(Pic from the meme in the group, uncensored.)

Allie

"Daddy!"

Jadon kicks my shin while trying to get over to the other side of the car that nearly killed us. I try to keep my arms around him, but his elbows digging into my ribs feel more like knives and he might win this one.

"Jadon, stop!"

I think I bruised my ribs. Hopefully, they're not broken. When Lucas pushed me, I landed on a rock on my side.

"She hit him, Mommy! We have to help him!"

Squad cars, an ambulance, and a firetruck surround us. A flood of people make their way out in our direction.

"Hands up!" someone yells.

I still can't see Lucas with the cars in my way. Officers surround the car with guns drawn, and I drag Jadon back with me just to get space from them.

"Miss?"

"Vivian Vandenburg, you have the right to remain silent..."

Vivian tried to hit me? Or Lucas?

I overhear an officer announcing Vivian's rights and calling out accusations about a hit and run, reckless driving, and—

"Miss?"

A woman in a blue uniform kneels beside me with gloved hands. She has dark curly hair tied back in a bun. "May we please check you and your son?"

What about Lucas?

She hikes her brows up her forehead. "Miss?" With her eyes narrowed, she speaks over me. "Alberts, grab the boy. She looks like she hit her head pretty bad."

A different set of gloved hands grabs Jadon, and when I clutch him tighter, my ribs burn and I scream.

"Alberts! Take the kid. Jones, get your ass over here and help." She holds my back carefully. "Hold still. I think you have a concussion, too."

"Where's Lucas?" Jadon is here, but what about Lucas? Is he okay?

"Jones, help me get her in the back. She's going. Miss! Miss!"

The last thing I hear is Jadon's shrieks, and I already know. "Daddy, no!"

I don't think he made it.

***

I hate hospitals. The smell, the color, the sounds. The beeping of the monitor things beside me. Before I even open my eyes, I know where I am.

And my dad wanted me to go to medical school.

It's dark outside, and not too bright in my room.

It's the bright, freshly colored, green hair that catches my attention. She's curled up in a chair beside me with a jacket over her like a blanket. Charity rests her head against her hand while she has what looks like the most uncomfortable sleep of her life.

And I don't miss the black makeup smudges under her eyes. She's been crying and now I need to know why. Where is Jadon?

"Charity?" Great. My hoarse voice could be mistaken for one of those people on TV possessed by demons.

Charity jerks her head up and eyes open wide. "Oh fuck, Allie!" Charity rushes to my side, cautious of some tube things hooked up to my arm. "I was so scared."

She covers my hand with both of hers. Hers are much warmer than mine.

"What happened?"

Charity closes her eyes and pulls her brows together. Her lower lip turns out in a pout, like she's trying to stop from crying. "Which asshole do you want to start with? Vivian, Mark, or my brother? By the way, I did not know he was in all of this."

Charity opens her eyes, and I notice they're red and puffy. "Charity?"

"Allie, you have to believe me. I had no idea he was—"

"I know you didn't. I wasn't so sure, either, until he put a gun to my back."

Her jaw drops and hangs wide open. "He held a gun to you?"

Nodding my head, a wave of pain hits, and I want to curl up and die. "He did, and then Vivian took it. She shot the sky and then pointed it at Jadon before Ted forced me in the car."

"I'll kill him," she says. "Not my little nephew. Nobody—especially not Vivian Vandenbitch—threatens my little Jadon." She swallows and leans in. "She's here, actually."

That instinctual hair on the back of my neck rises to attention. "She's here?"

How is she free?

Charity rolls her eyes. "She's chained to her bed. Broke a finger or something and claims she has a head injury. They're keeping her overnight and then she's going to jail."

Good.

"Where's Jadon? What about Lucas?"

Charity blows out a breath. "Well, Jadon is fine. He's in the other room right now with your dad and Lucas." She bites on her lip nervously before continuing. "Vivian hit your dad, Allie. He has a fractured knee and a broken hip."

Oh, my gosh.

"Is he okay?"

"He's fine. He just won't be getting around as much for a few weeks. Lucas is a different story, Allie."

And now I feel sick listening to her voice drop like that.

"He hasn't woken up yet. The bitch hit him hard, and before he hit the ground, Lucas hit the back window of the car you were standing next to. He was bleeding a lot when they got there. I heard them say they were lucky to get there when they did. Now we're just waiting for him to wake up."

My hand covers my mouth. "He's in a coma?"

Charity nods. "Jadon is fine, and I've been checking on him. Lucas' parents are in the room with him, so he's not alone. They just got here an hour ago."

"Charity..." My eyes well up and I don't know what to say or do.

