Evelyn
"I'm so glad you came," Isabel said to me as I walked into the hospital waiting room. Her arms enveloped me in a strong embrace. Her lavender perfume invaded my nostrils as my cheek came flush against the her scratchy maroon sweater.
I felt comforted in Jackson's mom's embrace. In the time Jackson I were together, his mom and I became close. She called me the daughter she had always wanted after a month of us officially dating. We regularly went to dinner together, shopped with each other, and talked to one another regularly. She became like a second mother to me.
When Jackson cheated on me and I ended it, having the demise of her and my relationship was something that made it even harder, but she never blamed me once. I wanted to remain in touch with her, but I knew it would just make things worse, so we hadn't spoke for the past few months.
"How is he," I asked as I pulled away, shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot.
"He still is in a coma. They are hopeful he will regain consciousness soon, but there's really no way to tell at this time," she said her already red rimmed eyes beginning to water again.
"Wh-What happened," I asked looking down at the ground, seeing her tear up would only make me do the same.
"Someone broke into his apartment," she said shock clearly registering in her voice. Jackson lived in a good part of town, so it was shocking,"her voice became shaky at the end of her sentence. Her eyes looked off into the distance for a few moments, clearly trying to hold her emotions in so she could speak to me. "The worst part of it is, is they took nothing. It seemed their plan was to attack my Jackson, but why? It makes no sense! I know he has made mistakes in his life, but no one hates his enough to do this. I just don't understand," she shrieked, her emotions bubbling over.
I wrapped my arms around her and let her sob onto my shoulder while I gently stroked her back until she could regain her composure.
What Isabel said was true, no one hated Jackson enough to do this. He was dishonest, but nothing that would cause someone to want to try and hurt, nearly kill him.
"I'm so sorry," Isabel said, leaving my now damp shoulder and dabbing her eyes and nose with a tissue she withdrew from her pocket.
"Don't apologize, you have every right to be upset," I told her. "Do the police have any leads?"
"Unfortunately no, whoever it was left no trace."
Liam
I could feel ever fiber of my being flare with anger as I looked at the dot showing Evie's location flashing at the hospital. Not just any hospital, no, the hospital where he was. He wasn't even supposed to be in the hospital, he should've been dead. If it weren't for that pizza delivery boy, I would be rid of my problem.
2 days ago...
It wasn't hard to track Jackson down, the man posted his whole life on social media, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, you name it there was a post by post recount of his day.
Can't get through my day without my morning coffee from @Cora'sCoffeeShack. - Facebook
Followed by mindless sports retweets, a few likes of posts on Facebook and then a photo of a salad he had for lunch posted to his Instagram tagging where he bought it and bragging about it being "the most delicious salsa he ever ate."
How original you are Jackson, what Evie saw in you I will never understand.
Then, a picture of his face looking quizzically off into the distance posted again to his accounts with the caption, "When you the boss says you can leave early an hour early for the day and your trying to decide if it's a joke."
His lack of word choice and originality almost made me feel like I was losing brain cells, but that's the picture that helped lead me to him. Silly Jackson, don't you know tagging your location in a picture can be dangerous?
I left my office early, luckily my patients for the rest of the day were easy to reschedule and had my assistant get on it so that I could get out and to Jackson's work quickly.
I waited in my car on the opposite side of his worksite. He came out talking on the phone. I ground my teeth in anger, thinking it was Evie he tried to contact yet again. I checked my phone quickly to see that she had not received any calls on hers. The tension briefly left my body as I let out my breath and began to follow him.
His apartment was in the nicer part of town and had a doorman, that I knew I would need to get around. I watched as Jackson pulled into the parking garage of the building and out of site.
Evie had lived here with him for a short amount of time. I recognized the building from pictures he had taken when they first moved in together. The post contained pictures of the outside of the building, in front of their door 6B, and the inside of their quaint apartment. My blood boiled at the thought of her living with another man, it flowed through my vines like lava trying to make its escape.
