Page 77 of Under Their Protection

“Yes. That’s me,” I say.

“The surgeon wanted me to give a quick update since you were left not knowing her condition. They did get her pulse back shortly after arrival. She woke up for just a moment before she was sedated. They are giving her blood since she lost so much and she’s in surgery right now. The surgeon is Dr. Mitch O’Brien. He said that she is still critical but if she can get through surgery she will have a high chance to pull through,” she explains.

“Do you know how bad the damage is?”

“I know blood loss is the biggest issue. They need to get the bleeding stopped so they can start repairing. Once he does that she should stabilize,” she tells me. “I will come periodically to give an update but no update is still an update. It means we are still working with her, okay?”

“Okay. Thank you,” I sigh. She nods and walks out. Behind her are Anika’s parents and sister.

“No. Get the fuck out!” Mia shouts.

“We just want to know if she is okay,” her mom says softly.

“This is your fucking fault,” Mia yells at her. “None of this would be happening if you hadn’t been a shitty fucking mother. You should have protected her.”

“I did care about her,” she frowns.

“No, you didn’t. She was disposable to you. All you did was take from her. You didn’t give a fuck about her. You let your husband get by with trying to rape his own daughter. He made her touch him and your whore of a daughter covered for him,” Mia says as she starts to cry.

“Is she okay?” Harper asks me.

“No. He fucking shot her, Harper. She died in that ambulance because of whatyoudid. You let him do this to her. If she dies in surgery, it’s your fault. No one wants any of you here,” I snap at her.

“Is he dead?” she asks.

“Yes. Theo shot him in the head. Any more questions?” I ask with venom in my tone.

“Can you tell her we came?” her Dad asks.

“If she lives,” Max deadpans. “Get the fuck out or I’m calling security.”

“We are her family,” her mother says tearfully.

“No. I am her family,” I say, raising my voice. “Everyone in this room is her family. Me, Theo, and Max love her more than anything in this world and will spend the rest of our lives showing her how fucking special she is.Miais her sister. That woman is her mother now.Not you.Annie, Andrew, and Emma are her family. You arenothingto her. Get the fuck out or I will remove you myself.”

Max pulls his phone out to call hospital security and Harper is the first to break. “Let’s just go,” she says to her parents. She then pushes her parents out of the waiting room.

We all spend the next several hours with no update. We all are restless and take turns pacing the room. Mom forces us to eat but I think she’s just trying to focus on us so she doesn’t fall apart herself. I’ve never seen her pray until today and that’s half of what she's beendoing.

Max finally gets Mia to sleep. She was going through cycles of falling into panic attacks and then anger.

“Mr. Garcia?” a man says as he comes into the room. He is wearing scrubs and a surgical cap. With him is the woman from earlier.

Everyone shoots up from their seats. “Yes,” I say.

“I am Dr. O’Brien. Anika is out of surgery. We have her settled in a room and off sedation, so she should wake soon. She lost a lot of blood but we fortunately found the source of the bleeding. She’s going to need to stay for at least today since she lost so much blood, but she’s going to be just fine,” he says.

“Oh, God. Thank you so much,” I say with a relieved sigh. “Can we go see her?”

“Yeah. All I ask is to not overwhelm her. She’s been through a lot in the last few hours so she needs to rest. I did see that the police told us that she has a restraining order against her parents and her sister, is that correct?”

“Yes. They showed up earlier but we did get rid of them. Emma is her lawyer and has made calls about that so hopefully they won’t show back up again,” I say.

“We will let security know. Anika is in room 343. It’s not technically visiting hours so just keep quiet, okay?” he asks.

“Thank you so much,” Mia says tearfully.

“Are you Mia?” he asks.

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