Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Elijah,

It was like I was sucked back to that day three years ago. The only difference was that I was on the other side watching it happen.

I saw my little girl open the car’s door and just run. To where, to whom, or why, I had no idea. I just froze in my seat and kept watching.

I watched her as she pushed people away as she cried and pushed forward. Her cute little pink dress swirled around as her little feet ate the distance to her goal.

She was crying and wailing, but her face was smiling as she focused on something or someone. The scene was something ethereal.

This was the first time in years I saw her this happy, even though tears were flooding her face. This was the first time I saw her vibrant and showing any kind of emotion.

And all of this made me freeze even though I saw the danger that was lurking in the distance and was about to harm her.

But I was taken aback by her smile as well as her tears. I called her name softly, then louder when I saw someone running toward her.

I opened the car’s door and jumped outside when I saw the car get nearer to my little baby and was about to hit her.

I called her name desperately, even though I knew that she couldn’t hear me from all the noise and screams from all the people around us.

My chest clenched and my breath escaped me when I saw the car get nearer and nearer while my daughter's smile broadened and her eyes sparkled with happiness.

And just like that, as I fell to my knees when at the same moment a woman swooped my daughter in her arms and barely evaded the rushing car.

I began to choke on my own breath and felt some weight pushing against my chest, making me gasp, but my eyes didn’t leave the scene.

I watched them fly in the air, then swirl before landing on the ground with the woman hugging my girl tightly in her arms.

I tried to breathe, but nothing entered my lungs. I tried to push against my own chest, but again something was blocking the air from filling it.

And suddenly the scene changed to something else. It was back to that same day, just before a car hit ours on Angela’s birthday.

We planned to celebrate it alone this year and because I had something urgent to handle in the company; they tagged along before we began our program.

Angela was sitting in the middle between her mother and me and she was chatting and talking about her other birthday presents that her friends brought her.

I was about to tell her that my present would be better than them all when it happened the same as today. A rushing car coming our way in front of the company building.

I pulled Angela tightly to my side and pulled her mother into my arms. We made sure that she was in the middle between the both of us.

 And then the hit came, hard and violent, that the car’s door on Angela’s mother's side bent and a stray piece of metal pierced her chest and reached me.

Diana looked down at the metal, then she looked up at me as blood poured out of her mouth while I stared at her in horror.

She gave me a smile, then her shaky right hand touched my face softly as she gurgled a little when she tried to pull herself back trying to separate us.

She screamed in pain when the metal dug harder into her flesh and I shook my head, begging her silently to stop. But she just gave Angela a sad look and then the side where a bigger piece of metal was threatening to hurt our daughter.

“I’m sorry, El. I won’t be able to keep that promise I gave you that night, but I can keep the other one and save you and our daughter.”

She said in a gurgling voice and I shook my head, unable to speak or utter a single word because I knew what was coming.

She let us go and held the other piece of metal, trying to guide it to her chest in order to stop it from harming us.

“No, Diana. Don’t do that, please. I beg you, you can hear them right. They are outside trying to help us. Just hang in there and we will all get out of here, please I beg you, baby, please.”

I begged her, my voice cracking with each word, especially when I felt our daughter stir between us trying to get out.

But then something hit us again and this time the car flipped over and that piece of metal tore me from face down to my thigh.

It dug into my flesh, tearing up skin, flesh, and might even bone as we kept flipping a few times. And when the car stopped, I was on my back while Angela was on my chest staring at her mother’s bleeding dead body as it hung above us.

For a moment the place was silent, and I felt numb as I watched my beautiful wife’s body stop twitching and the light in her eyes fade. And then a horrible scream of agony filled the air when my girl began to scream.

“Sir, you must get out before the car explodes. We can’t come near it. Sir, can you hear me? Are you conscious?”

I heard Robb calling from the outside even though Angela’s screaming was deafening, but I didn’t move and just screamed like her.

I screamed and screamed until nothing came out, then I hugged my daughter and tried to crawl out of the burning car.

I dragged my daughter and myself outside even though I was tired and I was certain I had broken some bones in my body. But I must save my daughter. I can’t lose her as well.

“Sir, the doctor is here.”

Robb said softly, but I flinched and then took a deep breath. Yes, I was in the hospital to check on my daughter and that woman. I’m not in that……

“How are they?”

I asked the doctor Alan, and the man shook his head, but he gave me a comforting smile before he gave me his report.

“Angela is ok, she is a little bit shaken but physically there is nothing wrong with her. It is a miracle that she is perfectly fine from what I heard and what I saw she might have been badly hurt.”

The man said, and I nodded my head because I saw everything and how that woman covered her entirely with her body in order to protect her. She wrapped her bigger body around my little girl and just focused on saving her. I thought, swallowing harshly when I felt my throat clog.

“About the woman, she has some bruises and two broken ribs. She will need some rest for six, maybe eight weeks, but that is it. It is not serious, no eternal bleeding, no damaged organs, so yeah, she will recover.”

He continued, and I nodded my head feeling at ease and since what happened today I was able to breathe finally.

“The only problem I see here is Angela, we were barely able to check Willow, the woman who saved her, she keeps clinging to her and never letting go, and when I suggested that we should give her something to make her relax Willow refused and kept holding her even though she is in great pain.”

He said and again I felt something clogging my throat and I looked away, unable to say anything to the doctor, who was looking at me expectantly.

“She talked today, Alan. She called her, Mama.”

I said in a croaked voice and the doctor frowned, then looked away deeply in thought and I knew what he was thinking.

“So this is what started the entire thing. Angela saw Willow who looked like her mother and she just ran to her! I can’t say if this is a blessing or a curse, but this is huge Elijah. This is the only progress we had with her since that accident. She talked, showing emotions and she actually looks at us when we talk to her. She doesn’t respond, but she is giving us something, at least.”

The doctor said, and I nodded my head because I knew that he was right. I had the same thought, and I was dreading what I was about to do. She can’t keep clinging to the sick woman.

She needs rest, and she needs to go home for god’s sake. I can’t force her to stay with us. She is a damn stranger. Who knows what her intentions are?

She might be someone those fuckers sent to hurt us again. I can’t risk my daughter’s safety. She is the only thing I have in this life.

“Now that we made sure Willow is fine, I will take her home. So please help me with your daughter's situation.”

The man called Joseph, who insisted on coming to the hospital with us, said and I gritted my teeth because I didn’t like him and didn’t like his narrowed eyes.

“She is tired and soon she will fall asleep, so we can at least wait until this happens. I can’t just pull her away from Willow’s arms.”

I said through gritting teeth and the man sneered at me as if I said something outrageous, but he nodded his head and went back to the room, making me follow him.

“Aww, look at how beautiful you are. All those tears and snot were hiding your beautiful face, Angel.”

I stopped watching Willow wipe my daughter's face while Angela looked at her with a smiling face and sparkly eyes, making my chest clench when I remembered what I needed to do.

But then Angela grinned and kissed Willow’s cheek and stared at her as she held her face in both of her little hands.

“I knew that you would come back to me, Mama. You love me so much to leave me alone here by myself. Papa, too, missed you.”

My daughter said and hearing her voice and words was like a punch to the guts and I actually staggered a little as I held my chest.

I left the room again and rested my back against the cold wall, closing my eyes and feeling my heart being torn apart.

But then my eyes burst open, and I clenched my jaws. No, I won’t make my daughter go through this again. Even if I had to kidnap that woman, I would keep her with Angela, at least for now.