Page 69 of Honey Sugar
“Yes, that’s my mother. She’s…” I couldn’t make my mouth say the word dead. It sounded so final. It was how I’d have to refer to her for the rest of my life. She was dead. I couldn’t say she was busy. I couldn’t say she was out of town. My mother was dead. “She passed away.”
“I’m sorry to hear about that, Mr. Devereaux. I’ll treat you as the next emergency contact then. Sound good?”
“Yes, sir,” I nodded quickly.
“Ms. Marchand had a gastric lavage performed on her.”
“A stomach pump?” I quizzed.
“Yes, we emptied the contents of her stomach based on the questions you answered for the paramedics. It seems like she ingested Xanax pills in stages and not all at once so we were able to retrieve several of the pills she’d swallowed within the past half hour. She must have swallowed more for her to be passed out when you found her. Do you know if this behavior is typical for her?”
“It is. She hadn’t been taking the pills for a few weeks though.” The doctor opened his mouth to continue speaking but I held up my hand and cut him off. I needed to know if Ivy was awake and okay before I told him anything else. My mind was going crazy.
“I’m really trying to cooperate with you, sir but I need to know if she’s okay. I’m about to lose my damn mind.”
“I’m getting to that as soon as I can. I just need some questions to be answered for Ivy’s safety. Does she frequently take Xanax without a prescription?”
“She has a prescription,” I growled out the words. “She abuses it.”
“Okay. Is there any reason she would try to ingest such a lethal amount of pills? The bottle was empty with no other pills surrounding it, according to you. Right?” It was true. When the paramedics were trying to wake Ivy, they had me look to make sure there were no more Xanax pills. They also had me grab the Xanax pill bottle. It was a new prescription for thirty pills and it was empty as fuck. There were no pills hiding in the Tylenol either. “I’m going to have her evaluated by the psychiatrist and I’m putting her in a room so we can monitor her overnight. This is officially being treated as a suicide attempt. She’s awake and stable. Her stomach is upset and she’s groggy but other than that she’s fine. She’s been asking for you.”
Relief flooded my veins and I let out a breath I had no idea was trapped in my lungs. I nodded my head and stared at my hands clasped on top of the doctor’s desk. “Was she almost successful in her attempt?” I asked the doctor. He grew quiet and looked at me for a few beats.
“She was almost very successful. I’m glad you got to her in time and we were able to get the remaining pills out of her stomach before they broke down. We’ll likely give her Flumazenil to combat the overdose in her system and run labs throughout the night.” He walked with me to the triage room Ivy was in and pulled back the curtain.
When my eyes fell on her, relief quickly made way for anger. My heart found its way back to my chest and beat furiously. Everything inside of me was pissed at Ivy but dammit if I wasn’t happy to see those green eyes staring back at me.
…
CHAPTER TWELVE
My throat was on fire and my head was swimming. I wanted to vomit but I knew nothing would come out. The nurses told me I had my stomach pumped and I was scared shitless. I thought that would be the worst part of waking up in the hospital surrounded by people I didn’t know.
It wasn’t.
The worst part was the way Titan looked at me when he finally was allowed into triage. His coal-black eyes studied my face and I saw relief. I also saw anger. It stung so badly tears flooded my eyes immediately.
“Ivy…” I’d never heard his voice sound so shredded. It sounded like he’d walked through a battlefield. His fingers curled loosely around my hand then his grip grew tighter.
“Thank you,” I said, my voice trembling and raw.
“Why are you thanking me?” He quizzed with his brows furled. He was so beautiful. I wanted to stare at him for hours to make up for the time I was passed out.
“Because I know you’re mad at me so I’m thanking you for being here.”
“You think I had any other choice? My heart wouldn’t allow me to leave you. I was scared to fucking death.” I heard the fear in his voice. It rose to the surface, sharp and potent. “What happened?” His voice was softer that time when he spoke. It unhinged the door that protected my heart from what I thought would be anger and bitterness pouring off of him.
“I don’t know.” I shrugged my shoulders and tried to steady my trembling bottom lip. “My doctor emailed me and told me he had a new prescription and I was getting ready to take lunch so I went and picked it up from his office.” Titan didn’t like the sound of that at all. He sighed and looked up at the ceiling like the only thing that would stop him from becoming pissed off was God himself.
“Did he try anything, Ivy?”
“No…” I let my words fall off a bit because even through the fog in my brain, I remembered the uncomfortable feeling in my stomach when Dr. Beaumont touched my arm and told me how much of a beautiful woman I’d turned into. He told me he’d be sure to write me whatever prescription I wanted once I turned eighteen. I just had to come see him personally and not as a patient. I remembered what Titan said about him and I felt sick.
I still took the damn pills though.
I was a junkie.
“Don’t fucking lie to me. Do I need to go find him?” He asked. The grit in his voice did something to my stomach.
