Chapter 39

CHAPTER

THIRTY-NINE

EDMUND

Finally reaching her apartment building, I pull to a stop in the middle of the street and scramble from the car. When I get inside, I race toward the elevators and slap my hand against the call button incessantly.

Fuck, this is taking too long.

I barrel through the door into the stairwell and hurtle up the three flights of stairs. Pushing into her hallway, the door to her apartment is splintered in pieces and hangs off the hinges.

“Harper!” I scream as I step into the destroyed apartment. It looks like a fucking bomb went off. The floor is riddled with broken lamps, trinkets, and books from the overturned shelves. The glass crunches under my shoes as I continue to make my way inside, yelling her name again. “Harper!”

Rounding the kitchen island, my heart fucking stops when I see her. Her crumpled body lays among the broken plates and glasses covering the tile floor.

Bruised.

Bloody.

Fucking lifeless.

“Harper,” I exhale her name as I drop to my knees beside her, barely registering the shards of glass piercing my skin. Swiping her blood-matted hair from her face, I slide my hand along her neck, desperately searching for a pulse. A faint heartbeat flutters against my finger, and I breathe for the first time since getting to her. Slipping my hands under her back and thighs, she groans when I scoop her off the ground. Glass clatters to the ground as I lift us both from the floor.

“I know, little rose. I know,” I whisper as I pull her to my chest. “I’ve got you now.”

Holding her tightly to me and trying not to jostle her broken body, I quickly get us downstairs to my abandoned car. Nudging the still ajar driver’s side door with my elbow, I slide in with her on my lap. Her bloodied face rests against my chest as I shift the car into the drive and hurtle toward the hospital.

Racing through traffic, I steer with one hand as much as is possible. My other hand rests on her neck to feel her pulse fluttering against the other to know that she’s still with me.

The light before us turns red, but I refuse to stop. Swerving through the oncoming traffic, I blow through the intersection. Harper moves slightly on my lap, wincing in pain.

“You’re okay. I’ve got you,” I try to comfort her, lightly running my fingers along the side of her neck as I use my grip to gently hold her to me.

Tears fall from between her lashes, trickling down her cheeks and to my hand.

“I know it hurts, little rose,” I mutter against her forehead, wishing I could absorb her pain.

Pain, that is my fault.

“Just a little further,” I continue to talk to her, even though I don’t think she can hear me. “We’re almost there.”

“Ed…” Her eyelids flutter, revealing the broken blood vessels in her eye.

“Shhh.” I breathe a sigh of relief that she’s still fucking here with me.

“Eddie,” she painfully pushes out my name.

“Save your strength.”

“I love you…” she whispers the words as her heavy eyelids begin to close.

“No.” I grit down at her as I pull her tighter to me than I should. “Don’t you do that.”

“I do.” She lightly runs her fingers along my jaw as she continues to whisper breathlessly, “I love you.”

“Don’t you dare fucking say goodbye,” I angrily growl at her.

Her fingers slide from my face, and her body is suddenly lax and heavy against me.

“You aren’t fucking leaving me, Harper,” I yell at her, begging her to hold on just a few minutes longer. “I’m not fucking done with you yet.”

The final minutes to the hospital feel like an eternity. Squealing to a stop outside the emergency room, I wail on the horn for a second before sliding us both out of the car.

Her body is completely limp in my arms, her limbs dangling lifelessly beneath her.

I was too fucking late…

The sliding doors part, and I yell, “Help! I need fucking help!”

People in scrubs swarm us both, quickly putting Harper on a stretcher and whisking her away from me. As though suddenly crippled with an unbearable weight, I fall to my knees on the cold tile floor.

I never told her that I love her, too.