You're the Reason - J. Nathan Page 0,57
his shoulder. “He’s the biggest dealer on campus.” He spun Ryan away from the wall so he faced the door. “I have a feeling he’s been drugging girls for quite some time.”
My eyes shot to Ryan who kept his eyes down. “Did you do this?”
He didn’t look at me or say anything.
I jumped up and circled in front of him. “DID. YOU. DO. THIS. TO. HER?!?”
He forced his eyes up. They were cold and detached.
I lifted my hand and smacked him across the face, the thwack echoing through the room. I spun around and hurried back to Val, holding her hand and telling her it was gonna be all right as my entire body shook with fear, anger, and confusion.
Two more officers entered the room.
“Take him downstairs,” Chase told them.
The taller officer grabbed Ryan by the arm and marched him out of the room.
“Is the medic on his way?” Chase asked the other officer.
The officer nodded before walking over to Valerie and checking her vitals.
“Is she gonna be okay?” I asked him.
“The EMTs will be here any second,” he said before leaving the room.
“I told you not to be here,” Chase said through gritted teeth, his eyes burning into mine.
“Why? So, you could keep lying to me?”
“You have to know I couldn’t tell you,” he said.
More officers entered the room with two EMTs.
“What happened?” one of the EMTs asked me.
“She was drugged. That’s all I know.”
As they took her vitals, I searched the room for her clothes which were folded on Ryan’s dresser. I’d been in Valerie’s room enough times to know she never folded her clothes. That snake. My eyes welled up as I grabbed the clothes. “I’d like to go with her.”
The EMTs nodded as they moved her onto a stretcher.
I avoided Chase’s gaze as I moved out of the room by Valerie’s side. She needed me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Valerie’s heart monitor beeped monotonously as I sat in the chair beside her hospital bed. She’d been unconscious since we arrived, though the nurses assured me she’d be coming out of it soon. I checked my phone for the time. Three in the morning. And Chase still hadn’t called.
I guess I wasn’t surprised.
Nothing pertaining to him—or Ryan for that matter—could surprise me now.
How had I been so blind?
He hid a major part of his life, and I fell for his deceit—his facade—hook, line, and sinker. He must’ve thought I was so stupid. So naïve. Why hadn’t I believed Madame Rose when she said there were secrets being withheld from me? She even warned me about Chase and I didn’t believe her.
Sitting at Valerie’s bedside had given me time to think. Time to replay every moment with Chase. Every interaction. Every promise he made to me. But none of it added up to anything real. Anything tangible I could grasp onto. It had all been a lie. A grand manipulation to bring down the college drug dealer.
“Sophia?” Valerie whispered.
“Val?” Though her eyes were barely cracked, I leaned in so she could see me. “Are you okay?”
“Thank…you,” she whispered.
“I’m just happy you’re awake. Let me get the nurse.”
“I’m so tired. I just need to sleep.”
“Sleep. I’ll be right here. I promise. You can’t get rid of me even if you try.”
“BFF,” she whispered.
Tears glossed my vision. “Sleep.”
The soft purrs leaving her told me she’d already fallen asleep.
I stood from my chair and walked out into the hallway. The sterile bleach stench hit me as I walked to the nurse’s station.
The nurse on duty glanced up from her computer station.
“Valerie just woke up.”
“Is she in any pain?”
“She said she was tired and then fell back asleep.”
“Then let her sleep. Her body needs it.”
I nodded.
“I’ll come check on her in a little bit,” she assured me.
“Thank you.” I returned to Valerie’s room and dropped into the hard chair I’d been in since arriving. The intensity of the night, mixed with the emptiness occupying my chest, was too much for me to handle. I curled into a ball in the chair and rested my head on my knees. I closed my eyes and prayed that sleep would pull me under. And maybe then, after I woke up, I’d find it was all just a terrible dream.
***
“Sophia?”
My head jolted up. My eyes whipped around, trying to grasp where I was. White walls. Beeping machines. Valerie in a hospital bed. Dammit. “Are you okay?” I asked, my groggy voice sounding nothing like my own.
“I think so,” she said. “What happened?”
“You were drugged.”
She nodded. “I know. I called you,