Because of you (24 page)

“
She’s not here, I looked everywhere. Where could she be? I’m really worried about her.” She’s swinging her arms hysterically, a tear rolling down her face. “I swear, if she’s just messing with me, I’m going to resent her for the rest of my life.”

I put my hands on her shoulders and bend down, so I can look her in the eyes. “Addy, I don’t think she’s messing with you. I’m almost certain something bad happened to her. I think we should go to the police.” She lifts her tearful gaze to mine and gives me a questioning look.

“What? Why the police? What do you know that I don’t?” She has no idea about Caden. Apparently
Aaliyah
didn’t tell her about him. I take a deep breath and take her to my car, explaining everything along the way.

“
I can’t believe she hid this from me. I never would have imagined she went through so much. Poor Aaliyah.” She shakes her head, and I can see she is even more afraid now. “Why didn’t you make her go to the police and report him? Maybe then all of this wouldn’t have happened.”

“
Oh, believe me, my conscience is already tormenting me enough about that. I’m just as worried about her as you are. I love her and I may never see her again. There’s not a thing I wouldn’t do for her. Have you thought about what I’m going through?” I punch the steering wheel, full of anger and regret. “You think it would help if I reported him to the police? Not really. He found her anyway—that was his intention from the very beginning.” Running my hand through my hair, I park in front of the police station.

We hurry to the entrance and step
into the slightly creepy lobby of the police station. On the right a man sporting a beard and long brown hair is sitting, hands cuffed behind his back, throwing us nasty looks. A woman in her thirties, also in handcuffs, is seated next to him. She is wearing a leather mini skirt and knee high boots with very high heels. She’s wearing too much make-up and loudly chewin
g
gum. Two police officers hurry past us, dragging a man who looks like a homeless person, his clothes have holes in them and he looks and smells like he hasn’t showered in a very long time.

“
How can I help you?” we hear and we turn to the voice. A police officer is standing in front of us, his big belly protruding over his pants, his hands on his hips and watching us with a raised eyebrow. “I’m Sergeant Baker.” He extends his hand and we introduce ourselves, and then get straight to the point.

“
Umm, we’d like to report a missing person,” Addison says, lacking confidence. The policeman nods and goes to his station, takes a piece of paper from the desk and hands it to us.

“
Fill this out and bring it to me when you’re finished.” Our gazes fall on the sheet of paper and we read the heading.
The Missing Person Form.
We find free seats and fill out all the necessary information on the form, then hand it to the officer.

“
Here you go, you have all the info, what now?” The officer reads everything with interest, mumbles something to himself, then looks at us.

“
It says here she’s been missing from Saturday night?” We nod.

“
So she’s been missing for two days. Did you check with her friends, family, relatives? Did you ask them if they know where she could be? Did she ever run away from home before, or anything like that?” I get up and slam my hand on the desk and the policeman reaches behind his back to grab his weapon.

“
She didn’t run away, something happened to her!” I lean both my arms on the table and angrily measure him with my eyes.

“
Calm down, son, I’m just following the protocol, we have to explore every possibility.” Still bursting with anger, I turn away from them. Addison leans closer to me.

“
Calm down, Ry, or you’re going to get us in trouble,” she whispers.

“
Calm down? How can I calm down when Aaliyah is in trouble? They’re here to help, and they’re not even moving a finger.” My arms fall helplessly down my body. “What now? We can’t just sit here and wait for them to do their job. We have to do something!” Sergeant Baker approaches us again.

“
We’ll initiate the search procedure and try to find her. Have you contacted all her friends, family and acquaintances?” He repeats the question from earlier and we nod again. The phone in my pocket starts ringing, just as I want to tell the officer about Caden, and I see it’s Noah calling me.

“
What is it? I don’t have time right now,” I say rudely.

“
Hey, man, I’ll be quick, I have bad news.” I roll my eyes, certain it has something to do with Ethan, basketball, or something needs repair in the house. “I’m calling about Aaliyah,” he starts, and I am suddenly all ears.

“
About Aaliyah?” I repeat to make sure I heard him correctly, and swallow. What if she was with him all this time and I didn’t see it? Angry and disappointed I close my eyes, shaking my head.

“
Did you hear me?” he says.

“
What? Are you trying to say she’s been with you for the past two days?” Upset at the thought she would go to Noah so quickly, I want to hang up, but his distressed voice stops me.

“
Aaliyah was attacked—they don’t know if she’s going to make it.” The air is knocked out of my lungs, and I collapse on the bench where the handcuffed man and woman were sitting on earlier. The phone slides from my hands and I stare in front of me blankly.

“
Ry? What is the matter?” Addison looks at me worriedly, and then takes the phone. “Noah? What happened?” Addison is talking on the phone, and all I can hear is her sobs. She’s holding her head in her arms, shaking it. “What happened to her?” I hear when I come to myself. “Oh my God!” she responds. “We’re on our way.” She places the phone in my hand, but I don’t have the strength to hold it, so it falls on the floor. She picks it up, puts it in her purse and pulls me up by my hands. “Come, we must go, Aaliyah is in the hospital.” Still completely shaken, I raise my gaze to her. She looks at me compassionately and I see fear and worry in her eyes. She drags me to the car and we drive to the hospital.

~ * ~

We’re quiet the whole drive and when we get to the hospital, we hurry to the nurses` station. The nurse behind the station is chatting excitedly on the phone, examining her nails. She laughs out loud and writes something down on a piece of paper.

“
Excuse me,” we say impatiently
after we’ve been
standing there for some time, and she’s still chatting away. I slam my hand on the counter, losing my nerves, and she jumps in her chair in surprise. “The conversation can wait, this is an emergency!”

