Chapter 5
"It was a car accident. Liz was in the car too. They said he didn't stand a chance."
The words echo through me and I'm remotely aware that it's Jax's voice reciting them. I can sense him in the distance. I can feel his hands around me but it's as if an abyss has swallowed me whole. Mark is gone. Liz is hurt. Everything in the world is different. It's never going to be the same again.
"He called me," I say the words into Jax's chest, my lips running along his skin. "He kept calling me."
"What?" He leans back slightly. "Ivy, what?"
I shake my head slightly. I can't tell him now. I need to go. I need to go somewhere and do something.
Jax jumps at the sound of my phone ringing again. "We'll stay here today. You can't go to work."
I need to go to work. I have a custom piece that I have to complete before the weekend. "I have to go." I yank back from his embrace and try to push him out of my way. His body is too large. He doesn’t move an inch.
"Ivy." I feel his hands cupping my face. "Please. Stay with me."
I pull my gaze to his face and it's covered in concern. He pushes my hair back behind my ear, his finger lingering to trace a path down my cheek.
"Jax," I whimper as I look up at him. "Mark."
"I know." He pulls me back into his chest and I wind my arms around his waist. "He's gone."
He's gone. The words reverberate throughout me. Mark is gone and I may never know what he wanted to talk to me about.
***
"There's some concern about her family." A middle-aged nurse pats me on the shoulder to get my attention. "No one has come to see her."
I keep staring through the cloudy glass at Liz laying still in the ICU. Her body is motionless. Her thin frame attached to countless tubes and wires.
"I called them," I offer. I had called them. I spoke to Liz's father who said he wanted an update whenever I could provide one but his schedule 'didn't allow' him to get away right now. It took all the strength I could muster in that moment not to scream at him.
"She's in bad shape." She points absentmindedly at the glass. "She's got a long road to recovery."
I can only nod in response. Judging by what Liz's doctor shared with me earlier combined with what I'm seeing with my own two eyes, Liz's life may never be the same again. Both her legs had been crushed on impact when Mark's car had slammed into a guardrail on the West Side Highway. She'd suffered a severe concussion and countless cuts and bruises to her face and torso. She was barely recognizable.
I watch the nurse walk silently down the hallway as I gaze through the glass. She promised me she wouldn't see him again. She swore it was over. Now, her relationship with Mark had changed her life in a way she never could have predicted.
"Ivy?" Jax's voice is in my ear the moment I feel his hand pressing on the small of my back. "Are you ready to go?"
I turn and smile at him noticing that his eyes never leave my face. He hasn't asked about Liz's condition and his only interest was in driving me to the hospital today so I wouldn't be alone. He's never forgiven her for cheating with Mark and for hurting me that day she pushed me in my apartment. That was the day I fled into his arms and realized just how much I needed and wanted him.
"I need to go see June." I drop my gaze to the floor. Bringing up Mark's mother isn't easy but I promised her I'd stop by today to help her deal with some of his funeral arrangements.
"I'll take you." He reaches to take my hand in his. "We'll go see her now."
"You don't have to do that." I want my words to sound lighthearted. I don't want to drag Jax down into this pit of depression and confusion that I'm wallowing in. Even though I've been over Mark for a long time, his death is haunting me in a way I never could have predicted. It's also showing me that Mark had very few people in his life that cared enough about him to even mourn his passing.
"It wasn't an offer, beautiful." He brushes his lips across my hand. "We're doing this together."
I reach to grab his arm as I lean in to him. "Thank you, Jax."