Chapter Eleven
Chloe
I awoke to an annoying beeping sound. I tried to open my eyes to see where it was coming from, but failed miserably; it felt like they had been glued shut. I laid there and listened to the never-ending beeps for several minutes before trying to open my eyes again. I made a little more progress this time as I managed to open them enough to see my surroundings. I was in a plain white room with bright lights beating down on me. The light hurt my eyes and I blinked several times, trying to adjust to the brightness of the room.
After my eyes adjusted, I glanced around the room and realized I was in a hospital bed. The annoying beeping sound was coming from some kind of machine sitting next to me. I looked around, confused, as I tried to figure out why I was here. I shifted slightly and a searing pain shot through my ribs. I sucked in a deep breath at both the pain and the memories that started flooding my mind. My mother. She had beat me, apparently bad enough that I was in a hospital room.
Tears stung my eyes as I remembered every blow she had given me. I knew she hated me, but to do this? If there is a next time. She hadn’t just meant to hurt me; she had tried to drown me. In all the years of abuse I had suffered at her hands, I had never feared for my life the way I had by the pool.
I caught movement from the corner of my eye and turned my head. Jordan was sitting in a chair by the window, sound asleep. He looked as bad as I felt; even in sleep his face was drawn tight with worry and his normally clean-shaven face had scruff covering it.
Danny entered the room with a steaming cup in each hand. He smiled at me when he noticed me watching him.
“I see that you’re finally awake.”
I nodded, not trusting my voice at the moment.
“You scared us when you blacked out. We thought she did damage internally,” he said as my eyes widened, “Don’t worry, they checked you over when the paramedics brought you in. You’ve got a couple cracked ribs and you’re beat up, but that’s it.”
“How long have I been here?” I croaked out. My throat felt raw, but at least I could speak.
“Almost twenty-four hours. Jordan hasn’t left your side since they put you in this room. I had to get him something to eat because he wouldn’t even leave for that. He’s been beating himself up, thinking he’s responsible.”
I shook my head. “He’s not.”
“I know, but he thinks you’re going to hate him. I’m surprised he even went to sleep, guess he couldn’t handle it any longer,” he sat both cups on the table next to Jordan, “I need to go get one of the nurses, I’m sure they’ll want to know you’re awake.”
“Wait! Where’s Drake?” I called out as he turned to leave.
“I didn’t call him. I wasn’t sure how much you wanted to tell him and I wanted to wait until you were awake so he wouldn’t freak out.”
“Thank you.”
He nodded as he left the room. A few minutes later he returned with a nurse following him.
“Good to see that you’re awake Chloe! My name is Audrey and I’m your nurse tonight. How are you feeling?” She asked loudly.
At the sound of her voice, Jordan jerked awake in his seat. His eyes instantly found mine and he jumped out of his chair and ran over to me. “You’re awake! Oh thank God, I’ve been freaking out! Are you ok?”
“I’m fine,” I said to both him and the nurse.
Neither looked convinced as Audrey pushed Jordan out of the way and started checking me over. She prodded my ribs and I stifled a scream at the pain it caused.
“Tender?”
Well no shit. “A little.”
“Let me get the doctor and he can talk to you about everything. I need to contact the police and let them know you’re awake as well. I’m sure they’ll want your statement.”
I turned to Jordan and Danny as she left the room. “The police?”
“Yeah, they showed up right before the paramedics. Your mom was gone by then of course but they’ve been searching for her. Jordan and I both gave statements, but I missed all of it and he only caught the end so you’ll need to fill in the rest.”
Even though I knew I shouldn’t, I felt guilty about the police being involved. “Do I have to file charges against her?”
I nearly flinched at the rage that crossed Jordan’s face. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t just ask us that Chloe. She nearly killed you!”
“I know, I just feel guilty. She’s still my mom.”
“Chloe, think about this. She obviously isn’t worried about herself, so you shouldn’t worry about her. Even if you refuse, I’m still filing charges on her; it happened on my property,” Danny said.
