Chapter Fourteen – Aftermath



Summer’s POV



After a few seconds of trying, my eyes flicked open and I immediately winced from the bright light. “Summer?” My mum’s worried voice floated through the room. “Honey, are you okay?” she asked, stroking my hair.

It took a minute for my vision to focus properly. My parents were sitting beside me; Mum’s eyes were red and puffy. Henry was standing at the end of the bed but no Lewis.

Frowning, I tried to remember what happened after the struggle. “What happened?” I whispered. The dull ache in my stomach was getting worse.

Dad took my hand. “Do you remember anything, sweetheart?”

“I remember the fight and Chantelle had a gun.” Everything suddenly came flooding back as soon as I stopped talking. I was shot. Then there was another three. I gasped, my eyes filling with tears. “Becca?”

“Shh,” Mum cooed, “she’s fine. Only family were allowed in until you woke up. Becca’s in the waiting room with Lewis and his parents.”

“She’s completely fine?” I questioned. “Nothing happened to her?”

Mum shook her head. “Becca’s absolutely fine.”

“What about Chantelle and Clover?” If he got away then I was shot for nothing.

A doctor walked in and smiled. “Hello, Summer, how are you feeling?” She started fussing over the IV that was stuck in my hand. "Any pain?”

“A little in my stomach.”

“Okay, I can increase the morphine slightly and make you more comfortable. You were very lucky, you know, the bullet just missed anything important,” she said with a grin. Lucky that Chantelle was such a crap aim. I should have never allowed Becca to leave the gun down there; I should have taken it back.

“When can I go home?”

The doctor shook her head, smiling. “They all ask that. We’ll see how you’re doing tomorrow but I want to keep you in again tonight. I’ll come back and check on you in a bit,” she told me, scribbling something down on the chart before leaving.

Again? How long had I been in here for? “What’s the time, Mum?”

“Almost four in the afternoon.”

“How long have I been here?”

“You were in surgery at half past four and we got here shortly after. Summer what were you thinking?”

“Dawn,” Dad hissed. “Not now.”

“It’s okay, Dad.” I was expecting that at some point so I would rather get it over with. A knock at the door ended my apology before I could even start. Lewis’ face peered around the corner, followed by his parents and Becca. Lewis looked stressed but as soon as he saw I was okay he his shoulders relaxed. His face turned from concern to anger though.

“Are you okay?” Becca asked as she sat at by my feet.

“Yeah. What happened to Clover and Chantelle?”

Becca half grinned. “She shot him, three times. He’s in this hospital. She didn’t mean to shoot you, she was aiming for him but missed in the struggle.”

I felt relieved when Becca told me Chantelle didn’t mean to hurt me. That meant she wasn’t lost, and wasn’t going to end up like Rose. My face dropped though when I realised what Becca had just said. He’s in the hospital. “He’s here?”

“In intensive care on a life support machine, guarded by two police officers. It’s pretty useless though, I don’t think he’ll wake up from it.”

I stared at her blankly. “We didn’t think he’d escape either.”

“He won’t get near you,” Lewis cut in. “Well, unless you go to him.”

Frowning at his words, I sighed. “Can you give us a minute please?” I asked everyone else while keeping eye contact with him.

Mum squeezed my hand. “Of course. We’ll talk after though, okay?”

“Sure.”

We stayed silent for a few minutes after they left, neither of us knowing what to say or where to start. I knew it should be me though, after all I was the one in the wrong, not him. So I tried sitting up but it was too painful. I winced, gasping as my stomach burned.

“Shit, lay down,” Lewis said, dashing to my side. “Alright?”

I ignored his question and jumped straight into the apology. “I’m so sorry.”

He sighed and sat down, letting go of my hand. “I don’t even know what to say to you.” That hurt, but I could hardly blame him. “Why? I don’t understand why you would go back there. Well, now I know why you wouldn’t come away with me.”

Tears prickled my eyes and I fought to control my emotions. He deserved a proper explanation and apology without me crying through it. “I wanted to so badly but I couldn’t. He needed to pay for what he did.”

“The police were looking for him; he would have been found and locked up again.”

