Chapter Thirteen

I wake up again in the same room with just the doctor standing over me. My head is pounding and everything is aching. My arm aches and my head feels broken.

"Whoever did your stitches did a horrendous job, a few of them broke and I apologize on the behalf of all of the staff for what happened." As soon as he says this I smell a lawsuit that could happen. Everything aches, making me feel so weak, that I just go back to sleep. I can hear everything around me and my mama starts yelling at the doctors and staff. I just can't move or be bothered to do or say anything without any stamina. Laying limp as can be. Wishing I had the strength to get up.

"Your negligence could have cost my daughter her entire life. She is a brilliant girl and if she went for it. She would do your job better than you do. One more misstep and you will hear from my lawyer." She says and I can't hear what he softly says back. The doctor leaves the room and my mama starts pacing frantically. It's something she does when she is nervous.

"Don't worry, darling I will fix this." She says, her heels clicking on the cold floors of the hospital.

I finally start drifting off to sleep, everything is now black no background noises. My eyelids are too heavy to open.

"You solved it, he is gone for good." Jamal raises his small glass of bourbon. Today I have finally figured out where he hid the photos. Finally, they can all be put away.

Garrett thanks me with open arms and I offer him a hug. He accepts it with a proud smile.

"I am so glad to have finally found all the evidence to turn into you all to go catch him," I say in front of the team and Jamal has a cake. I go to look at it as I approach it. The room gets more dark and ominous as I walk over to him. Looking down at the cake it changes to flames. The roaring flames surround me and one of my worst exes walks into the circle of fire. All the people I love are outside the ring of fire. The fire goes out and they all turn to ash. It's just us, in the dark, hot room. Marcell was a ruthless man I dated when I was tied to his gang. He killed a lot when we were together and I didn't find out until I saw photos of his victims.

Marcell Lafayette, I spent two too many years with that wicked man. After I found out what he did under my nose. Under our rental house, I took all the deposits I had put into the house and ran. Made sure to break up with him too, for a serial killer he wasn't that awful of a boyfriend. Honestly, seemed normal he was even caring and didn't seem to have many flaws other than when he would lash out at me and hit me. Two seconds later he would apologize and we would be fine again.

A serial killer that I once loved stands before me. A devilish grin on his face spreads as he steps forward the fire closing in on us. My body bubbles with anxiety as I face him for the first time since the breakup.

"My precious, all the ones you love are around us." I look outside the ring of fire around us, my body burning and sweat pouring down my legs. I wipe my forehead and scream when blood streams down my face.

"Deven, Wyatt!" I shout and they can't hear me. I go to jump out of the fire, but Marcell parts it and walks over to them, and the fire around me rises. I go to follow in his steps but he pushes me back and the fire rises again. He walks to them and then says something in each of their ears. I wish I never introduced them to him. He takes my brothers away. When he walks back with a bullet in his head, right in the center of his forehead. Tears Bloodstream down his face from his tear ducts. The fire starts to dim down and he says,

"Your end is coming, something is coming." He fades away into smoke, my hands shake, and my knees start wobbling. The room gets lighter again and then changes when I open my eyes. I am crying and shaking in what seems to be a newer fancier bed. This isn't the first time my dreams have spoken to me.

The room is different and the door looks like one of a home.

Where am I?

Seeing the room, I immediately understand why people take flowers to hospital rooms. The room looks like every shade of gray entered the room and decided to stay. Its very boring.

I take a peek around the room, it looks like a hospital. My arm feels a lot better than it did before. I wipe my tears with the blanket. My mama opens the door, she walks over to the bedside.

"I had them transfer you to a place I trusted." Her eyes are full of so much worry and a type of something I have never seen in them before. I can't explain it, it's like she has seen a ghost. She looks at me and smiles a sweet smile and then she holds my cheek.

"What hospital am I in?" I feel more hydrated than at the last hospital. That's when I notice bags of fluid, filling the IVs.

"A very private one, that should take care of you better." She explains, moving my hair out of my face and from my sticky forehead.

"I am going to go grab a rag and some water to wipe you down a bit." She exits the room and comes back minutes later.

What I need is a shower and some deodorant. Starting to feel very musty.

