Page 85 of Free to Believe
My anger has left me hollow and scared. I called Dani, who’s still trying to make her way back to Nantucket as quickly as she can. Her flights have been delayed due to weather. Our parents haven’t made it back from their vacation in Europe either. Connections from the Mediterranean aren’t easy.
Neither of us have heard from Em. I’m freaking worried about her. Knowing the disaster of Em’s Rover, I doubt her cell’s in working order. After every text, my phone reads “Delivered,” but since I’m almost certain her phone was caught inside her car, I’m positive the texts I’m sending aren’t reaching her. Even then, I’m still trying.
I’ve also tried to call the apartment each time I’m away from Jenna’s room. The phone rings and my heart frantically beats when it clicks, right before I hear Dani’s voice repeat the number and asking the caller to leave a message. I’ve still been trying anyway.
What I did was completely wrong. I lashed out at Em because she was there, trying to offer her love and support. I lashed out because fifty percent of my heart was lying white-faced on a bed, immobile while the other was stumbling around…stumbling?
I groan out loud. How much more of an asshole could I have been? Em was in the car with Jenna. Did anyone check her for injuries? I was so focused on Jenna—on my baby—I never thought to ask. Then my panic sets in full force. What if she’s at the apartment sick? She was in the accident with Jenna. Has she been checked out by a doctor? I spot a security guard and babble almost incoherently about what happened. After glaring at me furiously, all he would tell me is the lady in question was sent home in a taxi.
What if she’s… No. She’d have come back to the hospital, I’m sure.
Temporarily relieved, I begin talking to Jenna again. “Come on, Jen. Come give your old man some hell. I need you to wake up so I can go find Em.” It’s a shot in the dark, but knowing how close the two have become, if she knows I completely fucked up, maybe she’ll wake up. “I screwed up royally, Jenna. I did the same shit to Em that I do to you. I freaked out instead of listening. I yelled.” I pause, thinking about everything I said. “Jesus, I’m such a bastard. But I can’t leave you to go fix things.”
“You must really be in love this time, Jake, if you’re admitting all your faults to our daughter.” Michelle’s amused voice comes from behind me. Shit.
“I am.” My voice is hoarse from the lack of sleep and overuse.
“And Jenna was with her in the wreck?”
I nod. “It was her car Jenna was driving.”
“So, instead of finding out what I just found out, you went off on that poor injured woman?” Wait a second, is my ex actually sticking up for my girlfriend? Turning around to face Michelle, I’m shocked to see the extremely pissed-off look on her face. “It washer, Jake. She’s the reason our daughter’s even alive. She’s the one who performed CPR on Jenna at the accident. The other driver was drunk, coming down the road from some brewery.” Michelle waves her hand in the air.
I suck in a huge breath because I can’t get any air. “Em saved Jenna?”
“According to the officer who came by yesterday, she apparently had to be dragged off our daughter. It was her quick thinking that got Jenna this far.” Michelle stomps over to me and shoves me in the chest. “And it wasa drunk driverwho hit them, Jake. Theybothcould be lying here.”
Before I can respond, we hear rustling from the bed. Both of us turn. “Jen?” I whisper.
“Come on, Jenna. Snap out of it so your father can go fix his mistakes.” Michelle’s not done giving me crap obviously.
But what she says strikes something in our daughter, who begins to twist her head from side to side. “No…Em… Watch out!” she mutters. Jenna’s eyes roll behind rapidly blinking eyelids. Her heart rate begins to accelerate.
“Michelle, call for the doctor!” I rasp. Not wasting a second, she hits the button for the nurse.
“We see the changes on the monitors. The doctor is on his way in.”
A minute later, Jenna’s doctor strides through the door. Lifting Jenna’s eyelids, he uses a penlight before turning to us.
And smiles.
“She’s going to be in this state for a while,” he predicts. “But I suspect she’ll wake up fully in a few hours.”
Thank fucking Christ.
Michelle reaches over Jenna’s bed and grabs my hand. “Almost there, Dad. Then you can go try to rectify your asinine behavior.”
I breathe a little easier.
Just a few more hours.
Then I can try to figure out how to make the largest apology of my life.
* * *
By nightfall,Jenna’s eyes are open but drowsy. She smiles sleepily at me, before asking, “Em?”
I swallow convulsively. I reply as honestly as I can. “I don’t know, Jen. I’ve been by your side the entire time, baby. The last time I saw her, her injuries mainly looked like bruises.”