I looked down at my hands and saw the tattoo on my wrist that I had gotten with Drake. Now more than ever, it seemed like the perfect choice.
“You’re right; she deserves to be locked up for this. I won’t let her hurt me again.”
Jordan nodded, looking satisfied. “That’s my girl.”
A couple of minutes later, a doctor and two police officers entered my room. The doctor glanced down at the chart in his hand before smiling at me.
“Evening Miss Richards, I’m Dr. Browing. How are you feeling?”
“I’m alright, just a little sore.”
He nodded. “Yes, I bet. You took quite the beating, but the good news is that there isn’t any permanent damage. We’ve tended to the cuts on your face and taped your ribs. I want you to stay one more night just for observation, but if everything stays the same you will be released tomorrow morning.”
I smiled. “That sounds great, thank you.”
“Not a problem, I’m going to prescribe you something for the pain to help with your ribs and overall soreness. If you need more, just contact me and I can write another prescription for you.”
He waved as he left and the two officers stepped forward. Neither one of them looked happy as they stared down at my bruised and battered body.
The younger of the two stepped forward and shook my hand. “Hello Chloe, I’m Officer Daniels and this is Officer Bradley. If you’re feeling up to it, we have a couple of questions for you about last night.”
“Sure, go ahead.” I answered.
He pulled out a small notebook and flipped it open. “Alright, we have the end of the story, but can you tell us what happened from the beginning?”
I nodded. “Sure, I decided to go for a swim. When I got out I started to walk over to get my phone, but my mother came up behind me and grabbed me around my neck. She threw me to the ground and started kicking me, and then she grabbed my hair and started hitting my head against the concrete.”
I looked at Jordan as I spoke and I saw him tensing up more and more with every word I said. I immediately felt guilty for telling the officers all of this with him in the room.
The officer noticed me watching Jordan. “Would you rather we did this without anyone in the room?”
I nodded and Jordan shook his head. “No Chloe, I want to hear it too.”
The officer raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.
“I don’t want to upset you Jordan.”
“I’m already upset, nothing you say will make it worse.”
I sighed before turning my attention back to the officer. “It’s fine. Where was I? Oh yeah, after that she pulled me over to the pool and held my face right above the water. She said something like,“Maybe next time you’ll think about crossing me, if there is a next time.” and then she shoved me under the water.”
My throat closed off as I thought about how much venom she had put into those words.
“And then what happened?” The officer asked.
“I don’t really know for sure. I think Jordan pulled her off of me and then pulled me out of the water. Danny and Allison came running out right after that and then Allison called you guys.”
He nodded as he continued to scribble in his notebook. “Got it, but just one question. What was she talking about when she said you had crossed her?”
Danny spoke up from the corner of the room. “My mother just passed away and left Chloe a substantial amount of money. My aunt thought she would also be getting some of that money as well, but she was sadly mistaken. She is severely addicted to drugs and my mother refused to leave her anything unless she sought treatment. Andrea has it in her head that Chloe is to blame for my mother’s decision, but that’s not the case. My aunt has abused Chloe for years.”
The officer looked at my sympathetically. “Is that true?”
A simple yes was all I could manage to get out.
“Alright then, we’ve got everything we need here. We are already searching for her, but so far she’s disappeared without a trace. As soon as we know something we’ll be in touch, but in the meantime if you can think of anything else just give me a call.” He handed me his card and I smiled.
“I will, thank you.”
After the officers left, Audrey brought in a tray with some soup and jello. “Here you go honey. If you need anything else, just push the call button and I’ll be right in.”
The soup felt like nails as it slid down my tender throat, but I forced myself to finish it. I didn’t want to give them any reason to keep me here longer than necessary. Jordan helped by feeding it to me and I couldn’t help but giggle.
He cocked an eyebrow, “What?”
“Nothing, it’s just some big bad football player is spoon-feeding me soup. If this gets out, it’s going to ruin your macho football player reputation.”