“Would he though? It took the police eight months to find me and that was only because you kept on at them to check him out. He’s a crazy psycho but he’s not stupid, that’s how he got away with everything for so long. Rose and Louise were like family to me and they’re dead because of him, he needed to pay for that,” I explained, my voice was thick with emotion and didn’t even sound like my own.

“You almost died, Summer! I spent eight months going through hell, terrified that I’d never see you again and when I get you back you fucking go looking for the bastard that…” He stopped abruptly and ran his hands down his face. “You were shot and nearly died, for what?”

“I don’t expect you to understand.”

“What did you get out of it exactly?”

I sighed. “He now knows what he did to all of us.”

“He now knows,” Lewis repeated sarcastically. “You risked getting killed just so you could let him know what he’d done. Was it worth it?”

“Yes.” That was the absolute truth. I didn’t expect anyone to understand why we did it. If you haven’t been in our position then of course you would think we were crazy.

“You pushed me away for him,” he whispered to himself.

I sat up that time. Gritting my teeth through the sharp pain, I leant back on my arms. “No, not for him. Nothing I did was for him, it was something I had to do for all those girls as much as me. I didn’t get exactly what I wanted, he didn’t admit he was wrong but he now knows we didn’t want what happened. He knows we never loved him. It was for closure, I guess, and I didn’t mean to push you away. I love you, Lewis.”

He laughed humourlessly. “It really doesn’t seem like it. You were willing to risk your life and leave me just so you could talk to that fucker again.”

“It wasn’t like that,” I said, sighing in frustration. “You’re twisting what I’m saying. I would never choose him over you but that was something I had to do.”

“And you can put it all behind you now can you?”

“I don’t think it’s really that easy but yes, I feel like I can move on now we said to him what we needed to.”

“So the whole thing was a success. Well, that’s great for you.” He stood up and walked over to the window. “When we got the call, I thought I’d lost you, even more than I already have. It took me right back to the time Henry told me you were missing and when I got the call saying you’d been found but were in hospital.”

“You haven’t lost me,” I whispered. That wasn’t the truth though. I’d lost myself so how could I expect everyone else to believe they had the old me.

“I never thought you’d do anything so stupid and dangerous. You don’t care about me or your family. Do you have any idea how scared everyone was? Do you even care?”

I frowned angrily. “Of course I care.”

“Yeah,” he scoffed, sighing as he looked at me. “Shit, I’m sorry.” He sat down and took my hand. “We’ll talk about this another time; I shouldn’t have done it here. I love you.” His lips gently pressed against my forehead, I barely felt the contact. It was like he was afraid to touch me in case I broke or something.

My parents, Lewis’, Henry and Becca all came back in shortly after. Lewis stayed by my side, holding my hand loosely and stroking my knuckles with his thumb.

“Can I come in?” I looked towards the voice. Michael was sticking his head around the door. “How are you feeling, Summer?” he asked, not waiting to see if it actually was okay to come in.

I wanted to yell at him and his stupid cop friends that couldn’t even transfer one guy without screwing it up. Instead I replied, “I’m Fine.”

“That’s good.”

“Why did you really come? What’s going on?”

Lewis automatically moved closer to me, tightening his hand around mine. Even being that mad he was still protective. It made me believe we would be okay in time. “Clover’s condition has changed drastically a few times over the past few hours. He woke up a little while ago and-”

“Did you talk to him?” I cut in.

“Yes I did,” he replied, with a little nod.

“And what did he say?”

Michael scratched his jaw. “He said he was sorry.”

That almost knocked me out again. Clover apologised. “Was that it?” I asked, still reeling in shock. Sorry for what he did to us?

“Yes, that’s it. He fell back into coma shortly after.”

“Do the doctors think he’ll wake up again?”

“They can’t say. Things like that are very complex. He could just wake up again, or he could die.” Everyone started commenting on how it better be the second one but I sat in silence. Whatever was going to happen it wouldn’t change the past. If he died right now it wouldn’t take everything back.

I turned my head to the side and closed my eyes. The drugs were working and making me feel tired, which I was grateful for. I needed to sleep and forget for a bit.

It took two more nights in hospital before they finally released me. I was given pain medication and ordered to rest until the wound had healed. It was getting a little better every day but sill hurt quite a lot.