I made my way up to the main entrance, towards the doorman, thinking of what I would say when I reached him, but when I arrived at my destination he held the door open for me and in I walked, scoffing in surprise and disappointment. The money he paid to live her and there was no security at all. It made my stomach sick to think Evie had once lived in this inferior unsafe place she deemed home at one time. I unclenched the fists that I hadn't realized I had formed and walked over to the elevator and made my descent up to floor six.
As the elevator dinged and the doors opened my heart began to fill light and my body began to take a mind of its own as I made my way up to his door.
I knocked three times and from inside I could hear him yell, "Just a minute," and then opened the door with money in his hand. His brows came together in confusion as he took me in before he smiled and said, "Sorry, I thought you were the pizza guy. Can I help you?"
My lips twitched and widened into a smirk, "Oh yes, yes you can."
Again, his brows came together in confusion as I punched him square in the face and pushed my way in, slamming the door behind me. I blacked out after that, what woke me from my blackout was the loud pounding at the door and a boy yelling from the other side, "Gino's Pizza delivery."
I looked down at Jackson, his face was nearly unrecognizable. Blood coated the kitchen floor and my fists, along with the decorative stone decoration that I had grabbed from the counter to use during the attack. He hardly put up a fight, he never would've been able to protect Evie like I could.
Suddenly the door opened and the squeaky voice of the teenage boy cam, "Hey man, I've been knocking for like five minutes." I quickly pulled my hat down low and threw my hood back over my head as an Audible, "Holy suit," escaped the boys throat followed by the loop of the pizza falling from his hands. I pushed past him, knocking him onto the bloody floor and raced out of the building. I was gone before the boy even had a chance to tell 911 what had happened.
Evelyn
I sighed as I used my body to push my apartment door closed behind me. It had been a long day. It was now midnight and I was drained. I spent the entire day at the hospital with Isabel, most of it in the waiting room lobby with her. Isabel did insist I go see him, and I tried to refused but my heart and her pleading words compelled me to. His face was nearly all bandaged up, but below it you could see dark purple bruises.
My heart aches and tears sprung into my eyes. Who did this to him and why, was all I could think my whole ride home.
I had already called off for the next day, when I called in to work this morning I told Dean I wouldn't be in due to a family emergency to which he completely understood, but I knew that there would be nothing but hell to pay from his father when I returned, no excuse was good enough for him, especially when he found out it wasn't actual family, I'd have a lot of ass kissing to do to make up for it.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out to see Liam's name and a message pop up on the screen.
I closed my eyes and sighed. He had tried to get a hold of me a few times throughout the day, but I hadn't the energy to message him back, and had no urge to try to explain myself tonight, so it looked like it would be a problem for future Evie I thought as I walked to my room.
I quickly readied myself for bed and crawled beneath the covers, and instantly fell asleep.
Liam
The door made the slightest click as I entered the apartment. Silence filled my ears. I quietly made my way to her door and pushed it open.
There she lay, hair a mess around her, creating a halo around her. One leg was poked out from under the covers and dangled over the bed.
Her chest gently rose up and down and air escaped from her perfect mouth.
I stood staring at her like that for a few minutes, my presence oblivious to her.
The anger that had drove me here had quickly dissipated when I saw her. I had planned on taking her tonight. After he shenanigans of going to see him and ignoring me all day I had had enough. I was going to take what was mine home and that was going to be the end of it, but seeing her peacefully asleep now like an angel I couldn't bring myself to do it.
I walked over and brought my lips down to her head and gently placed them there before pulling away, "Last chance Evie," I whispered before I turned on my heels and exited her apartment.
Sorry it's been a little bit since an update! Thanksgiving holidays kept me busy! Hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving! 😘
What did you think of this chapter? Liam is really starting to lose his cool!
What do you think last chance means? What do you think Liam is going to do? All I can say is you definitely won't see it coming!
We are starting to get to the really big plot of this book! It is going to need up being a pretty long book once it's finished and I can't wait to get to the next big plot point, which will be very very soon!
Again, thank you to all of you that are reading!!
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