“
I’m sorry, I have to go, a highly strung gentleman can’t wait a couple of minutes. I’ll call you later.” She puts down the phone and looks at us. “What is so urgent that it cannot wait until after my break?” We roll our eyes and tell her what happened to Aaliyah and ask for her room number, so we can go visit her. She scoots her chair closer to the computer and she types in something. “I’m sorry, but the information is confidential. I can only reveal the information about her medical condition to her immediate family.”

I can’t believe this is happening. I fix my hair with my hands, desperate. “Please, tell us how she is. Please,” I beg her. She just shakes her head.

“Unfortunately, I can’t. But you can wait for her uncle to come, and he’ll tell you everything.” Our eyes bulge at the mention of her uncle.

“
Uncle? Who called him?” I ask in fear. “It’s his fault she’s in this condition, whatever it is! You can’t let him near her.” I’m leaning on the counter, taking my anger out on the nurse.

“
Calm down,
sir
, I have no idea what you’re talking about. We called her closest family member and notified him about her condition. This is all I can tell you. Now, please, move away, otherwise I’ll have to call security.” Ignoring her words, I run down the hallway and desperately search for her room. I have to find her and stop Caden from getting his hands on her. Addison is following behind, calling my name, but I don’t stop. I open door after door, until I see Noah. I run to him and attack him with questions.

“
Where is Aaliyah? Is she going to be okay? What are you doing here? What actually happened?

“
Hey, hold your horses, I’ll tell you everything. Let’s sit down.” We’re standing in the middle of a big waiting room, and people are staring at us. When we finally escape the curious glances, we sit down and Noah starts speaking. “Aaliyah was stabbed Saturday night.” He closes his mouth, lips shaking. “A passerby saw someone drug her. When the attacker saw that he was noticed, he stabbed her with a knife and ran away, leaving Aaliyah lying in a pool of blood. The eyewitness quickly called the paramedics. I got a call from Patrick this morning and he told me what happened, because the police came to interrogate him. He found out Aaliyah was the victim and he told the officers he sent her home, because she was distressed. He thought it was weird she didn’t come to work the next day, but he guessed she still wasn’t feeling well and didn’t think much of it. Well, he notified me about what happened and I immediately called you. I was certain you’d want to know.” Addison is shaking and she wraps her hands around her body. I close my eyes, letting the tears I fought so hard to hold back fall freely.

“
Is she going to be okay?” I ask, but I’m afraid to hear the answer. Noah shrugs. “I don’t know, they won’t tell me anything, because I’m not her relative. I only know she was stabbed and that she is still in critical condition. I wouldn’t even know that if I hadn’t overheard the doctor talking to one of her relatives.” Addison and I abruptly stand up.

“
What do you mean, one of her relatives? She doesn’t have any family.” I reply. Noah looks at me in surprise.

“
I’m pretty sure it was a relative. I think he said he was her uncle or something like that.”

“
Oh my God!” Addison screams.

“
Shit!” I yell. “Where is she?”

“
What? Who is where?” Noah gives me a confused look. I approach him and grab him by the shirt.

“
What room is she in? Show me.”

“
Hey, hey, don’t attack me, I didn’t do anything,” Noah defends himself with arms in the air. He points his finger to the room Aaliyah is in, and probably also Caden. I run to the door and grab the door handle to open it, but it’s locked. A sense of dread overwhelms me. I am struck with panic and fear that we’re too late.

“
What are you doing?” Noah stands beside me, watching me. The nurses hear the noise we’re making and they come to see what is happening.

“
Is it normal that the door is locked?” I ask one of them. She looks at me with surprise.

“
Locked? What do you mean? Of course not.” She tries to open the door, but it won’t move. She takes a key card out of her pocket, swipes it and the door opens. We run into the room, what awaits us in the room shocks us all to the bones. Addison lets out a cry of horror, Noah’s head is in his hands, and the nurses take prompt action – one runs to the station to call the security, but I don’t wait for them. I run to the bed, where Aaliyah is lying, and Caden is by her side, holding a pillow over her head. He is startled to see us and he drops the pillow on the floor. Shocked to be caught, he reaches behind his back, but he’s not quick enough, as I ru
n
into him, knocking him to the ground. I hit him hard, but he’s strong and manages to disengage himself from my hold. He returns
the
punch, but I don’t let him go. I punch him hard again and Noah jumps in to help me hold Caden down. Two security guards hurry in and the nurses quickly explain what happened. They cuff him and drag him away, but not before he spits:

“
I hope she dies!” Anger flashes through me, I try to run
after hi
m, but Noah stopps me by grabbing my arm.

“
Hey, he`s going to jail, think about Aaliyah, don`t lose your nerves.” I take a deep breath and fall to my knees, tears running down my cheeks.

Addison is standing by Aaliyah’s side, crying hysterically. A nurse is on the other side of her, performing CPR. My heart stops as I think about the worst case scenario.

“Ry, Aaliyah’s not breathing, she’s not breathing,” Addison screams, panicking. The nurse is trying her best to resuscitate her. Aaliyah’s face is ashen pale, her eyes are closed and she’s not moving.

“
Please, baby, I need you to breathe, I can`t live without you!” I manage to say, before
the
doctor runs into the room and shoos us out of the room
,
so they can do their job.

A few minutes pass before the doctor approaches us, but it feels like hours. We are all looking at him questioningly. We fear the worst, but hope for the best. He
has a se
rious expression
on his face
and I’m afraid of what he’s going to tell us.

“
My name is Doctor Hobbs, and I was on call when Miss Thomas was brought in. She is lucky you were here right now, you saved her life. If you found her a minute later, she would have died from asphyxiation. Something like this has never happened in this hospital before
. I
am truly sorry.” Shaking his head, he continues, but the only thing I hear is that she’s still alive. This is all that matters. She is strong, I’m sure she’s going to pull through.