Adrian POV“Her head contusions aren't worrying and the laceration wasn’t deep. Head wounds bleed more than what would be deemed normal. Her brain activity is fine. She is going to be okay. The baby is fine as well. All we can do is wait patiently for her to wake up.” The doctor tried to reassure me, but I feel anything but reassured right now. “How long until she wakes up?” Brittany asks. “It’s all up to her at this point. She inhaled a lot of smoke, but the oxygen treatment is proving effective. She will wake up when her body is ready.”My eyes filled with tears as I stared at Missy’s beautiful sleeping face. Her lips are dry, and she has bruising and a cut on the side of her face where she hit it on the rock, but she is still gorgeous. Please, baby. Please wake up soon. I need you.Dad is with Hailey out in the waiting room. She is pretty shaken up about this whole thing. We all are. The house is gone. The firemen were able to put it out before it reached the propane tank, but
I’ve been sitting in the station, handcuffed, waiting across the desk from a sheriff for hours now. They haven’t booked me. I haven’t gotten a chance to call my lawyer. Nothing.It’s bull shit.Missy could be waking up, wondering where I was at. She needs me, but because of a split second decision, I’m stuck here. Doing nothing but watch the time pass by, staring angrily at Freddie, or whatever the fuck this guy's name is, while he typed away at his computer, drinking fucking coffee, which I still didn’t have.“I need to get the fuck out of here,” I growled at him. “My girlfriend is-““Mr. Brewer, we know. I heard you the first few times. We have to wait to find out what to do with you since you broke that….gentleman’s jaw and nose.”“That psychopath tried to-““Kill your girlfriend and unborn baby. I know. That’s why you’re out here and not in a cell. I understand. We understand. Honestly, son, I would have done the same as you. The problem is, that man’s attorneys and family had alr
Missy POVMy body felt heavy, and my lungs felt like they were sanded down and filled with lead. Even my eyelids feel heavy. My knees and hands are throbbing, but not like my head. My head has this intense pressure in the front. It feels stiff, like it is taped or bound in some way.I stiffly forced my hand to move, bringing it to my head to see what the foreign feeling was coming from.A bandage. I have a large bandage taped to my head.I must still be alive, because if I was in heaven I wouldn’t hurt this bad.Adrian saved me. I thought I was going to die, but waking up here in the hospital means it really was him I saw right before I passed out.My head hurts, and my throat feels like it’s burned on the inside, aching and raw, but I’m alive.I’m alive.Hailey is crying on one side of me, and her tears are hurting me worse than my own physical pain. She seems so heartbroken and tormented. No child should feel this kind of sorrow, especially my child.Someone crying on my other sid
Adrian POVI’m leaning against the wall right by the door to Missy’s room, glaring at the lawyer where he is standing talking to the EMT people here to help to try and transfer Missy, as well as two security guards I was told were here for precautionary measures. This hell just keeps getting worse. “Why the hell does he think you’re after her money? For fuck’s sake, the money she did give you went straight to Monica for the adoption. You didn’t keep a dime of it,” Brittany scoffs, talking loud enough so the lawyer can hear her. “Just stop, Britt. I know you want to fight and argue, but she’s awake. She can handle him herself. We will just make it worse.”I told her that, but I wanted to fight with him too. He’s trying to take half my world away. I can kind of understand where he is coming from, but he’s wrong. I love her and would never take advantage of her like that. The security guards keep eyeing me, expecting me to start punching the lawyer or something, I’m sure. My violent
Adrian POV“Daddy?” Hailey slipped out of Missy’s room with a worried look on her face. The lawyer was only in there for a few minutes. I thought when Hailey didn’t come out with the doctor that Missy was going to stand her ground and not let the lawyer talk her into leaving, but seeing Hailey out here now was sending my stomach to be lodged into my throat.“What are you doing out here baby?” I asked.Hailey’s eyes darted to my dad, then back to me. “Um, Missy said chocolate ice cream would make her feel better and to ask grandpa for it.”“Chocolate ice cream?” Dad reiterated, quickly wiping the tears off his cheeks before Hailey noticed we were all out here having a crying fest. “Her throat hurts a lot. She said ice cream makes us feel better.”Brittany laughs breathlessly. “Come on. Me, you and grandpa can go get ice cream. I could use something to sweeten up my day too.”She takes my daughter’s hand and leads her down the hall, asking her about how the visit with the doctor went
Missy POV6 months later….“Mommy, Daddy said to tell you to get your tooshie in the car,” Hailey yells through the door at me. I rolled my eyes, sighing loudly. “You tell him that my tooshie is going to take its sweet time. Also, tell him not to send you to fight his battles.” He knows I won’t yell at her, but I will bite his head off if he tries to rush me.“Oooh-kay,” she sings back, and I can almost picture her skipping out to the car to relay my words back to her dad. He’s the one that made my tooshie need to go to the bathroom 50 times a day. He can wait. We are having my baby shower today, thanks to Brittany and a few of the other moms from Hailey's school. We have over an hour until it starts. I don’t know why Adrian is in such a rush. I finish my business, then stand at the mirror in the bathroom at Rick’s house, where we have been living for the past several months. I pucker my lips and start reapplying my lip gloss. It smells like lemons and, for some strange reason, h
2 years later….This is bliss. I’m floating in my jetted tub, engulfed in sweet-smelling foamy bubbles and soft music wafting out from the mounted speaker. The house has been quiet for 3 songs now, so I think Adrian finally managed to get Landon to sleep. I volunteered, but he insisted on me taking a bath as I cleaned the kitchen after dinner and told me he had bedtime covered. I know what that means. He wants me relaxed, energized and in a good mood. I bet any second, he comes waltzing into the bathroom too….“Oh, honey!” Adrian’s excitement from the other side of the door made me giggle. He opens the door then pops his head in, wiggling his eyebrows. “Mission accomplished.”“Good job, daddy,” I told him, floating to the edge of the tub and resting my head on my arm. “Want some company?” He asks, even though he is already stripping out of his clothes. “If I say no, will that stop you?”“Not a chance,” he grins, tossing his sock and boxers in the hamper with his jeans. He slips
Missy POV “Mama, Dad said to tell you to stop,” Hailey tells me, coming in from the back door. “Stop what?” I asked, trying to get a grease stain out of my roasting pan, scrubbing vigorously at the supposedly non-stick material. “I can’t say the whole thing because he said curse words,” she scrunches her nose, making a face. Brittany chuckles from where she is sitting at the counter across from me, typing away at some final essay she has been working on since coming home for thanksgiving break. “Paraphrase. Leave out the bad words,” she mutters. Hailey sighs, “Well, he said to tell your stubborn butt to stop and be beeping patient. Then he said more beep words because Landon ran into his ankles with his tractor. When he stopped yelling and threatening to run over Landon’s tractor with the real tractor, he said to tell that beep woman I’ll do the beeping dishes in a sec, so she needs to sit her beeping butt down.” I rolled my eyes. If I wait for him and his