Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 89878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 449(@200wpm)___ 360(@250wpm)___ 300(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 449(@200wpm)___ 360(@250wpm)___ 300(@300wpm)
“I didn’t do anything.”
“Liar!” Lettie shouts, shoving her palms into his chest and pushing him. “What did you do!”
“Lettie, calm down.”
“No, you calm down! My sister is fighting for her life! You were supposed to take care of her! How’d this happen? Were you messed up and driving? You couldn’t care enough to stay sober to keep my sister safe?” She shoves him again.
“I didn’t fuckin’ do this! I wasn’t even with her.”
She stops as his words register. “Who was she with?”
“Price?”
We all whip our heads toward the doctor standing in the open doorway. “Yes!” Lettie hurries over with me close on her heels. “I’m her sister.”
He nods, taking us all in. “She’s in critical condition. We managed to repair her collapsed lung, but the impact also ruptured her spleen. She’s suffered a severe concussion—its full extent remains uncertain until the swelling subsides. Additionally, she has a broken leg; she has three screws in her ankle, but further work on her leg may be required. We’re still assessing the damage to her spinal cord. The next forty-eight hours are crucial.”
“Can I see her?” Lettie asks with a sob.
“We had to put her into a medically induced coma, but you can sit with her.”
I step forward, ready to follow, when Lettie spins around, sticking her hand out. “No. You don’t get to be with her.” She scowls at us both before setting her cold gaze on Noah. “She should never have gone home with you. She was too good for you. And you ruined her.” She leaves without a word, following the doctor’s lead down the corridor.
I stand rooted in place, my mind screaming at me to follow, to hell with what Lettie said, but the doors swing shut, and I realize I missed my opportunity.
“Fuck this,” Noah spits out, taking his fist to the vending machine.
“Noah!” I snap.
“No—fuck this,” he fires back. “And fuck you! This is all your fault. If she dies, this is on you.” Then he storms off, leaving me with the weight of his words.
“Excuse me, sir?” I barely register the woman in scrubs standing in front of me. “Do you need to be checked out?”
“Huh?” I blink, staring down at her.
“You have a pretty bad cut above your eyebrow.”
“It’s fine.”
“Why don’t you at least let me clean it up?”
“I said it’s fine,” I snap. Fuck. “I’m sorry. I—” My pocket buzzes, and I pull out my phone, seeing Craig’s name across my screen. “I’m sorry. Excuse me. What do you know?” I ask, walking away.
“The deceased was Vince Hallstead. According to witnesses, a girl jumped out of the car and ran into traffic. The kid chased after her and restrained her. He tried to drag her back to the car, and when she managed to get free, the kid lost his footing, stumbled, and was hit by a car. Killed him on impact.”
“And Georgia?”
“Said she was completely disoriented. A pedestrian tried to reach her but couldn’t get to her before she stumbled into the lane. The car tried to stop, but it was too late. Is she?”
“She made it through surgery. They have her in a medically induced coma.”
“It’s good the car attempted to stop; it may have been what saved her life.”
Never getting involved with her would have saved her life. “Any word on Veronica?”
“She’s at the station making wild accusations. Just a heads up, she’s not keeping quiet about what she knows regarding your affair. Claims her son found out and was going to tell Noah, which sent Georgia over the edge. She snapped and became completely unhinged. Kidnapped her and her son at gunpoint.”
I grab the back of my neck, toxic rage seeping through my pores. “That fucking bitch. They’re not believing that bullshit, are they?”
“No. Her story’s all over the place. She’s talking in circles about why the two were in the street. Her statement doesn’t match any of the eyewitness accounts. She claims her son was running from Georgia, not the other way around. They’re humoring her for now—she did just lose her son—but without a statement from Georgia, they can’t hold her.”
“I’m going to fucking destroy her.”
“One more thing. Vince made a call shortly before the accident, claiming to have the codes needed to upgrade their system.”
“That’s impossible. The ledger is in a locked safe in my bedroom. Only I have the code.” Doubt coils in my chest as I pull my phone away from my ear and open the surveillance app. I scroll through the timelines, and my breath catches as Vince enters my bedroom and goes straight to the safe. “That piece of—”
“Mr. Blake?”
I whip around at the sound of Lettie’s voice. “I’ll call you back.” I stare at her, trying to decipher her expression. The panic etched across her face causes my stomach to pinch. Grief flickers in her eyes, hitting me like a Mac truck. “Is she…?” My voice cracks.