Page 70 of Captivated

“God, I missed you, Mom,” I cry, reaching for her as we hug and squeeze as tightly as my pain will allow.

“Pfeiffer,” my father says breathlessly, standing to my side, studying me like I’m not real and may vanish right before his eyes. “I’m so glad you’re okay, sweetheart. My God, if they would have succeeded…” he trails off and I interrupt him.

“It was the Montevallo’s, wasn’t it?” I ask, wiping tears from my cheeks and admitting what I knew in my heart and filling in the gaps.

“Yes. They sent one of their thugs to do their dirty work. Cash has filled us in on what he knows. He also said it was the man that ran into you in the hospital that day when he brought you coffee.” The hairs on my arms stand tall, accepting that my intuition was telling me that day that something was off, but I didn’t listen.

“I know. I saw his face before he shot me.”

“There’s more,” my mother says, turning to my father.

“Okay. But can I get some pain meds before you keep going?” I wince as the adrenaline subsides in my body and the pain comes on strong. I reach for the button on my remote, paging the nurse on call, hoping it’s someone I know.

“Well, look who’s awake…” Jess teases as she walks into my room, giving me a sly grin while reaching for the morphine drip.

“Hey, Jess.”

“How are you feeling?”

“I understand now why we give morphine to the GSW patients. This freaking hurts,” I chuckle.

“Yeah, hold on. I’ll make it all better in a second.” She injects a needle into the tube as the fluid burns while I feel it flow through my veins.

“Thank you,” I reply while closing my eyes, grateful for the reprieve.

“I’m glad you’re okay, Piper. I’ll come back later to catch up.” She leans down and gives me a hug, swiping under her eye before popping back up and nodding, exiting as quickly as she came in. Sleep threatens to overtake my body, but I desperately want to hear what my parents have to say.

“You said there was more?” My words are slightly slurred, but I’m still coherent enough to listen.

“Yes. Mason… well, Mason was found dead, darling.”

That makes my eyes pop open, sinking in the irony that I told everyone he was dead and then he actually turned out to be.

“Oh. Wow. Uh, what happened?”

“We don’t know, just that his body washed up on the shore of the Long Island Sound almost a week ago.”

“So if they killed him, why did they still come after me?” I struggle to adjust myself in the bed as my mom rises from her seat and fluffs my pillow, placing one behind my back as well.

“Because I wouldn’t pay his debt,” my father says through clenched teeth, and then his lips tremble. “It’s my fault you’re in this bed, sweetheart. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forgive myself.”

“Dad…”

He holds his hand up. “No, Pfeiffer. If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have been so far away from us. They wouldn’t have been so desperate to find you. I should never have sent you away, and now you can’t….”

His last two words make my head tilt in curiosity. “What, Dad? What can’t I do?”

My mother covers her mouth with her palm and my father just stands there.

“What happened? What’s wrong? Will someone please tell me…”

“Pfeiffer… there were complications from your wound, darling,” my mother starts, reaching for my hand. “The bullet went through many organs, honey, but most importantly… it ruptured your ovary and fallopian tube.”

And in that moment, my entire future flashes before my eyes—the visuals I saw of Cash and me one day, his strong arms holdingourchild as he bounced them around the room. They all fade to black.

“Oh, my God,” I whisper, covering my own mouth to prevent the scream I feel building from escaping.

“Pfeiffer, you still have one good ovary and fallopian tube… but conceiving may be difficult. There’s a chance it might not happen,” my mother mumbles through her tears as we both shudder from sobs, but my medical knowledge knows the reality of what I’m facing now.

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