He snorted. “Like I give a damn about my reputation. I’d quit football right now if it meant you weren’t lying in this hospital bed nearly beaten to death. It’s because of my football shit that you’re here anyway.”
“Don’t say that Jordan, she was after me and it would have happened eventually. You can’t blame yourself for another person’s actions.”
“It was my fault. Drake trusted me to take care of you and I let both of you down.”
I sighed as I gave up arguing with him. There was no changing his mind and I was too tired to fight about it anyway. Jordan could be just as stubborn as Drake when he wanted to be.
I forced Danny and Jordan to both go home for the night. I thought I was literally going to have to get up and push Jordan out the door, not that I would have been able to do much, even on a good day.
He finally gave in when I told him he looked like crap and was starting to smell funny. As they walked out the door, he told me that he would be back bright and early the next morning. I had no doubt that he’d stick to his word.
Once they finally left and the night nurse came in to check on me, I grabbed my phone off the cart beside me and unlocked it. Danny had been kind enough to bring it with him the night before and I appreciated his thoughtfulness.
My stomach dropped as I noticed several missed calls and texts from Drake. I read through all of his texts quickly, each one growing more and more concerned. The last one had been sent only an hour before.
Drake: Chloe I’m seriously freaking out over here. I can’t reach you, Danny, OR Jordan. If you don’t answer me soon I’m coming back to check on you!
Me: I’m fine, I’ve been sleeping all day. I caught some kind of stomach bug.
As I hit send, I instantly felt guilty about lying to him yet again. But if I told him what happened he would cancel all of his shows and coming running back to me. I got a reply almost instantly.
Drake: Good God Chloe, you scared the shit out of me. Why the hell wouldn’t Danny and Jordan answer their phones?
Me: I have no idea, I haven’t talked to either of them much today. I’m fine so you can stop worrying, but I am tired so I’m going back to bed. If you don’t hear from me tomorrow, I’m fine.
Drake: Ok. Sorry I pretty much blew up your phone, I just worry about you with your mom being there. I’ll talk to you later. Love you.
I was released the next morning like the doctor had said. After a quick stop at the pharmacy to pick up my pain medication, Jordan drove me straight home and helped me up to my room. I decided that if his football career ever ended, he would make an excellent nurse. He fussed over every little thing, constantly asking me if I was comfortable.
After the fourth time he fluffed my pillows, I pointed to the door. “Enough! You’re going to drive me nuts Jordan, go fluff Danny’s pillows or something!”
He smiled sheepishly. “Sorry Chloe Bear, I just want to make sure you’re comfortable. Do you need another pain pill? Or I can have Allison make you some soup.”
I groaned and threw a pillow over my face. “Just smother me with the damn pillow, it’ll save us both some time.”
He ripped the pillow away and glared at me. “Not funny.”
“Sorry, but seriously I’m fine. Just grab my iPod off the dresser and hand it to me. I’ll just lay here and listen to some music and you can go do something else.”
He walked to my dresser and grabbed my iPod for me. “I’m not leaving you alone again, so you might as well get used to me.”
“She’s not going to come back here Jordan, she’s not that stupid. I’m officially relieving you of your babysitting duties.”
“I’m not taking any chances so you’re stuck with me.”
I snatched the iPod out of his hand. “You have to sleep sometime you know.”
“I will, but I’ll be sleeping in here. If you won’t let me sleep in the bed with you, I’ll just sleep on the floor.”
“You’re going to drive me to drink, I hope you know that.”
He scooted me over and settled down on the bed beside me as he took one of the ear buds from me. “I intend on it, now play us some music.”
We spent the next couple hours listening to some of my favorite artists, such as Three Days Grace, Seether, Disturbed, Papa Roach, Avenged Sevenfold, and several others. Jordan didn’t know half of the songs I played and I spent most of the time telling him about each of the bands while playing what I considered must haves.
