Page 60 of Between Passion and Revenge: Part One

One by one, faces come into view.

“Mom? Dad? Ezra?” My parents and my roommates stand around my bed, all looking strung out and terrified. “What happened?” I croak.

My throat doesnotfeel great.

“Where am I?”

“St.Helene Hospital,” Mama says. Her mouth twitches, her chin trembling. But I’m distracted because?—

“Why am I in the hospital? And—St.Helene is….”

Expensive. St.Helene is an expensive hospital with some of the best doctors in the country, and I know my student health insurance would not pop for a place like this.

I can’t even choose my primary care physician under my plan.

My eyebrows slam down when Yenn releases a wail, and I turn in time to see her fall into Ezra’s arms.

It hits me.

“Oh my god, Yenn… Your dad?” I try to sit up, but that causes the world to tilt. I was so drunk last night. Did I get alcohol poisoning? I try to shake my head, but Yenn turns from Ezra and faces me.

“My dad is going to be fine. He has a stent now, but he’s already back answering emails.” The smile she gives me wobbles on her face. “I’m so sorry, Shae.”

She turns back to Ezra, and confusion causes panic to mount.

I glance between Yenn and Ezra, my throat tight. “Sorry? For what?” My voice is hoarse, raw like I’ve been shouting. The sudden beeping from a machine behind my head causes me to snap my gaze in the direction of the sound.

The resulting pain has me shouting.

At once, a nurse enters the room, pressing a button to silence the alarm, but Mom’s in the way, rubbing my head and pressing a firm hand over my heart at the same time.

“Breathe, baby. You’re okay. You’re okay,” she says. It sounds like she’s saying the words more to herself than to me. The nurse says something, but the only word I catch is “doctor.”

“Shae, you had…a fall.” Ezra’s the one to deliver this news. Yenn faces me again, and I don’t think I’ve seen her this distraught…ever.

“A fall?” My memory feels scattered, shards of last night slipping away the more I try to piece them together. “Oh, no. Alcohol plus too high shoes…did I trip or something?” I grabMama’s hand, lacing her fingers with mine in the way she always does with me.

Yenn’s lip trembles, but she forces a smile. “Something like that. You hit your head, and… you needed some help getting here. But….”

The energy in the room changes, tenses.

“But what?” I say. Dread bubbles up as I try to breathe.

“Someone drugged you, Shae.” This comes from Daddy, and he looks so furious that I begin to shake. My hand goes to my stomach, and I look down at my lap, searching….

“Yenn—” I choke out, and she takes a step toward me, hugging me close.

“Not that. That didn’t happen,” she whispers in my ear.Not thatmeaning…I wasn’t date raped.

But I was…drugged?

My dad grips the railing at the foot of the bed. “You’re lucky that Storm kid was there to bring you to the hospital.” His voice is steady, firm, and reassuring.

The mention of his name is like a bomb going off in my already overworked synapses.

Storm.

Storm was with me.

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