Mum fussed over me from the second I stepped out of the hospital bed and it hadn’t stopped yet. She’d forgiven me. Both my parents were angry but they tried to understand why I did it. I was grounded though, not that I was planning on going anywhere. It seemed like a strange thing to get grounded over. For most teenagers it was sneaking out or answering back, for me it was sneaking out to confront the man that kidnapped and raped me.

Lewis had been distant and although he’d kissed me and told me he loved me a few times, we’d argued a lot more. I was just going to wait and give him time.

Mum had just left my room, agreeing to give me some time alone to rest. I didn’t really want to sleep, I just wanted the peace. I needed it.

“Hi,” Lewis said, walking into my room with a bag of junk food less than two minutes after Mum left. “Got your favourites.”

“Thanks. How come you’re not at Uni?”

He shrugged. “Couldn’t concentrate.”

That made me feel guilty. He was missing out because of me. “You shouldn’t miss so much. You love your course.”

“It’s fine, Summer, I’ll catch up.” Would he though? He’d already missed so much when he was looking for me. I didn’t want him to throw the year away and have to repeat it because I made a stupid choice.

“What can I do to make it better?” I whispered.

“Got a time machine?” he answered sarcastically. “I don’t know, Sum. I can’t get over how willing you were to put yourself in danger and hurt all of us again. You don’t seem to see how serious it was. If the bullet had been just millimetres to the left you’d be dead.

“But it didn’t, I’m alright.”

“And you have no idea how glad I am that you’re okay. I love you so much and I want you to be able to move on from what happened, but I’m not alright.”

“We’re going to break up aren’t we?” I asked, my eyes filling with tears.

Waiting for him to answer was awful, I held my breath, afraid he was going to say yes. “I really don’t know. I feel…who knows how I feel.”

“Well, do you want to try?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you know, Lewis?”

He turned to me and frowned. “I want Summer. Maybe that’s selfish but I just want you back. You’re a completely different person and I don’t know how to talk to you or how I should act. The choice you made was dangerous and selfish, that’s not you.”

“I want to be the old me but I don’t know how to, I have no idea who I am anymore.”

“Maybe you need time to figure that out, and I need time to sort things out in my head. I think we both need space.”

“We are splitting up then?” I said, my voice cracked as I fought the tears that were close to spilling over. He looked as heartbroken as I felt, his expression showed he didn’t want to but I knew his answer before he even opened his mouth.

“I just think we need to for a bit.”

Turning towards the wall so he wouldn’t see how much it hurt, I bit my lip. As much as I wanted him to change his mind I didn’t want him to feel guilty by watching me fall apart. Lewis deserved more than that. And as much as I hated to admit it, I think I did need to find myself again before I was in a relationship.

“Summer?” he whispered, sounding choked up. Refusing to look, I kept my eyes glued to the wall. If I saw the hurt on his face I would probably beg him to give us another chance, and I didn’t want to do that to either of us. He sighed and stood up. “I love you; please don’t ever think I don’t.”

I wanted to tell him I loved him too but the lump in my throat was too big for me to speak, if I opened my mouth I would probably just burst out crying anyway. As he turned around I looked up at him. A frown fell over his face as he looked out of the window. “Michael’s here.” Michael. The last time he turned up at my house it was to tell us that Clover had escaped. “Whatever it is, it’ll be fine, Summer,” Lewis promised, taking my hand and helping me off the bed.

When people broke up didn’t they just leave? Here Lewis was comforting me and holding my hand. I nodded and followed him out of my room, still clinging to him. Just before we got to the stairs I wiped the stray tears from my face and plastered on a fake smile.

“What’s going on?” Lewis questioned the second he saw Michael. My parents and Henry had gathered around him, waiting for whatever news he had for us.

“I just wanted to come and tell you in person. Clover died an hour ago.”

As he said that I let out sigh of relief. My whole body felt lighter. It was over. Nodding my head, I pulled away from Lewis and walked back up to my room. Ignoring the calls for me to come back, I hurried up the stairs.

I didn’t want to be involved in the celebration I knew would be happening downstairs any minute. It didn’t feel like a win after everything that happened. I’d lost too much. It was simply the end. The end of something horrible, and the start of moving on and finding who I now was.

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ONLY THE EPILOGUE LEFT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

He's deeeeead!!!