Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Willow,

I sat as I collected Angela’s sleeping body against my chest. She went to sleep soon after she said those gut clenching words, and I didn’t know how to answer her. All I did was give her a tight hug, and she just relaxed and went to sleep soundly.

I looked down at her still flushed face and her little fingers that were holding my t-shirt tightly, painfully tight that her knuckles were white.

“This can’t keep going, Will. The doctor said that you can be discharged and go back home.”

Joseph said, and I sighed as I kept looking at the little angel’s face and just smiled without noticing. She is beautiful. When she grows up, she will break some hearts, but I guess her beast father will chase them all away. I thought, laughing a little and Joseph stomped the floor, making me wince silently.

“I know, but please tell me what should I do? They tried to take her away from me a couple of times and she raised hell. I couldn’t even do my MRI. You weren’t there to see it. She might look cute and small, but she is so strong.”

I said fondly, then looked down at her and began to play with her soft black hair. And my head tilted to the side, deep in thought.

She actually looks so much like her father, same soft black hair and blue eyes. I couldn’t see his face because of the mask he was still wearing, but they shared the same complexion as well.

Wow, I guess his genes are so potent and the mother sadly couldn’t do anything to stop it. I giggled again at my thought, and this time, I heard my boss hiss.

“I know that damn look, Willow, and this isn’t some girl in the orphanage you visit each week. I can see it clearly on your face. You can’t help her. She has her asshole father and he must deal with this weird situation.”

The man spat out venomously and I glared at him because he didn’t have the right to say those words. Yes, we have been friends for years, but still, he can’t talk about Angela in that way.

“I have lost both of my parents, Jo, and you know how it was and still is. I know the feeling of the loss of a parent and I know what a child her age might go through. I was thrown in an orphanage my entire life, but I was blessed to have someone to take care of me there, mentally and physically. And even though Angela still has her father, but this doesn’t mean she is better than I was back then. Didn’t you hear what the doctor said? The poor girl didn’t talk for years. She is still suffering from watching her mother die right in front of her eyes.”

I snarled softly at my friend and my boss and his lips thinned and he looked away, but it was not in defeat or shame, no he was preparing for the next round of our fight.

“But this isn’t your damn problem. Look at yourself and how badly hurt you are. You might have died back there, Will. And I know how scared you are from rushing cars. I know how your parents died, and this is the only reason you are like this with her. You shared the same trauma and now you feel responsible for the little girl. But think about it, are you truly ready?!”

He said, and I closed my eyes tiredly because yeah he understood me very well and he truly saw what was running through my mind, but again I can’t help feeling for her.

“I’m taking my girl now.”

Suddenly, a firm voice said startling me and I groaned loudly because my damn rib hurt like a bit…. God, this is going to be a very long two months.

Elijah said from where he was standing by the door glaring at Joseph and I wanted to groan again, but this time not in pain but in just fatigue. They are going to fight.

“You know that I’m right and this situation can’t continue like this.”

“First, I’m pissed at this thing more than you. I don’t like to see my daughter clinging to a strange woman, but same as you, my hands are tied. My daughter's mental state is fragile, and I can’t risk triggering her.”

“So what? You will impose all your problems on Willow without asking about her opinion? She risked her life to save that little kid, but that is it. It is nothing special and she might have done it with anyone else.”

“You surely have so much to say on the Miss’s behalf. What is your relationship with her exactly, Mr. Restaurant owner?”

“My relationship has nothing to do with you or anyone else, Mr. Bad parent. And yes, I can talk on her behalf if you want to know.”

The two men kept talking back and forth while they took closer steps toward each other. And my heart stopped when Elijah’s couple of inches of height loomed above Joseph.

He looked murderous and his icy cold eyes were glowing like two burning coals. I was mesmerized and scared at the same time. These two will get physical soon.

But then we heard a little whimper and my body began to shake and I looked down to see Angela watching the scene silently in fear.

I pulled her to my chest and covered her face slightly before I snarled at the two men, who were still staring at each other with their chests rising and falling.

“Would you two shut up? Neither of you has the right to decide for me. Neither of you have the right to say what is good for me and I’m pretty sure I don’t have any kind of special relationship with any of you.”

I said and began to pant and feeling my chest get heavy not because of my rip pain or the weight crushing against it but because of anger.

But I guess my little outburst got the two men’s attention, and they glared at me, one with narrowed eyes while the other might be in some disbelief.

Elijah closed his eyes, cracked his neck, then came to my bed and sat, then his big hand touched his daughter’s hair and he began to stroke it.

“I’m sorry that you saw me like this. I apologize for scaring you.”

He said softly even though his voice was still laced with some anger, but Angela peeked at her father and she nodded her head, sniffling.

“Ok, let us go home now and let Willow get some rest. We will visit her some time tomorrow. What do you think?”

He said, then opened both of his arms to his daughter and the girl’s eyes widened and she began to thrash around in my arms, making me gasp from the pain.

“NO…MAMA….NOOOO…..MAMA.”

She began to say and repeat those words as she kept looking at me, then at her father, and I felt my eyes water.

The fear, the pain, the loss written on that little girl’s face would kill anyone. I don’t want to imagine the agony she went through all these years.

“Hey, it is ok. I’m with you. Don’t worry, ok? Please stop, you will hurt yourself.”

I murmured softly as I put some force in my grip and tried to stop all of her moving. And when I finally managed to do that, the room’s door burst open and the doctor and some nurses rushed inside.

The doctor stared at me, then the two men standing and the little girl shaking in my arms, and he relaxed a little.

“Suddenly all your vitals rose, and we thought something had happened, but I see that it is just your IV Drip.”

He said then the nurses held my right arm, and I saw the blood that was everywhere and the IV solution running on the floor.

I didn’t notice anything or feel the pain, but now I felt a little lightheaded, so I just dropped back on the bed and my grip on Angela loosened.

“MA….Mama, I killed my mama again. I killed her again. MAMA. MAMAAAAA.”

I heard the anguished cry, and I tried to open my eyes that I didn’t know I had closed them. I wanted to tell her that I was all right. I’m just tired, but nothing came out.

I saw her father take her away by force and I pushed the nurse and the doctor away, trying to reach her and this time I felt the sting of the needle slipping from my vein.

I held Angela’s arm with my bleeding hand and tried to pull her back to me, but her father held my arm, shouting at me and saying something that I didn’t catch.

But my eyes met the scared kid, and I smiled at her faintly and I think I said something because she settled a little and she responded to me.

But suddenly her eyes closed, and I panicked when I saw her body become limp in her father’s hands, so I pushed my body and tried to reach her.

They tried to stop me and I cried out in pain and maybe fear because why did she quieten so suddenly? I heard my voice saying something incomprehensible.

“For the love of god, stop it. She is fine, she is just asleep. What the hell is going on here? I don’t get it at all.”

Elijah said after he forcefully pushed me onto the bed and pushed his body against mine, making me unable to move.

“Give her something. She keeps fighting me. How could she be so strong? She was fainting seconds ago.”

He said, shouting at the doctor and nurses and I pushed their hands away and gripped Elijah’s mask in my hand tightly and pulled it down in the process.

And suddenly the entire world quietened when I saw his face for the first time. I stared at the long scar in shock and followed it until it disappeared under his dress shirt collar.

Even the huge hulking man stared at me in horror as my still bloody hand touched the scar and traced it from under his eyes till it disappeared in his collar.

It was long, big, and ugly. The skin around it was raised and bumpy. It felt like touching one of those soft but uneven gravel.

Then I winced when I felt something sting my arm and my hand fell to my side and my eyes closed. But that scene still haunted me in my dreams.