MADDIE
Vera had been lying unconscious in the hospital bed for the past few hours. Time passed so slowly in the hospital, every moment feeling like an eternity until she came back around. I sat next to her on one side of the bed, Blaise on the other, Vera’s mom and Blaise’s dad by the door.
I tore some skin off the inside of my cheek and gnawed on it.
“Ms. Rodriguez,” a nurse said, frowning. “Can I talk to you?”
Ms. Rodriguez, Vera’s mom, nodded and followed her out into the hall, leaving the door ajar. Keeping my gaze on Vera, I inched closer to the door to listen in on whatever this nurse was about to tell Vera’s mom about Vera’s condition.
Their voices were muffled, so I couldn’t quite hear clearly what they were saying, but I caught the word insurance tossed around a couple of times. I rubbed my sweaty palms together, playing with my fingers, because I knew that Ms. Rodriguez couldn’t afford good insurance.
Ms. Rodriguez would forever be in debt because of me. This was my fault.
After about five minutes of them chatting back and forth and seemingly getting nowhere, Mr. Harleen—Blaise’s father—stepped into the hallway and shut the door behind himself so that we couldn’t overhear their conversation anymore.
Blaise sat on the other side of Vera’s bed, clutching her hand tightly, tears in his eyes.
“This is my fault,” I whispered. “I convinced Vera to skip school with me.”
“Maddie,” Blaise growled from across the bed.
I hung my head. “I’m sorry.”
While I had never really been left alone with Blaise because he wasn’t much of a talker to anyone but Vera, I had seen how much they loved each other. And though he didn’t show his emotions on a regular basis, they were written all over his face right now.
Blaise brought Vera’s hand up to his lips and drew his thumbs across her knuckles.
“She wanted me to tell you that she loves you with all her heart,” I whispered.
The room was quiet for a long, long time, Blaise tensing by the moment. And then, suddenly, he burst out into a sob, his cries breaking my heart even more than Vera’s words while she had lain on the concrete, bleeding out.
The door opened, and Ms. Rodriguez and Mr. Harleen walked into the room. Ever since Blaise and Vera had started dating, their parents had become closer and closer, like they used to be years ago.
“Ethan,” Ms. Rodriguez said, staring at Blaise’s father, “you don’t—”
“Luciana, don’t fucking tell me that I don’t have to do anything for your daughter.”
I stared between them, heart pounding. Ms. Rodriguez worked multiple jobs to support Vera and Mateo, her children, and she didn’t like taking money from anyone. But Ethan Harleen wasn’t just anyone to her anymore.
“Thank you,” Ms. Rodriguez finally whispered. “Thank you so much.”
Blaise glanced up from Vera’s bedside. “What happened?”
“Don’t worry about it, Blaise,” his father growled at him.
From what Vera had told me, Blaise and his father had never had the best relationship, but I was glad that he had come to at least support Blaise. Or maybe he was only here for Ms. Rodriguez. Hell, it didn’t matter to me, but Vera was the only person that Blaise had.
“Blaise, why don’t you take Maddie and Mateo to the cafeteria?” Mr. Harleen offered.
“I’m not leaving Vera’s side,” Blaise said.
“You’ve been here all night,” Ms. Rodriguez whispered to him. “Can I spend some time alone with my daughter?”
After another moment of silence, Blaise sighed softly and stood up from his seat. He placed a kiss on her forehead, one last tear dripping down his cheek, and then walked to the door, where Mateo had been standing all night, crying.
“Come on, punk,” Blaise said to him, grabbing on to his shoulder and squeezing.
I stood. “Are you going to be okay?”
“I’ll be fine, sweetheart,” Ms. Rodriguez whispered.
“Do you want anything from the cafeteria?”
“No, but thank you.”
Once I pulled her into a hug because she needed it, I followed Blaise and Mateo into the hallway. While I expected them to head to the café, Blaise stopped at Imani’s door, where Poison was gathered outside with Alec.
“Why don’t you pick us up something in the cafeteria, kid?” Blaise offered Mateo, gently nudging him down the hallway. “Heard that chocolate pudding is good. I gotta talk to Poison for a bit, okay?”
Mateo glanced at me. I shook my head.
“I’ll come down in a couple of minutes. I promise,” I said. After Mateo disappeared down the hallway toward the elevators, I cleared my throat and turned toward Poison. “What’s the plan?”
“The plan is that you’re not getting involved anymore,” Alec growled.
My eyes widened at how aggressive he suddenly was in front of everyone else. “Alec—”
“No, Maddie,” he said between gritted teeth. “You almost died today.”
“But I didn’t.”
“But you fucking will,” Alec said, “if you keep trying to solve everyone’s problems.”
“To solve everyone’s problems?!” I exclaimed. “We were looking for Nicole because she hadn’t been answering any messages and hadn’t shown up at school after the funeral. We thought something had happened to her.”
“And what would have happened to her?” he said. “She’s the police chief’s daughter.”
Blaise stiffened next to me while Poison feigned surprise. Did Alec not know about Nicole? I thought I had told him or that he had heard it from someone else. Maybe he had heard it but didn’t remember because his life had been just as crazy lately.
“Alec,” I whispered, moving forward, wanting to tell him so he could see that what I had done was justified. But I should’ve done it alone and not dragged Vera along with us because I was the one who had gotten her in this mess.
“Not here,” Landon growled, glancing at the cops lingering at the other side of the hall.
“We can talk about specifics back at my place,” Kai offered.
“I’m not leaving the hospital,” I said, arms crossed.
“God, you’re as annoying as Imani,” João said, rolling his eyes.
I snapped my hand around his collar and yanked him toward me, not giving a damn about the consequences. “I get that you think we don’t know what we’re doing, but at least we give a fuck about our friends. We’re smart, and we have connections too. Let us work with you—at least until the end of the year. Nobody will suspect a thing from a group of good girls. We can take down this shitty town forever.”