“That’s a good sign,” I say excitedly as my spine straightens, and I look to her for confirmation.
She shrugs. “He is alive.”
My breath shudders out of me. “When can I see him?”
“Not for a while. Not until he gets into a room, but I’ll send the doctor out to check in with you, okay?”
I grab her hand, clutching to it as I force a sad smile on my face. “Thank you.”
She doesn’t respond. Only nods before pulling away from my grip and heading back inside. As I sit alone on the cement bench outside, my mind is mostly blank. Makeup is smeared across my face, and I realize it will be morning soon. My bones ache with exhaustion, but I can’t sleep. Not anytime soon.
When I see a familiar man crossing the parking lot toward me, his walk rushed and enraged, I sit up and brace myself.
As he charges up to meet me, I stand, squaring my shoulders and preparing myself for what’s about to happen.
“How is he?”
“They put him in a triage room. I think that’s a good sign, but I’m still waiting for an update.”
“Tell me exactly what happened.”
“We were coming out through the back and the guy just ambushed us. He had…a crowbar.”
Emerson winces, clearly mustering his courage to hear this.
“I want to kill that motherfucker,” he grits through his clenched teeth.
“We have security footage. We can give it to the police and get an ID on this guy. He’s one of the protestors—"
“I know it’s one of the protestors,” he snaps, cutting me off. He’s so tense and unhinged, nothing like the calm and collected man I’ve known for over a decade.
He stares at me with wild, tired-looking eyes, before running his hands through his hair and pacing in a circle before coming back toward me.
I ready myself for what I know is coming next.
“So let me get this straight. You and Beau were at the club together?”
Solemnly, I nod.
“What the fuck, Maggie?” he barks. I flinch from the anger in his voice. “My son?”
“It just happened, Emerson—"
He holds up a hand to stop me. “No. You crossed a line and you know it. You don’t fuck your friend’s kid.”
“He’s not a kid,” I reply calmly, feeling my blood starting to boil. I can respect that Emerson is going through a lot as a father, fearing for his child’s life, but he’s wrong. And I’m itching to tell him.
“You fucking knew him as a kid,” he growls, and my brow furrows.
“It’s not like that and you know it.”
“No, I don’t know it,” he says, his voice an octave lower than normal from his fierce temper. “Turns out I don’t know you at all.”
“That was meant to hurt me, and that’s unfair,” I reply, standing tall.
“Unfair? You think that was unfair? You brought my son to our club. You’ve been…” He lets out a frustrated sound. “Behind my back?”
All of the will and discipline to bite my tongue is gone now as the need to fight back builds inside me. “You’re being such a hypocrite!”
He looks up stunned before I continue.
“You fucked his ex-girlfriend. You just married her! You pretend like Beau is so delicate and breakable, but you didn’t hesitate to stomp all over his heart a year ago.”