Page 1 of Beautifully Shattered
1
The room is too quiet. Too heavy with crushing devastation as I lift my Angel’s hand in mine. It’s lifeless, cool, and feels like it weighs nothing as my big hand swallows it whole.
Her ring is gone. The black band I gave her on our wedding day probably ripped off by those fucking cult cunts! It doesn’t matter though, because my name is there, inked around her slender finger, screaming to the world that she’s mine. That I’m hers.
There’s no pink left in her hair now. I’d noticed that the night I came home to her. Our last night together. Right now, I kinda wish it was pink again. Then at least there’d be some colour in her.
She’s deathly pale. Her lips fade into her skin, the only colour left is from the purple bruises someone fucking gave her.
Fuck!
I grit my teeth, my breath hitching as I fight for control, and lower my forehead to her hand, hoping the skin on skin contact will anchor me.
I want to hunt down those fuckers, right fucking now, but there’s nothing on this Earth that could make me leave my Angel’s side. Not again. Not ever.
A savage, unrelenting pain carves through my chest as images I know I’ll never outrun flood my mind for the hundredth time.
Her, lying on the ground, so fucking fragile, drowning in pain as she gave birth… and I couldn’t do a fucking thing to take away her agony.
And little Bobbi…
Fuck!
“Ringo?”
My head snaps up, tears sliding down my cheeks as my eyes lock onto the caramel stare I wasn’t sure I’d ever get to see again.
“Abs,” I choke out, needing to clear away the lump in my throat as it thickens with emotion.
“Where am I?” she breathes, her lids heavy as she blinks, her fingers curling weakly around mine as her body slowly wakes.
“Fox Pines Hospital.” I stroke my thumb over the back of her hand, studying her face closely as a frown pinches her brow.
Fuck. I don’t want her to remember. Not any of it. But I can tell, from the way her eyes focus on something that’s not here, that she’s piecing things together.
Her gaze starts darting from side to side, like she’s watching a movie trailer behind her eyes as her mind catches up, likely reliving the nightmare I’d give anything to erase.
What I’d give for her to forget. To not fucking remember any of it.
“Ringo…” She stiffens, her eyes meeting mine again. “Bobbi… where’s Bobbi?”
Jesus fucking Christ. I can’t do this. I can’t be the one to shatter her heart, but fuck, I sure as hell won’t let anyone else do it either.
She tries to sit up, so I press my free hand gently to her shoulder, urging her to stay down.
“Angel. You can’t get up just yet. You need to stay there.”
She’s already shaking her head before I even finish.
“No. No! Where’s my little girl?” Her frantic gaze scans the room, probably searching for a crib or some sign of her baby.
But there’s nothing, and when she sees that, her sharp, panicked glare snaps back to me. “Where is she?!”
I swallow thickly, not even sure where the hell to start. Not sure I’m ready to be the one to destroy her whole world.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she snaps, ripping her hand from mine like she already knows what’s coming.
I open my mouth to speak, but the words practically choke me.
