Chapter 2

ROSE

"Rose?"

He finally called my name, his voice cold and his eyes unreadable like ice. Memories came crashing back all at once. Ryder Matthew. The man I had disappeared on three years ago after everything we had shared. I swallowed, forcing some air and saliva down my throat because it had suddenly gone dry. You know that feeling of cold, dry winter air? That was exactly how my throat felt.

"We need to take her to the hospital."

Ryder's voice brought me back to my surroundings, and I quickly looked down at my arms. A heartbreaking gasp escaped my mouth. Annie was covered in blood. It finally made sense—the screaming, the chaos, everything. Looking down now, I realized we had been hit by Ryder's bike.

"Annie, please wake up."

I started sobbing, tears immediately streaming down my face. It was like everything I had bottled up for hours had finally come crashing down on me. Catching my best friend, someone I had shared everything with since childhood, sleeping with my husband. My husband, the father of my daughter, calling my daughter a bastard child. I had thought it would not really get to me, but now it was glaringly obvious that I had been lying to myself. Because tell me, why was my child lying in a pool of blood? A child I had been carrying and it's someone that had to bring my attention to what was happening.

Ryder grabbed Annie from me and climbed onto his bike. He signaled to a man beside us, and that was when I finally looked up and noticed the crowd that had gathered around us. I tried to climb onto the bike and take Annie so we could go together, but Ryder did not even give me the chance before driving away. The man he had signaled grabbed my hand and guided me toward another bike, taking my bag with him. He followed the same route Ryder had taken, but Ryder was already out of sight.

We stopped outside the general hospital, and I immediately ran inside. I knew this was the only place Ryder could have brought Annie. Anguish enveloped me, and my brain was asking a thousand questions at once. Where did everything go wrong? But no matter how many times I asked myself, I could not find an answer.

Three years ago, I received a call that changed the course of my life. My parents had both died. It was something no child ever wanted to experience. I had left my little hometown to build a life for myself and make my parents proud after everything they had done for me, and then I received that call. I was devastated. They had both taken poison and left a handwritten note for me. After they were buried, I left North Oak with Maya, my best friend, who was still an orphan like me. I hoped never to return, but now I was here with my daughter, a single mother with nothing to my name.

The thought made me hate myself. If anything happened to my daughter, I would not spare those two. I swore it with everything in my heart.

I arrived at the reception just as Ryder walked in with a nurse. Before I could even ask anything, his voice came. "The little girl you were with is receiving treatment. The doctor said it was just a few scratches. You should get yourself attended to as well."

With that, he started walking toward the exit. I simply let out a smile, a smile I hoped would help me keep calm right now. Ryder was already out of sight, and I understood. I did not expect him to stay and make sure I was okay.

I was admitted into a tiny ward that the nurse explained was opposite the room where the young girl Ryder had brought was being treated. "My daughter. She is my daughter," I weakly explained before my eyes started to drift closed, but not before I noticed the nurse pause for a moment. She simply nodded and fixed the IV on my hand.

"You've lost enough blood, Miss Rose. You have to sleep for a few hours."

The nurse's voice sounded distant and blurred, and that was when it occurred to me that the blood covering the place, and even Annie, had been mine. I smiled with my cracked lips. It was better that I was the one who got hurt. I had protected my little girl, and before long, I drifted into a calm rest as the IV slowly worked its way through my system.