Translation of Love - By Alice Montalvo-Tribue Page 0,87
Dad and Gavin chuckle, apparently they’re not so mad at Victor. “We’ll be in the waiting room,” Dad says before he and Gavin walk out.
Nurse Wendy makes no further attempts to kick Victor out. I think she likes him. “Here you go, sweetheart, this will help with the pain.” I take the cup from her and swallow the pills. “Good, the doctor will be in a little later. Just press the call button if you need me.”
When she leaves, I rest my head back against the pillow and Victor pulls his chair closer to the bed. We stare at each other for a while, neither one of us sure of what to say next. Reluctantly, Victor pushes the hair out of my face. I close my eyes when he touches me. It’s an attempt to keep the tears at bay. “I know you think I betrayed you, Love, but I didn’t. When you’re ready, I’ll tell you everything that you need to know.” A single tear escapes from my eyes and trails down my cheek. Victor wipes it away. I open my eyes to look at him and I swear I can see something in his eyes that makes me want to believe that there’s truth in his words. “You may not believe me, but I love you so much, I promise it’ll all make sense to you.”
“I just want to sleep,” I say, too weak to hear anything else. I’m not ready for his words, for explanations. I just want to close my eyes and shut out the world even if just for a little while longer.
The sound of voices wakes me up. “Her vitals are good, she has a concussion, and several bruised ribs. All in all, she was very lucky. We’ll keep her on pain medication but injuries like these take time to heal.”
“When can I take her home?” I recognize Victor’s voice.
“We’ll keep her one more night. You can take her home in the morning.”
“Thanks, Doctor.” I hear the shuffling of feet and I know that I’m alone with Victor again. I choose to keep my eyes closed and attempt to go back to sleep, but before I can doze off, I hear a phone ringing.
“What?” he sounds pissed. “She’s alive, no thanks to you.” I’ve never heard him so angry. “No. I don’t want you here. It doesn’t matter that you’re sorry, it’s too late. I don’t think I can ever forgive you for this.” I hear a beep signaling that his call is over.
“She okay?” It’s my dad.
“Yeah, she’s been asleep for a while. The doctor came in, says she can go home tomorrow.” I can feel his arms rest on the mattress, as he sits down next to me.
“We can take care of her when she gets home if you need to get back to work.”
“I’ll take care of her. I’m not leaving her.” Victor sounds determined. He’s not letting anyone try and get rid of him.
“Good. An officer should be by soon to take her statement. I’ll be in the waiting room if she needs me.”
I must have dozed off again, the sound of Victor calling my name wakes me up. My eyes flutter open. “Hey, Baby. Detective Andrews is here to talk to you.” I nod my head, and try to sit up but I can’t. It hurts to breathe. “No, don’t try to move. I’ll help you,” he says, slowly moving the bed to a semi seated position.
Detective Andrews is okay. He asks me a few questions and sits patiently and listens while I tell him what happened with Brian. It’s hard to get through the story but Victor holds my hand through the entire thing. I steal glances at him while I speak. I can see the anger in his eyes when I describe how Brian slapped, then punched me in the face. The detective asks Victor a couple of questions as well. Victor describes how he found me and how he thought I was dead when he pulled Brian off of me.
“You beat him pretty badly.” The detective says to Victor. “Though, I can’t say he didn’t deserve it. I think I have everything I need for now. I’ll be in touch.” He pulls out a card and hands it to Victor. “Give me a call if either of you think of anything else.” With that, Detective Andrews is gone.
“Are you hungry? They brought your dinner tray in while you were sleeping. It’s just soup but there’s a