Page 86 of Free to Believe
She nods slowly. “Okay. Check on her?”
She wants me to leave? I can’t fathom the thought. Jenna’s brown eyes have been welded shut for days. I can’t just run off to check on Em even if something is pulling me to do just that. Her heart monitor starts going mad. A nurse pops her head in to ask, “Is everything okay in here? Mom, Dad, we need you to keep our patient calm. Otherwise, you’re going to have to ask you to leave.”
Michelle growls at me warningly, “Jake…”
“Do you want me to leave you with your mom? Do you want me to go check on Em?” I relent, albeit unwillingly. I’m so afraid if I leave, Jenna’s going to close her eyes again and this time not wake up.
She nods slowly. Her brow furrows. “Careful?”
Leaning forward, I press a kiss to her still-bruised cheek. “I promise. I’ll be back soon.”
“Take all the time you need, Jake,” Michelle drawls. As I pass her, she mutters, “I have a feeling you’re going to need it.”
“Is there anything you need?” I’m being polite and asking both occupants of the room, but really my question is for Jenna.
Michelle immediately answers. “Decent coffee.” I bark out a laugh. I can’t help it. We’ve been living on rot gut for the last few days.
“Em,” Jenna says immediately. I clench my teeth.
“Let me see if she’s up for it, baby.” Jenna’s head nods slowly.
Fueled by an overwhelming urgency, I leave the hospital for the first time in three hellishly long days. Even though it’s dark out, the air seems cleaner outside. I stop to inhale deeply and smell the sea. I wonder if I’ll be able to smell it in the middle of winter.
Driving slower than I want to, it takes over twenty minutes to drive the eight miles back to the house. When I get there, the heartache that shoots through me when I don’t see Em’s Rover in the driveway almost causes me to crash my own vehicle through the closed garage door. I turn off the engine and just sit with my head on the steering wheel. Tears start flowing, and there’s nothing I do can stop them. I almost lost them both, and then to find out Em saved Jenna?
I don’t just owe her an apology. I owe her my life.
Trudging up the stairs to the apartment, I’m surprised when I see the curtains closed and a lamp lit. I expected to find her sitting on the lounger watching the ocean. Trying the slider, I frown when I find it locked.
Walking back around the deck to the side, I knock and wait. Giving her a few minutes, I knock again. Still nothing. Calling the apartment, I warn her, “Em, I’m worried you’re injured in there. I’m coming in.”
Disconnecting the call, I pull out the spare key. When I open the door, I’m treated to the largest shock since being told of Jenna’s accident.
Nothing.
There’s nothing of Em’s in the space.
It looks just like it did the day before she got here.
No!My heart shies instinctively away from what my mind is screaming at it. I enter the space and call out, “Em? Emily? Are you okay? Where are you?” I’m opening doors along the way.
The laundry room where Mugsy slept. Nothing.
The bathroom. Everything’s gone.
The bedroom. Every trace of her has been removed. Except one. Propped up on the bed is a large envelope with “Jenna” scrawled across it.
“No…” I sink to the floor clutching the only proof that Emily Freeman ever actually was in this room. That she opened her arms to me. That she allowed me to love her.
No matter the risk.
“What did I do?” I whisper to the empty room. But I know damn good and well what I did.
I proved her right.
Only she had the wrong theory.
It wasn’t people who died because she loved them. It was her heart that kept dying time after time for being broken.