By the time evening rolled around, I had him addicted to several new bands and I felt proud of myself. If there was one thing I valued above all else, it was music. When I played some of Drake’s songs, he was as blown away by them as I was.
A soft knock came on the door and Kadi stuck her head in. “Can I come in?”
I pulled the headphones from our ears and motioned for her to enter. “Sure, I was just educating Jordan on real music.”
She smiled as she stepped inside the room and closed the door. “I heard what happened, how are you feeling?”
“I’m fine, just a little sore.”
Her phone dinged and she held it up to read the text. She replied back and held the phone up in the air. “Ugh, I have like no service in this room!”
She finally managed to get it to send and slipped the phone back into her pocket. “Anyway, I feel terrible, if I hadn’t left you alone she never would have had the chance to hurt you.”
“Don’t worry about it, you had no idea she would show up,” I glanced at Jordan, “No one did.”
He frowned but kept his mouth shut.
Kadi gave me a small smile. “That still doesn’t make me feel any better.”
“Everyone needs to stop beating themselves up over it. My mother is the one at fault, no one else.”
I was getting so sick of everyone blaming themselves for something that was completely out of their control.
“Alright, well I just wanted to see how you were doing. I’m going to be out of town for a couple of weeks, so I probably won’t see you for a while,” she said as she walked to the door.
“Ok, where are you going?” I asked.
She paused for a moment before answering. “Uh, I’m going to go stay with my cousin.”
She seemed uncomfortable with my question, but I couldn’t figure out why. I decided to let it go as we said our goodbyes.
Jordan hopped out of bed and grabbed a pair of clothes off the chair beside my dresser. “I’m going to go shower.”
“Have fun, I’ll try to stay out of trouble while you’re gone.” I said as I stuck my tongue out at his back.
He laughed as he walked into the bathroom. “I saw that.”
I spent the next week holed up in my room with only Jordan for company. Danny would stop in from time to time, but I knew he was busy trying to work with Jim to handle his mother’s companies. We spent most of the time watching television or I would call Drake when he wasn’t busy. I promised him that I would try to meet up with him the following week. Jordan didn’t seem happy about me leaving, but he wouldn’t say anything about it. I was worried too, when Drake saw my bruises I knew he would flip.
By the end of the week, I was able to get up and move around the house a bit. I was still sore, but the exercise was helping to loosen my body. I even convinced Jordan to take me across the Ocean Gateway so that we could walk around the boardwalk for a while. I tried to ignore the looks people gave us as they saw the bruises on my face. They had turned a nasty yellow color and I knew I looked horrible.
I laughed out loud when Jordan forced me to stop at The Fractured Prune. “Are you serious right now?” I asked.
“Trust me, they have the best donuts ever!” He said as he ordered us two donuts.
After my first bite, I had to agree. They put all donuts that I had ever had to shame and I made him get me another one before we left.
As we were walking back up the boardwalk to where the car was parked, my phone rang. I pulled it from my pocket and looked at my screen. I was surprised to see that it was Jade calling me.
“Hello?”
“Chloe? Hey it’s Jade. I’m sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if you had talked to Drake lately?”
I could tell that she was worried. “No, it’s been a couple of days. Why?”
“I don’t want you to freak out, but I haven’t been able to find him.”
“What do you mean you can’t find him?” I asked frantically.
“He split after a show the other night and no one has heard from him since. He sent me a text telling me that he was going to a party and now he won’t answer his phone.”
“Oh God, what if he’s hurt? Where are you guys at and I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
She gave me the address of the bar they played at last. “We’ve had to cancel two shows Chloe, this isn’t like him at all.”
“I’m on my way, just call me if you find him.”
I hung up with her and turned to Jordan. “We have to go to Pennsylvania, Drake is missing!”
“Alright, calm down. Let’s go back to Danny’s and pack a few things, then we’ll go.”
Every bad thing possible flashed through my mind as I ran to Jordan’s car. I couldn’t lose Drake, I just couldn’t.