Page 109 of Broken Destiny
My pulse thundered violently as I walked beside the stretcher, refusing to let go of her hand. Her fingers felt cold against mine while each breath scraped painfully through my lungs.
“Please be okay,” I murmured under my breath.
The second we entered the emergency room, the staff surrounded her and began assessing her injuries. Someone tried guiding me aside, but I wouldn’t move farther than arm’s reach, needing to feel the rhythm of her pulse beneath my fingers.
A nurse turned toward me, her eyes scanning my face.
“Sir, we need to check you as well,” she said. “You were in the accident too.”
“I’m fine,” I replied sharply, never taking my eyes off Jiya. “Check her first.”
“You could have internal injuries.”
“I said I’m fine.”
The nurse exchanged a quick look with the doctor beside her.
“All right,” the doctor said calmly. “We’ll examine you here.”
I barely acknowledged him.
My attention remained fixed on Jiya as they placed a blood pressure cuff around my arm and shone a light into my eyes. Someone pressed gently along my ribs and shoulders.
“Any dizziness?”
“No.”
“Pain anywhere?”
“No.”
My fingers curled around Jiya’s hand.
The doctor finally nodded.
“You appear to be fine, but we’ll keep an eye on you. If you feel anything unusual, let us know.”
I gave a distracted nod before looking back at Jiya just as another doctor carefully removed the temporary dressing from her head.
The sight of dried blood along her hairline twisted something painfully inside me.
Watching her lie there, unconscious and vulnerable, dragged me somewhere I hadn’t allowed myself to go in years.
The same cold fear crept back in.
The same helplessness.
The same suffocating feeling that I was about to lose her.
It hit me all at once—the memory of her lying in a hospital bed years ago on her birthday, for her heart surgery.
“How is she?” I asked, pulling myself back to the present.
“She’s stable,” the doctor replied while cleaning the wound carefully. “It looks like a concussion and a laceration on her head. We’re going to stitch it now.”
Relief hit me so hard my shoulders nearly sagged.
A concussion.
