvard and student services reassured me that your classmates were taking your notes and that should you fall behind you can always retake your current classes over the summer."
That was my mom, all business, no heart. I sighed in surrender, knowing that I would be at the mercy of her whims for the rest of the time that she'd be in town. I was counting down the seconds until she left.
My blood pressure cuff decided to start tightening then, and I waited patiently until it squeezed the life out of me before finally releasing, but once it did, the machine started beeping like crazy. I grew lightheaded as a few nurses ran into the room.
"Okay, let's clear out people. You're all stressing her out too much, her blood pressure is off the charts. Do you take anything for anxiety? Your levels weren't like this an hour ago, but then again you were also passed out the last time your vitals were taken."
"No, I'm not but I used to be," I said as I looked down, remembering my mom flushing my pills down the sink.
'No daughter of mine will have a substance abuse problem,' I remembered her telling me with such vehemence that I wondered if addiction ran in the family.
I'd never had a problem with alcohol, but then, I'd never really enjoyed the taste it left in my mouth and I'd hardly ever been drunk before, so it wasn't like I craved the sensations it could give me.
"Okay I'm going to order you some Alprazolam and maybe that will help you calm down, but until then I need the room clear."
My family shot me confused and concerned glances.
"I'll be fine. I'm apparently in the most expensive part of the hospital anyway."
My parents exchanged guilty glances. I wondered what that was about.
"How about some TV for you?"
Before I could protest, she turned the channel and the Super Bowl was on, or maybe it was highlights from the game? I couldn't tell if it was in real time or a playback in that moment.
"Here comes Scott out onto the field. A rookie and his very first game, he looks like he is in the zone. When you watch his warmups, it looked like he was ready to do some serious damage. Let's see how he handles this play."
The ball snapped and Emmett effortlessly chucked the football in a gorgeous spiral to the wide receiver who caught it as if it was meant to land in his fingertips. The crowd was deafening as the Carolina Panthers couldn't touch number forty-seven and ran home what appeared to be the final touchdown of the night as there were only a few seconds left in the game, and that score had put them ahead of their rival team by seven points as they scored their field goal.
Twenty-four to thirty one, the Patriots had won the super bowl, and Emmett officially was going to be cemented in football history as the first rookie quarterback to ever start in the super bowl and take his team to victory.
The announcers were going crazy for him, laughing and slamming their palms down on the table in front of them as their eyes grew in bewilderment.
I reached for the remote just as Emmett was being interviewed in the clips after the game was over and I realized that the clips had in fact, been playbacks and not the actual live game.
If the super bowl had already occurred earlier that night, and I had passed out with three days to go, that meant I'd been unconscious for a little over three days. I had missed so much...
I pulled my phone close to me and tugged it loose from the charger cord that it was attached to on my rolling end table and was surprised at the amount of texts and calls I'd received.
Everything came crashing down on me.
The texts were from multiple different people- Reed, Lucas, Amalia, Malcolm, but most were from my parents assuring me that they were on their way to come and get me.
The rest were texts from previous classmates as well as current, all asking me when I'd met Emmett Scott. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion as I pulled my attention back to the small screen in front of me that was buzzing with intermediate static.
He was growing impatient with the people asking him question after question, and in the press room after the game was over, while every other guy was easygoing and laidback, he looked as if he was gritting his teeth underneath that white football cap that looked so tantalizingly gorgeous on him.
Hooded eyes, you couldn't really tell if he was scowling but when a reporter asked why he didn't look happy even though he'd just won the Super Bowl, his answer shocked me to my core.
"I am extremely happy, my thoughts are just...with someone else right now."
"Oh, would that have something to do with your breakup with singer Sofia Renault?"
Breakup? Since when?
"Actually no."
"Did her cheating on you with previous boyfriend Tyler Reed impact your ability to play?"
His mouth tweaked up on the left side of his mouth and I was more than confused at this reaction. What the hell?
"Not at all. We won, didn't we?"
That seemed to fluster the reporter but then finally moved on to the other players, focusing more on the wide receiver and I watched as he tapped his fingers on the table until the conference was over.
He bolted from the table as soon as it was done and I checked my phone once more to see why so many people were interested in my previous relationship with him.
My face paled as I read the articles leading up to the Super Bowl.
Emmett Scott: How Sofia Renault Broke Superstar Football Player's Heart
Who Is Lydia Montgomery? Is She The Reason For Sofia/Emmett breakup?
Is Emmia Officially Done?
I gagged at the couple name the previous article had created and rolled my eyes at some of the outlandish tales were being spewed that involved me, but thankfully none mentioned my near brush with death.
I wondered if Lucas had mentioned my hospital stay to Emmett, and if he would come to visit now that the titular game was officially over...
Two nurses finally came in the room with a needle filled with a liquid and placed it into my IV line, and the effects were almost immediate.
My arm started burning and my limbs grew heavy as I suddenly smelled a strong scent of pennies. Was that normal?
Yes, the nurse said it was normal, it was just the medicine going into my system.
"Can you believe Emmett Scott was here two nights ago? And they just won the Super Bowl and I heard he's going to win the MVP award too! I wonder who this girl is..."
"Oh I know, and he is seriously so gorgeous. She must be important, he wouldn't leave her side until his manager and his coach came and basically tore him away from her."
"Wow, imagine being loved by someone that hot."
The nurses thought I was asleep but my eyes were just closed and I was floating on a cloud of anti anxiety medicine. He'd come for me...and if his actions at the press conference were any indication of his future behavior, he was going to come back for me.
I fell asleep with a smile on my face, knowing that my man was finally coming to get me.