Chapter forty-one.

My eyes fluttered open and, even though they were blurry, landed on a figure at the end of my bed. I tried to sit up but something in my arm made me stop. "What's going on?" I croaked, wiping my eyes to get rid of the sleep.

"In hospital." I had heard that voice before but I couldn't place it... "Your father and those annoying boys have gone to the cafe downstairs for dinner."

"Who are you?"

"I feel offended that you don't remember me, we met only hours before."

"Steve?"

"Bingo." I slowly slid my hand across the bed sheet, trying to find the button to call the nurse in. This man followed me, made me fall and tried to get me to go with him, why the hell would I want him in the hospital room with me? "Sweet, sweet, Mitchie," he sighed and sat in the white plastic chair. "It's been ages since you last saw me, why the negative attitude?"

"Besides the fact that it's your fault I'm in here? You accuse my dad of stealing your ex-wife," I snapped back. I didn't want to talk to him, it would only egg him on to stay but maybe if I let him say what he wanted then he would leave quicker.

"It's not an accusation if it's the truth," he muttered before looking at me. "You probably wonder why I am here."

"No shit, Sherlock."

"I'll let the foul language slid; it's probably the drugs they give you talking." I gave him a flat look. "Your father stole my wife from me and took my kids, that's not good. I haven't seen either of them in years and I think that is unfair, don't you?"

I really didn't like the way he was looking at me, I knew this would probably end bad for me if something was said that he didn't like. I turned my nose up and said, "you must have done something that made her want to leave you." This obviously wasn't the right thing to say...

"How would you know?" He spat.

"Why ask then?!" I threw my hands up before letting them fall back down. This man made no sense. "Look, dude, what did you want from me when you decided that you were going to stalk me home?"

"You live with those boys?" His face twisted from confused to shock in seconds. "Your father lets you live with all those boys raging with hormones?"

"Why do adults always say that? Not all boys are full of hormones, you know. And no, they are my friends; I just call their house my home because I spend a lot of time there." He gave me a look that made it obvious he didn't believe me. I shrugged my shoulders at him before looking around me, my eyes landed on my knee; it was wrapped in a bandage with a silver pin keeping it in place.

"It's nothing major, you lost a bit too much blood that's why you are in here, your knee was just a deep cut." He shrugged as if to say that was fine. I glared at him before sighing and resting my head back.

"Why aren't you leaving?"

"I thought you wanted to know why I followed you."

"You are taking your sweet time about it then." I opened on eye to look at him. "Tell me then."

"I wanted to take something of your fathers that means the world to him." I cowered away from him; he was going to kidnap me? "Don't give me that look, you do mean the world to him."

"You basically told me you are going to kidnap me, you freak!"

"Not any more. That was a one track thought that I realized wouldn't have worked out very well..." It was silent for a few minutes before he finally looked up at me. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Get the hell out! You've told me now I want you to leave," I hissed at him, he stared at me a moment before getting up and walking towards the door.

"Okay, I'll leave for now." He stopped at the door and looked over his shoulder at me. "But this won’t be the last time you see me." The heart monitor stopped beeping before going full speed; I was going to see him again? Was he going to do something to me? With one last evil smile he walked out the room, not sparing a backwards glance.

~

I opened my eyes slowly, trying to listen to the conversation going on between the boys in my hospital room. James and Nora were sitting on the hard chairs in the corner, talking quietly to themselves, Robbie was talking to a nurse, and my father was having an argument with Tony.

"- your fault!" Everyone in the room fell silent as my father accused Tony, I wanted to say something but I wanted to know where he was going with this.

"How is this my fault?!" Tony threw his arms out, nearly knocking Robbie out the way.

"You should have been looking after her! You claim you love her but you haven't done a good job at protecting her!" I could feel everyone sucking in a sharp breath, they could tell Tony was trying to keep his cool.

"If I didn't know she left how as I suppose to know I had to protect her? How was I supposed to know that her father stole another man’s girl?" His voice came out in a growl. "If you didn't take that man’s wife, she wouldn't have been stalked home and in here right now."

"Maybe you should have tried look for her instead of assuming she went home." I wanted to tell him to stop talking, he wasn't getting anywhere, Tony knew he had won but my father was still trying to win - no matter what he has to say.

"Sir-" James got cut off when the nurse came to my side and I had to quickly shut my eyes.

"I need to give her a quick check up, can you please leave the room," she instructed softly, they all reluctantly got up and left the room. "They're gone now, sweetie, you can open your eyes."

I sighed and did so. "Thank you. He would have hurt himself more than he hurt anyone else."

"It's no problem, I noticed you were awake, thought I'd help you out. How you feeling?" She checked the machine for signs of changes. "What happened here?" She pointed to the point where my heart rate had picked up, the point when Steve said he'll see me again.

"It's nothing," I mumbled.

"To help you I need to know," she smiled and sat in the chair. "It's okay to tell me... Did one of them boys come in?" She winked at me; I flushed and shook my head. Her eyes squinted. “There was a man in here earlier, were you awake?" I nodded. "What did he say or do to you?"

"He told me I would see him again." My bottom lip trembled but I tried to hide it before she said anything. She put her hand on top of mine, I quickly looked at her name tag it read Kathy, she gave me a sympathetic smile.

"Honey, you have to tell your family about that."

I shook my head fast. "I can't, and I don't trust them to not doing anything. Don't say anything, please?"

She looked at me before slowly nodding. "You can't keep it from them though, say someday he does visit you, they won't know."

"I will tell them, just let me get out of hospital first," I smiled at her and she returned it.

"Is it okay if we come back in?" Tony appeared at the door, his head poking through the doorway. "Oh, you're awake. How you doing?"

"Fine thank you. Can you get my dad? I need to talk to him." He nodded and closed the door behind him; Kathy stood up and smiled at me.

"I have to get back to work, be good and safe. See you later." I waved bye to her as she exited the room.

"You wanted to talk to me?" My dad slid into a chair and waited for me to talk.

"I want to know how you met Daisy," I narrowed my eyes at him, telling him that he wasn't to lie to me. He ran a hand over his face, a sigh escaping his lip.

"Fine but you're not allowed to judge me until I'm finished." I nodded and let him talk.

"Me and Daisy met when I was working up north for a few weeks, she was with Steve and was unhappy. He had been going out nearly every night, leaving her alone with the twins - they were only a few months old then - she couldn't take it and he couldn't stand that I had become her best friend, in some ways. So... after a few weeks of being with her, I decided to extend the trip a while longer-" I held my hand up and stared at him.

"Where was I?" He met Daisy when I was little and not long after my mother died, so what he done with me, I had no idea.

He shifted in his seat, "Phoebe looked after you for a while..."

"So she's been looking after me better than you have then."

He ignored me and carried on with the story. "She ended up leaving him because he was no good for her and the twins, she stayed with me until she got her own place but we ended up becoming more than friends... After her divorce with Steve ended he accused me of stealing her away because we spent so much time together, she moved back here with me and we lived happily - until recently."

"I don't really know what to think about it..." I rubbed my eyes. "I want to go home. Go see when I can be released from here." He nodded and exited the room.

Do I believe my father, the guy who left me in the care of someone else while he went off for his own life or the man who threatened to kidnap me to get back at my father?

~

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