Page 76 of Pretend for Me

“Look at me!” Bridget sneered, gripping her shoulders tighter. Charlie shook her head no. “I said look at me, dammit!” she demanded.

Holden walked closer. “Bee.”

“A long time ago, I was you—a confused and lost little girl. You need support. Stop pushing people away. Stop choosing what’s not choosing you. Stop self-destructing. You are worthy of love. Derek’s a horrible waste of space.Hedidn’t deserve you. Not the other way around,” Bridget barked. “But now you need to come clean and help. Help your friend. Your brother. They love you, and eventually, they will forgive you. But you have to do the right thing by turning Derek in, and you have to give them time.”

Bridget was wrong. I was not forgiving Charlotte. I felt terribly for what she endured when she was so young, and Derek had definitely taken advantage of her need for love and affection, but she was grown enough to know what she was doing was so fucked up. She had betrayed one of the few people who gave a shit about her unconditionally. She needed to take accountability for actions. Anger welled inside me. I fought the urge to go over and tell her what I thought of her all over again.

Charlie nodded, crying harder. “I know,” she choked out, “Will you come with me?”

I didn’t stick around to hear a response. I’d heard enough.

40

CASSIE

“Matthew?” I asked, hesitantly. I wiped my eyes from the dried-up tears that were stuck on my cheeks.

Audrey turned to Dr. Torres, peering at him with awe. I noticed the way she was looking at him and almost smiled.

Oh, Audrey, I thought, turning my attention to the doctor whom Matthew's fate depended on.

“Matthew has been moved up to a room in the ICU. We were finally able to stop the bleeding.” Dr. Torres paused, and I hung onto every word he said.

“His liver was severely damaged. The bullet thankfully had an exit wound, but because of the liver’s sinusoidal blood system, it was what we call a bleeder. Matthew needed multiple blood transfusions, and he did code once,” he continued, looking at me and making sure I was still with him.

“So he’s going to be okay?” I asked carefully, a little breathless. Tears of relief and joy streamed down my face.

I felt Audrey’s arm wrap around me, offering me support just in case Dr. Torres had bad news.

Dr. Torres sighed. “Well, we’re not out of the woods yet. In fact, it’s going to be tough for a while.”

I gasped and was about to speak when Dr. Torres raised his hand to stop me. “But, I’m feeling very good about his chances. He’s young. We were able to get him into surgery quickly. We placed him under a medically induced coma to give his body a chance to heal. We’ll start to wean him off the medicine over the next few hours, and we’ll know more about his recovery at that point.”

I exhaled, taking it all in. “Can I see him?”

The young doctor nodded. “He just got moved into his room, so you should be able to go up and visit with him shortly. Only one visitor at a time though. Also, I should warn you—we needed to give him extra morphine for the pain, so even when we do bring him out of the coma, he may be in and out of consciousness for a while,” Dr. Torres added, looking down at his clipboard. “He’s going to need a lot of support over the next several weeks. And I think it goes without saying, but absolutely no drinking. His liver is very delicate, and while it will heal, I don’t advise ingesting excessive amounts of alcohol.”

I nodded. Giving up alcohol for a while seemed like it was a small price to pay for being able to have years ahead of us.

“Thank you so much, Dr. Torres!” Audrey perked up, smiling from ear to ear.

“Thank you,” I breathed. All I wanted to do was see Matthew.

“All part of the job. And you can call me Henry.” He winked at Audrey and walked toward the nurses’ station.

I stoodin the doorway as the nurse finished checking Matthew’s vitals.

“You can come in, dear,” the nurse alerted me, stepping into the hallway.

But I was stuck. I was scared, terrified really. My mind kept replaying the events of the day, reminding me how differently things could have turned out.

How close I’d gotten to losing him today.

How one mistake almost ripped him from me again.

Fucking Charlie. I’d deal with her later.

I took a deep breath and stepped into the room. I sat down in the lounge chair beside Matthew’s bed. Looking at his hand, I had an internal war with myself over whether or not to touch him.

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