STALKING SAPPHIRE (Sapphire Dubois: Book 1)

Chapter 15

Sapphire had a particular recurring dream that came from a memory...a memory that always started with young Sapphire blowing out the candles on a cake Julia had baked for her.

When Sapphire finally closed her eyes and felt the comfort of sleep taking over, she wished for that dream. So that she could see Julia. Talk to her. But she didn’t dream of her eighth birthday that she had spent with Julia. She dreamt of nothing. A dark nothingness of sleep was all she had. As if it was all she could bear. Nothing.

Antonio woke her up. He was standing above her holding two coffees. She yawned, cracked her neck, and sat upright in the chair where she had curled up to sleep.

“How are you doing?”

Sapphire didn’t know how to answer, so she just took the coffee hoping it would be disgusting. She didn’t deserve good coffee. It was neither good nor bad, so she allowed herself to drink it.

Antonio pulled up the matching chair next to hers and sat down. He turned his eyes to Julia. She looked like an angel lying on the bed of white with her dark hair curling around her face. Tubes and needles stuck out of her body connected to machines and IVs.

When Aston had pulled away, Sapphire thought that was it. Julia was dead and her life would never be the same. When Julia coughed up water and started breathing, Sapphire cried from relief but realized quickly after that something wasn’t right.

She remembered flashes and pieces of Aston pulling her into the back of the ambulance and sitting her down next to Julia on the stretcher. Though she was breathing, Julia’s eyes remained closed. In the ambulance and all the way to the hospital, they remained closed. After several hours, the doctor finally came into the waiting room and explained that Julia had been under water for approximately fifteen minutes. It cut off so much oxygen to the brain that she was now in a coma and the next forty-eight hours were critical. If she woke up, the doctor couldn’t guarantee in what condition it would be.

“How could I have let this happen?” Sapphire said, not letting go of her grip around Julia’s hand.

“You didn’t let anything happen. Things just do,” Antonio answered, letting his eyes rest on Julia.

“How can you be so calm?” she asked, almost annoyed. Since he arrived, he had been calm as a cucumber. He had arranged for Julia’s belongings and even brought Sapphire’s car to the hospital so that she could leave if she wanted to.

“I have to pretend so that I can ignore the fact that it feels like someone is ripping me apart on the inside.” Antonio turned to her and for the first time she could see it in his eyes. Pain. An inhuman amount of pain.

“I’m so sorry, Antonio. I’m so sorry...I just want to make it right. The dinner. She was so hopeful about it and...that was the last time I saw her. We had the worst fight and I said the most selfish things.”

Antonio shook his head. “People have fights. You didn’t know what was going to happen, so don’t put that on yourself.”

“No. It’s not just that. You don’t understand. It really is my fault. She is lying here because of me.”

Antonio locked eyes with her and for a second it looked like he believed her. He opened his mouth to say something when someone knocked on the frame of the open door.

“Can I talk to you for a minute?” Aston asked, nodding to Sapphire.

They walked out of the hospital and sat down on a bench. Aston lit up a cigarette as an older woman was rolled by in a wheelchair with an oxygen tank attached. She and the nurse gave Aston a dirty look, but he didn’t seem to care.