"Allie, you need to relax. Listen, it's Lucas Kennedy. He's going to be fine, I just know it. You can cry right now, but when you go in that room with your son there, you need to be strong, okay?"

I nod, and another wave of pain hits me. Charity notices and pushes a button on something. "Just calling the nurse. They said to let them know when you wake up."

A young, chipper blonde barbie doll saunters into the room wearing forest green scrubs, which magically look good on her since she's an obvious glamazon. "Allie," she smiles. "You're awake."

No duh. "What's going on with Lucas? When will he wake up?"

She blinks and checks me over. "Let's talk about you."

I'd rather not. "My head hurts and I'm fine."

She messes with the tube things behind me. This girl addresses me with one of those disgustingly sweet voices I use when I talk to people on the phone for work. The customer service voice. "No concussion that the doctor could tell, but you had a panic attack." She lifts my arm to show me what looks like a stitch job. "You had a pretty deep cut across your forearm. But ultimately, we wanted to monitor the head bump tonight."

I thought they weren't supposed to let someone sleep if they possibly had a concussion. They must be terrible doctors here.

"I asked you about Lucas."

Nurse... her name badge says Addie. Of course it's something cute. That's such a nurse name and I hate it.

Wow, I hit my head and woke up as a grumpy person.

"Lucas Kennedy," she sighs. I don't like it. "He and I went to high school together, actually." I especially don't like it now because I know what that means if she can manage a dreamy smile when she says his name like that.

Addie pats my hand and wrinkles her lips like she pities me. "It's a family matter, sweetie. You're not family, I understand, so I can't give out patient information."

I hate her.

"She and Lucas have a son together," Charity swoops in like my guardian angel. "They live together, sweetie. You can share anything since Allie jockeys his man stick on the regular and he'll use his heroics from today as an excuse to plant another baby up her v-hole."

In any other situation, I'd bury my face with embarrassment. However, Addie has information and doesn't want to share. Also, my head still hurts, so I can't just bury it without more waves of pain.

Addie's mouth parts open like she wants to say something, then snaps shut.

"It's fine," I say. "Charity, we can just talk to his parents."

Addie finishes checking whatever she needs to check and mentions something about a doctor coming by soon. I don't care. I'm fine. It would be nice if they would take the tube needle thing and remove the other crap they have attached to me so I can get out of this damn bed.

When she leaves, Charity waits until the coast is clear to laugh. "Did you see her face?"

Yes, I saw everything. I don't have trust issues as far as Lucas is concerned, so that nurse can go flirty smile wherever else. "Charity, what else is going on?"

She groans. "Fuck, okay. Vivian... yeah, jail tomorrow. My idiot brother has a lot of breaks. He busted his jaw, has a broken neck, and lost some teeth." Charity snickers. "It's bad timing, but I wonder if the dudes in prison will appreciate the gum action."

I'm not impressed. "That's all you have? Gum action?"

She smacks my leg. "Anyway, the cops looked in the rentals. Found some incriminating shit." She stretches her arms and sighs. "They arrested Mark Vandenburg, though he already made bail, so that sucked. I went into my brother's place and found a box with lots of emails between my brother and a mysterious person named M. V."

Mark.

Charity points to the chair beside her where the box is sitting. It has a lid and a label on the side that says Office Stuff. "This hospital is infested with those uniform assholes, and I'm waiting it out until there's at least a sexy cop that could be mistaken as a stripper dressed as a cop. Then I'll hand it over. I'm sure it's evidence of some sort that will hurt my brother, but help my best friend who did nothing wrong."

"Is this a dream? First, I find out Mark wants me gone, then he threatens me. I find out he's my father and then he paid off someone to give his wife medical treatment so my mom would die. What's next?"

My life feels like a soap opera. Next, there will be a new ultra-dramatic drop, and everything will crash once again.

I just want to make fancy vegan tacos and serve them at parties along with coconut ice cream. And I want to take Jadon shopping for a Halloween costume three times when he gets bored with his first two costumes that I buy way too early. Then, I want to go to that snow cabin thing Lucas mentioned and make snowmen or see a moose.

I don't know. Normal things.

Charity rolls her eyes and lays her head on my lap. "You've got daddy issues. You're supposed to be perfect, Allie. What am I supposed to do now? I'm the one with issues while you're the sweet angel. Now I have to clean up my act to balance us out again."

She's doing a fine job of distracting me from worrying.

There's a shadow in the doorway, and Joel walks in. I assumed Lucas' best friend would be close by since Lucas was talking about working with Joel to investigate Mark and the accident.

Joel manages half of a smile with what looks like coffee or something in his hand. "Hey, Allie."

Charity jerks her head around and Joel nods his head at her. "Cherry."

