Chapter 42
Gavin’s POV
“This is Erin, please leave a message after the beep!”
Goddammit.
This is the 3(rd) time that Gavin has called Erin and it keeps going straight to voicemail.
Where the hell could she be right now?
“Why do you keep trying to call her?” Seth asked; they were currently rushing to the hospital to see Susanna. “You should be worried about Susanna. She’s the one who was stabbed!”
“Of course, I’m worried about Susanna,” Gavin said in return as he tried to call Erin once again.
That wasn’t a lie.
As crazy as Susanna might drive him, he never wanted her to be hurt. He cared for Susanna more as a friend than anything else. But he also didn’t believe for a second that Erin would ever try to hurt Susanna over jealousy.
That wasn’t in Erin’s nature.
Wherever Erin was, he just hoped she was safe.
As they arrived at the hospital, there were anxious people forming around him, blocking his way to the rooms.
“Out of my way,” he growled to them; but they were too busy asking what happened with Susanna to even care about how agitated he was growing.
“Is it true that your mistress tried to kill her?” One of them asked.
“Was Susanna really pregnant?” Another asked.
Ignoring them, Gavin shoved his way through the crowd until he reached an actual doctor. The doctor was speaking to one of Susanna’s bodyguards.
Gavin was surprised that Susanna’s parents weren’t at the hospital yet. He figured they would have rushed to the hospital as soon as word got out about the stabbing.
“How is she?” Gavin asked as he approached the doctor.
“She needed surgery. The knife punctured through an artery, so she lost a lot of blood. But we were able to repair it and it seems she’s going to be okay. She’s in recovery now.”
“Is she awake?”
“For right now, yes. The medicine we gave her hasn’t fully kicked in yet so she might be a little loopy.”
“I need to speak with her,” Gavin said, shoving past the doctor. The doctor shouted the room number to Gavin as Gavin disappeared through the double doors.
Susanna was lying in her bed with bandages wrapped around her frail body. Her eyes were open and she was staring up at the ceiling. Her features were pale and worn out. She was breathing lightly and hardly noticed when Gavin entered her room.
“Susanna…” Gavin said, stepping beside her.
Her eyes fluttered to meet his and then they widened. It was like she was surprised he made an effort to see her.
“How are you feeling?”
“Like I’ve been stabbed…” she whispered.
He was at a loss for words; he didn’t know how this happened but he knew it wasn’t Erin.
“I’m sorry this happened to you while I was away,” Gavin said, shaking his head with dismay written all over his face. “I promise, I’m going to find out who did this and—”
“I already know who did this…” She said, stopping his words. “It was that bitch Erin… she trapped me and stabbed me out of jealousy. She came to the packhouse looking for you but when she saw me, she grew angry with Envy.”
Gavin didn’t believe that for a second. Erin wasn’t capable of doing such a thing. He didn’t say that out loud though; he just stayed by Susanna’s bedside and let her weep and complain about Erin.
She was weak and it wouldn’t be long before she fully fell asleep.
“I want her prosecuted for attempted murder,” Susanna finally managed to utter.
Gavin knew that was coming.
There was no way Susanna would do this to herself just to get Erin in trouble; would she? It would be a suicide mission if she had.
“Please, Gavin…” Susanna said, reaching her tired arm out to touch his bicep. “Don’t rest until she is punished for this crime.”
Gavin didn’t respond; he lowered his gaze.
He just knew he needed to speak to Erin and find out what actually happened, but she wasn’t answering her damn phone!
“I lost the baby…” Susanna breathed once it was clear that Gavin wasn’t going to speak anymore. Her hand fell from his bicep and onto her bed bedside her. “I’m so sorry, Gavin. But I’m no longer pregnant…” she paused for another moment. “It’s all her fault…”
He doesn’t believe she was pregnant, to begin with. Perhaps that was her plan? To fake an abortion to get out of a DNA test.
But would Susanna really go through all this trouble just to deceive him?
“You should rest…” Gavin said to her, stepping away from her bed. “I’m going to do what I can to find the person who did this to you and—”
“You don’t believe me?” Susanna croaked. “I already told you who did this. Why won’t you believe me?”
Gavin didn’t answer her; instead, he turned his body, keeping his eyes away from hers.
“When are you going to open your eyes and see that she isn’t the one for you? She never will be the one, Gavin. I’m the one. I love you and—”
“That’s enough,” Gavin said in a low. “This isn’t a conversation we should be having right now. I’m sorry this happened to you, and I promise I’ll do what I can to make things right. “You should be resting. We can talk more later.”
As soon as he got into the hallway, he tried Erin’s cell phone for the 4(th) time.
“This is Erin, please leave a message after the beep!”
He shoved his phone into his pocket, growing aggravation.
Where the hell is she?”
…
Henry’s POV
Erin was still covered in blood when she explained the story about what happened at Gavin’s packhouse.
She was trembling badly and appeared as she had just seen a ghost. Henry knew it took a lot for her to see someone in that condition after what she had gone through in her past. He didn’t want to argue or fight with her, he just wanted to protect her.
“I’ll clean your clothes. You should take a hot shower and get that blood off you,” he told her.
She nodded her head, staring down at her feet.
As she began walking past her, he grabbed onto her harm, halting her in place. She turned and gazed up at him, tears welling in her eyes.
“I love you, Erin,” he said to her in a compassionate tone. “I’m going to protect you.”
“They will come looking for me,” she croaked. “They won’t stop until I’m behind bars… or dead.”
She let the word “dead” linger in the air for a moment. He understood the assignment and nodded his head once, allowing her to leave the room.
He glanced down at the blood-soaked clothing that remained on the ground. The first thing he needed to do was clean this mess. He grabbed her clothes and took them to the washing machine right away.
Once the clothes were in the wash, he returned to the living room and cleaned the blood stains on the ground that she tracked into their home.
It wouldn’t be long before Susanna’s men arrived and took Erin away. He needed to get her out of there before they had the chance of capturing her. There was only one place he knew he could take her that would be safe. One place nobody could get to her.
When Erin got out of the shower, she had put on a clean set of clothes. She was towel drying her long hair and her eyes were bloodshot from the amount she’s cried since returning home.
“We need to get you out of here,” Henry said to her; she paused and glanced up at him.
“Where will I go?” She asked.
“There’s only one place I could think of…”
Her face fell as she read his expression; she knew what he was thinking already. He didn’t need to speak it out loud.
“Henry… no…”
“It’s the only place that you’ll be safe,” he told her. “I’ll reach out to Theo and tell him what’s going on before you arrive. But we don’t have a lot of time.”
She wanted to argue; he could tell because her stance was the same stance she used when she often argued with him.
But she didn’t.
Her body loosened and she sighed in defeat.
He would have never agreed to this.
“You aren’t coming with me?” She asked.
“I have some things to take care of here,” he told her.
He went into their bedroom and uncovered Erin’s moonstone necklace; he returned to her moments later.
She stared at it like it was a foreign object; technically it was. She hasn’t looked at it in a long time.
As he wrapped the necklace around her neck, the portal opened before their eyes; just in time for Susanna’s men to make themselves known outside.
She gazed up at him, wanting to say something more, but he pressed his lips against hers, stopping her words and then he pushed her into the portal, watching as it swallowed her.
