Me Novel 34

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Chapter 34

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I would normally have peeled him away from me, but even I felt so much relief to know that he was fine. He pressed me even tighter. I couldn’t hear the words of anyone around me. I just stayed calm in his embrace. It felt so peaceful that I never wanted to move away from him.

Neil leaned his head against my shoulder, lowering his height, his fingers intertwined in my hair.

I finally wrapped my arms around him, nodding against his chest, “I’m fine,” I whispered, taking in his scent. He still smelled

the same way like expensive flowers, and I didn’t think we could ever be this close again to each other.

Until the nurse came in and directed, “Oh, you should not be standing at all.”

She tried to peel him away from me, but he didn’t budge.

He simply stayed in that position for a while.

Eventually, the nurse had to take his hand and lead him back to the bed, picking up the IVs still connected to him.

Ella’s eyes bore into me the entire time, I could almost swear that my skin was starting to burn from her gaze.

The nurse checked his vitals, “you shouldn’t have rushed here, you’re still recovering from the impact of the crash,” she said in a gentle voice.

She turned to me. “The same goes for you, ma’am.” And then she looked around at the Devons still lingering around. “I think visiting hours are over. Everyone has to leave this room.”

I turned to Neil, whose eyes were fixed on me the entire time, oblivious to the conversations around us. With the way he stared at me, you’d think we were alone.

I looked at him once more before following the nurse’s instructions and making my way out of the room.

As we headed outside, Ella stepped in front of me, trying to talk. “You think you’re sneaky, you think you’re-”

I just shifted out of her way, still feeling weak. I already knew she was going to continue spewing the same nonsense she’d been saying ever since she arrived, like a broken record.

“I’m still talking to you, where do you think you’re going?!” She called behind me while Max put his arms around my shoulders and guided me back to my own room, helping me lay down as the nurse came to hook me up to my IV again.

“Are you okay?” Max asked after a while, we were alone and he had arranged this VIP ward for me.

“When did you get here?” I whispered.

“As soon as I got the call,” he said. He trailed my gaze to the water bottle on the desk and got to his feet, pouring me a glass of water and bringing it to me.

I nodded, gulping it down in seconds, “what about Helen?”

“Don’t worry. She’s safe with my mom,” he assured me, returning the empty cup to the desk and coming to sit next to me. “which brings me to something I need to discuss with you.”

“What’s that?” I frowned, unsure of what he was about to say, shifting my gaze to the ceiling.

He hesitated for a moment, staring at the monitor next to me, “so… after the police reviewed the CCTV footage of your car-”

I cut him off, already defensive. “Yeah, I know what you’re going to say. I should have stayed home, I was foolish, I shouldn’t

have left the house-”

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“No, no.” He shook his head, cutting me off, “that’s not it. Actually, I’m kind of glad you didn’t. Because after reviewing the footage from outside the bar, they realized no one tampered with your car there.”

“What?” I furrowed my brows, looking at him.

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He nodded gravely. “What I’m saying is… they didn’t get to your car outside the bar. It came from,” he trailed off, closing his eyes before finally sighing in defeat, “it came from the house.”

“What?” I repeated, the weight of his words sinking in, instantly sitting up.

“They managed to break into the house discreetly. The police reviewed every second of the footage, but they couldn’t find the exact moment it happened. That just means… the house isn’t secure enough for you either.”

It didn’t make sense and I tried to process everything, the beeping of the monitor next to me suddenly bothering me.

“But I drove there without the brake failing so why only while I was going back home?” I pointed out.

“Yeah, after further inspection, they realized that the bolts on the brakepads were tampered with 1,” he replied, “it was coming loose gradually on your way to the bar, but while driving home, it fell out completely causing the brakes to fail.”

I gasped, panic setting in. “But Helen, she’s in that house! We need to get her out of there!” I attempted to get off the bed, my only thought being my daughter and getting her to safety.

Max held up his hands to calm me down. “No, no. Don’t worry. She’s safe for now.”

“But-”

“I’m not done talking.” His voice was firm but kind. “If we can’t tighten security there, the police and I agree it’s safer to move you to a separate location. Somewhere secure, where you and Helen will be safe.”

Tears welled in my eyes as the reality of the situation settled over me. “I don’t want anything to happen to her.”

I couldn’t believe how careless I had been. I always thought Helen was safe there, but knowing that she could have been in trouble, and I let it happen, I hated myself with all in me..

“Nothing will,” Max promised. “You’re their target, and I’m going to do everything I can to keep both of you safe.”

“So what are you guys thinking of?” I wanted it done as quickly as possible.

“We have a private area where we can keep Helen and you safe. It’s a private house that I own in the district. And not only do we have our own security system, but there will be policemen watching you while we cater to finding out what is wrong.” He gave my hand a gentle squeeze.

I stared at our intertwined hands before looking at his eyes. “Okay, so you’re sure it will be impenetrable?”

“Yes. But that would mean that you wouldn’t be able to go out or go in no matter what.”

“So basically like I’m living in prison just for the time being. How much more time do they need? I don’t think they are doing their job very well. I feel like they’re not taking this seriously.” I was starting to get angry. It felt like this was starting to drag on for too long.

“Because tell me why on earth they arrested somebody and they just dropped the case and it wasn’t the fucking per wasn’t Ella this time because she was in jail at the moment. So who could it have been?”

“But we still need to ask her questions. I’m going to get more proof. We can arrest her, she might be working with someone and-” he said.

“She’s dumb. She cannot orchestrate something this big.” I shook my head, “before she even set the place on fire, she had called the paramedics so they would get to me, she didn’t want me dead, she just thought that was a way to teach me a lesson

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because she’s foolish.”

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“I know. But we should still look out for her.” He obviously agreed with me, but sounded like anything could be a clue at the

moment.

“And we will. But I don’t want us to get distracted while the main culprit is still out there.” I explained, calming a little.

“Alright, I’ll ask for the authorities to discharge you. And we’ll head home.”

I shook my head. “No. I can’t leave now. Neil is still unwell. Until he’s discharged, I’m going to stay.”

His brows furrowed a little when he asked, “what are you talking about?”

“Do you see how many times he’s gotten hurt because of me? I’m not going to just abandon him here.” I frowned.

“But Leah, it’s not safe-”

“I’m not abandoning him we are going to make sure he is fine.” I cut him off.

“Well, you can’t-”

Ignoring him, I got to my feet.

“Okay. I’ll head home. I will arrange your things.” He sighed in defeat, rising up after me.

“Take care of Helen.” I unconsciously smoothened my hair.

“I’ll be right back.”

“Okay.” He raked a hand through his hair, obviously displeased with the fact I was going to see Neil.

But that was also ignored.

The thought that my daughter could be in danger because of me caused my heart to spiral. Things were starting to get serious. Somebody was really after my life. And I had no idea why.

I tried to rack my head to see if there was anyone I could think about. But there wasn’t.

My feet moved me to Neil’s room, where he laid in bed.

The rest of his family were gone by now, so I knelt in front of him, holding his hand.

“Why did you have to get in trouble for my sake?”

I rested my head on his chest.

“You’re here,” his voice called low as he ran his fingers through my hair.

I sat upright with a gasp, jerking up, “you’re awake!”

“I told you it wasn’t safe,” he said in a low voice.

“I know, and you were right.”

He shook his head fast, attempting to sit up, taking my hand in his, “this won’t do, come with me, I can protect you, place for us both to move to, no one will bother you there while the police solves things here, what do you say?”