Charity snarls. "Don't you dare call me that, asshole. What the hell are you doing here?"

Joel ignores her and looks back at me. "Glad to see you're awake."

He'll be able to tell me whatever I need to know. I know he will. "How's Lucas?"

"He's out. No news yet." Joel clicks his tongue. "Mark is out right now, but he's under police watch at his house. There are news vans and reporters camped outside his house, so they'll find out all his secrets soon enough."

Me. He means they'll find out about me.

Joel takes a drink of his coffee and points to the box beside Charity. "What's that?"

Charity shoves it toward him without a glance. Joel removes the lid and looks through the papers. "Ah, good. This will help." Joel shoves the box on the floor and takes the seat beside Charity.

She scoots away from him, only for Joel to scoot closer to her. Charity scoots her chair one more inch and Joel takes two inches. I wonder if she has her gun with her. She's crazy enough she might point it at him in here if he hits the right nerve.

"Joel, is he going to be charged with assault?"

With a blank face, he says, "Who, Ted?"

"Lucas."

"Why would he be charged with assault? He tried to help Ted out of the car and Ted attacked him. Lucas was defending himself."

Joel and I stare at one another until I have to blink before my eyes burn. My headache is gone, so that's a positive note.

"I saw—"

"Lucas trying to help Ted. I know. I saw the whole thing myself, Allie, while you were barely conscious and unable to witness the event in full. I was driving up just as it happened. I saw the entire scene."

Did I miss something?

Joel relaxes and crosses his ankle over his leg, bumping it against Charity. "They found some fake passports and tickets in the crushed trunk of Ted's car. Some zip ties and duct tape. A little computer work and I found the tickets were purchased on the credit card of one M. Vandenburg."

There's no way this is happening and falling into place like this. Not a chance.

"When Ted can provide some answers, and after I've looked through the paperwork here, he and I are going to have a little chat about his boyfriend, Mark. I foresee Mark missing his next vacation while he's in a cell making new friends. Vivian will not receive special treatment after the next four hours. Their lawyers are annoying little fucks, but we have a good chief with a backbone. As for Ted, I wouldn't be surprised if he takes a plea deal, Allie. He might be the answer to all of this, so he may get a shorter sentence."

Kidnapping. That's all I can really think of with Ted. Maybe there's more to it than I realize at the moment.

"We'll take your statement in the morning, okay?"

"Okay." I don't feel so defeated, but all I want to know is that Lucas is going to wake up and that Jadon will have his dad. "How was my dad when you were in there?"

"Your dad is fine. His girlfriend snuck in a cheeseburger after the doctors told him his cholesterol was too high again."

Sounds about right. "Thanks, Joel."

"If I know Lucas," he says, "he's going to pull through. I'm not a medical person, but I've known him my entire life and I can say it with confidence that Lucas fucking Kennedy is bigger than some damn hit to his head. He's a lucky son of a bitch, and there's no way he's going to let you or that little boy go just yet." Joel takes my hand, and I want to break down now.

"You should have seen the way he looked when he first told me about you."

"When he found out about Jadon?"

Joel shakes his head. "I mean, when he first met you. He didn't know your name or anything, but he spent weeks looking for you. He said you were something, and he was really disappointed when he couldn't find you."

I didn't know that.

"He's not going anywhere, Allie. He's finally found the girl that got away and things are set for you guys. Now is when you get that happy little family life. Just wait for him to wake up from his little wet dream about you and Lucas will be back to annoying the shit out of us all in no time."

Charity scoffs. "You know, you were almost sweet for like a second and then you ruined it."

Joel leans in to her, inches from her ear, with a sadistic grin on his face. "I missed you too, Cherry. Welcome back home. This should be fun."

Charity rolls her eyes and I feel like an intruder in... whatever this is. I just know she hates him.

"There's nothing fun between you and me, Joel. Get that through your thick head."

"Oh, you still remember my thick head, huh? You miss it?"

Umm...

"No, actually, I don't. I've moved on, and it's clear you haven't. Perhaps I can suggest Katrina Vandenburg, since she's recently single and will need someone to feed her habits. Sounds perfect for you. One slut for another."

Joel chuckles and stands up, taking the box Charity brought. He looks at me and smiles. "Stay positive, Allie, okay? That's all you can do right now. In the meantime, let us do our jobs to lock these sons of bitches up." Joel looks down at Charity and winks. "You're suspicious, Charity. You might be involved with your brother on this."

"Oh, really? What are you going to do? Interrogate me? Put me in handcuffs or something?"

"That's exactly what I'm going to do."

Joel turns on his heel, whistling, and struts out of the room.

What just happened?