She wipes my forehead down carefully with her wonderful mother's touch. I instantly feel cooler and better.

"Looks like I am not going home tomorrow." I sigh looking over at my arm, regretting that sigh right now because that made an ache hit my shoulder.

"You will be here for at least a week. They want to monitor you and make sure you heal upright. "

"Okay, mama." As I say this I look over at the door and a crack is opened. I can see the eyes of a person who looks familiar. I just can't pinpoint why. Maybe it was an accident and that is why I can not figure out who the person is.

"Mama, who is that?" I ask, my head spinning a bit as my left arm lifts and points to the person behind the door.

"Probably, the doctor peeking in on us." I know that is a lie because I inherited her lie detecting skills. She was the worst at convincing us that Santa Claus was real or with the tooth fairy or any other mythical being you get told about as a kid.

"What is this place? To be frank this is a bedroom that has been turned into a hospital-like room." She looks everywhere, but where I am at the moment. Her gaze hits the floor, the ceiling, and the door and it finally is back on me.

"I called in an old friend to have you taken care of. The hospital almost made me lose you. I couldn't let them keep you there. Here it is a lot better, the doctors are the best in the world and he will only be focused on you."

"What old friend?" All her old friends do not have these kinds of connections. I have a personal doctor now and I am in a fancy room.

"Me," a man who are at least 6'7 walks in. I have seen this man before. He was the one peeking through the door.

"Alicia, I think it's time for us to talk." My mom says getting up from the rocking chair, I just realized she was sitting on it.

"Who's we?" I ask this as I glance at the very tall man, with dark hair that has gray bleeding through it, green eyes, and a very well-maintained build. He has to be in his fifties, he looks at my mother as if she is the only girl in the world.

Dad?

This can't be, he abandoned us.

"Listen, sweetie, I left to protect you and your mom. " He walks closer and the smell of blackcurrant, bergamot, apple, and pineapple. I remember the bottle too.

It's from a bottle named Creed Aventis. My mom had a bottle of it for years, she tried to throw it away when she got with my stepdad. But young me took it out of the trash. That bottle is over twenty years old now.

"Now, listen to us." My mom says walking over to him to pull him over to where I am. Like a dog on a leash. He gets pulled over to me.

All I can do is listen, it's not like I have the strength to get up, run, slam the door, and cry.

I went through so many years of crying and being so upset I didn't have a father to go to daddy-daughter dances to. Don't know if I should hate him, but looking at him right now reminds me of the way I used to look at him as a child.

"What if I don't want to listen?" I bluntly ask, not wanting to hear from him. My mom is taken aback by this question.

"I promise you will understand it. You will know the sacrifices that we made to keep you safe." He explains and a feeling inside of me kind of wants me to listen to him. Why not hear him out? What is the worst that could be said that I haven't thought about already?

"Fine, talk." If I could fold my arms together without screaming in pain I would. Instead, I fold my tired legs together.

My mom opens her mouth but then is stopped by the sperm donor.

"Honey, I know you are probably mad at me. But I will tell you it all." He towers over the bed and then gets on his knees. My mother pulls the rocking chair over to the bed.

The last time this man got down on one knee he disappeared for twenty-two years.

My mom and dad are in the same room, I never thought I would see this day.

Never thought I would ever see him again, he was practically dead to me. His eyes which used to be filled with so much passion and love have darkened. Everything about him is different, besides the way he smells. He goes to speak and I break down crying. The last few days have been stressful and this is too much. Calming myself down I take deep breaths. I just want to go home, is that too much to ask?

After a few minutes pass and I have stopped crying he goes to speak.

"You have to know your mother and me. We love you dearly. What we did was to ensure everyone's safety. Also, your grandmother wasn't a big fan of ours, same with gramps." He explains looking into my eyes with a cold stare. This man hasn't had love in his life for so long that it shed away like a shell and now he sits here on his knees a shadow of the man he used to be. His physical appearance might look well, but mentally he is lacking a lot. He clears his throat again to speak and I notice the way my mom still looks at him. She is still in love with this man, even though she remarried. The look in her eyes and posture says it all. She blushes as if I caught her. Clearing her throat she straightens herself out.

Is she going to get back to him?