Lovers

Chapter 11

Sky

I moan as I take the first bite of my burger.

"That good huh?" Ethan smiles as he eats his burger. I fed Xander a few minutes ago, and now he is fast asleep.

"Yes!" We continue eating the burgers inside the car before we head back to my house.

"I should take him up to his room." Layla sings a lullaby as she heads upstairs.

"Are you ready to hit the road again?" He doesn't seem happy about it as he locks the door behind him.

"Is it a long drive?" I ask. I dust the crumbs on the seat before sitting on it and buckling in.

"An hour and a half." He turns to me and pulls a blanket from the back.

"You should take a nap." I mumble a thank you and get comfortable. After begging and asking questions earlier, I got nothing out of him.

It takes twenty minutes before I fall asleep.

**

"Hey... Sky?" I feel a hand shake my shoulders but I snuggle further into the seat.

"Love, it is time to get up." I groan and sit up while rubbing the sleep off my eyes. He smiles and wipes the corner of my mouth.

"You had something." I blush and swipe my hand across my mouth and face.

"Thank you!" He gets out first and I check myself in the mirror before getting out. My steps falter as I scan my surroundings.

"Why are we here?" Goosebumps rise as my eyes read the sign: Hope Behavioral Hospital.

"I need to clear some things before you make your decision." He reaches for my hand, and I take it as people in wheelchairs and nurses walk around the perimeter.

"Okay?" I respond and head inside with him.

"Hello!" The nurse forces out a cheerful greeting. I bet she does her best to bring some brightness to this dark and gloomy mental hospital.

"Hi. I'm here to see Sylvia Chase." The nurse stops what she is doing as she looks at Ethan again.

"Sure thing Sir." She makes a call and presses a few buttons. The doors to the right open and Ethan pulls me along. No further questions asked?

"Who are we visiting?" I ask as I soak up as much information as I can about the hospital.

He doesn't respond as he walks further down the dim lit hallway and takes several turns before finally stopping in front of a door.

I read the name out loud.

"Sylvia Chase?" Once again, my brain comes up with nothing. Who is this lady?

"Who is she?" I try to peek inside but Ethan flips me around to face him. He plants a kiss on my lips before turning me around, with both hands still on my shoulders he guides me to a bench. I sit down slowly as he holds my hands in his.

"The woman I supposedly had sex with on that day." The words slap me as I look Ethan in the eyes.

"Supposedly? Ethan, what the hell is going on?" I lower my voice as a nurse at the end of the hall turns to look at us.

"I-I..." He takes a deep breath and stares into my soul.

"I was drugged the night you saw me with the woman." My mind can't comprehend what is going on and my eyes look out the window and back at him.

"Sky."

"What... she drugged you?" Ethan takes a deep breath and runs his thump over my knuckles.

"That day... I had multiple cups of coffee because of the workload. I don't remember much but the last coffee didn't taste any different from the rest. However, the last cup had remains of a drug."

He massages the back of his neck and sighs.

"My body suddenly felt super heavy and I thought it was because I was working too much. I do remember walking to the couch and trying my hardest to send you a message since you were probably going to wait up for me. But I completely blacked out."

His eyes don't move from mine as he takes a break.

"I woke up abruptly when I heard your voice. I somewhat connected the dots when I saw Sylvia's naked body, but my vision was blurry. I had a huge migraine and my body felt weak. I wanted to run after you but my legs wouldn't move. Sylvia kept rambling on about us having sex. Since I was unconscious—" He closes his eyes and moves his hand back to hold mine.

"—I thought she raped me. I felt gross and disgusted with myself. I couldn't wrap my head around it."

Ethan's eyes slowly look away. My eyes water at the thought of him going through that. How could anyone take advantage of an unconscious person?

"In my state of panic, Sylvia ran away. It took me a moment to process the situation before I called the police. The first few months and year I devoted my time to finding her and narrowing down the people who could be behind this. It was a shit show. Once she was captured my team took matters into their hands. I don't know how she fooled the judge in believing she was mentally unstable and needed help. Up on till now she refuses to tell us who ordered her. However, we do know she has a team. I wanted to bring you here to clear any misunderstandings and worries you might still have. Thankfully, she didn't rape me. I also had to talk to a therapist since the incident destroyed me."

The tears start flowing. My hands slowly move towards his chin.

"Gosh Ethan... you went through a lot." I reach up to connect our foreheads together. He was shaking and my heart shattered. Ethan was always my pillar: strong and brave. But seeing him shake and nervously look around as he talks about that night twists my insides.

"I'm sorry I couldn't reach out to you any sooner. I just needed to deal with this and fix myself. At first, I wanted to do things alone. I didn't trust anyone. Although I did try looking for you, my therapist wanted me to focus on myself and trust people again. In the end, I spoke to your father. I didn't know he was going to do anything to help me. I was more than happy to work with him and rebuilt our relationship before asking him where you were." I planted a kiss on his lips.

"I'm sorry too Ethan. I can list so many excuses to why I didn't contact you and notified you about our baby, but it was mostly the lingering feelings of rejection that stopped me. I know that doesn't justify my actions... however, listening and learning about what happened that day helps me a ton. I think we both needed to sit down and be honest with each other."

Ethan slowly nods and brushes the tears away.

"Mister Anderson?" He pulls away and looks up at the nurse.

"Are you here to see Sylvia?" Her eyes move between the both of us. I look away to brush any further tears from my eyes.

"Yeah. Give me five more minutes." The nurse nods and hands me a tissue packed. I smile kindly and watch her walk inside the room.

"You don't have to meet her if you don't want to. Our team thought Sylvia might tell you something if you were to meet. I was against the idea but our baby might be in danger if we don't capture the other people involved."

"I want to meet her." My voice comes out cold and emotionless. I would do my best to protect our child.

***