Chapter 5 - Shattered Dreams

Natalie’s POV

I struggled to open my eyes, my vision still in so much blurriness mixed with white that it took me a while to understand that the beeping sound was from the monitors next to me .

"Eddie?" My voice cracked as it came out, sounding small, like some stranger's.

His head shot up in a flash, relief flickering into his tired eyes. "Nat! Oh, thank God." He leaned over and gripped my hand with both hands. "You scared the hell out of me."

"Where am I? What...what happened?" I blinked, attempting to shake the fog of understanding from my head.

Eddie seemed to close up. He drew a slow breath in, almost as if he was bracing himself with every breath to respond to me. "You were hit, Nat. In the mall parking lot. A drunk driver backed into you and left before anyone could stop him. It was a hit-and-run."

The memories flashed through my mind in fragments- tires screeching, bright white headlights, hearing Eddie yell my name. My heart jumped as I felt myself instinctively touch my stomach.

"Eddie..." My voice trembled, "the baby...?"

Eddie froze. The grip on my hand loosened.

"No," I whispered, shaking my head. "No, no, please don't tell me—"

He began to break down as he said: "Nat...I'm so sorry."

I felt as if all the air left my lungs. The clamor of ringing erupted in my ears again, and I let out some wild wailing sound—something between a scream and a sob. And all of that just crushed my chest so much that I folded in upon myself and gave in to curling in on myself, hugging my stomach, though it was of no use now.

"No! Not my baby! Please, no—" The words were ragged, strangled by tears.

Eddie enveloped me in his arms, holding me without squeezing too tightly. "Shhh, Nat, I'm here. I'm right here." His voice broke, and that was when I understood he was crying with me. "It wasn't your fault. Do you hear me? This wasn't your fault."

The guilt would burn anyways. I had been so careless, so blind, and now… now there was nothing. The tiny hope I hadn't even let myself fully dream about was gone.

The door opened.

And walking in, of all people, was Jake Lawson.

Half the buttons on his shirt were open, and he had ruffled his hair with obvious intention; as he walked in, he popped his hands into his pockets. He looked as if they had plucked him from bed and dragged him to a meeting he didn't care to attend. His eyes flicked once around the room, land on me, and his expression hardly changed. If anything, he looked... inconvenienced.

I rubbed my shaking hands across my damp cheeks, trying to steady myself. "Jake..." My voice cracked. "I lost the baby."

Jake showed no sign of reaction; he showed no sign of movement. He just loitered against the doorframe, jaw stiff.

Eddie leapt to his feet, rage flaring in his eyes: "That is the least you can do! Just stand there! She is falling apart—"

Before Eddie could finish, in walked Dr. Patel, clipboard in hand, briskly, practically running. Her tone softened as she regarded me. "Miss Hayes. The injuries you sustained caused a miscarriage. I am truly sorry for your loss."

That was like a knife stabbing in her heart, even if I already knew.

Jake finally decided to speak, in a cold and clinical voice, "Well. That solves everything then, doesn't it?"

The ensuing silence in the room felt almost unbearably oppressive.

I stared up at him, unblinking, the salt from my dry tears crusted on my cheeks. "What... what did you just say?"

Abruptly Eddie's fury came back, and he shot out with a well-deserved anger toward Jake: "Are you out of your goddamned mind, Jake? Do you hear yourself?"

Jake pushed himself off the frame and strolled into the room, as if it were all a negotiation he had already won. "Let us not play games, Natalie. The only reason there was ever talk of marriage was because of the baby. Now there isn't one. So now there is no reason to pretend anymore."

It was like being hit again when it wasn't a freaking car, but him.

My chest began to rise and fall in a rapid breathing way. "You...you can't mean that. I just lost-"

He interrupted me with a nonchalant shrug. "Yes, I mean it. Why should I chain myself to something I never wanted? The scandal is over. You are free. So am I."

Eddie slammed his palm against the side table, the sound sharp in the room. "Here is a girl broken into pieces, and you stand here talking about freedom? She bore you a child, Jake. You don't bring that responsibility under the rug because it's convenient for you."

Jake's mouth curled into a bitter half-smile. "Responsibility? Don't lecture me, Eddie. You're not part of this."

"What do you mean, not part of this?" Eddie's voice quivered with rage. "I have been here every damn step, picking up the pieces while you were out partying and screwing around! And now, when she needs you the most, you stand there and act like it's a burden? You make me sick."

Thin, raw, my voice broke through their shouting. "Jake...Was it all really nothing to you?"

For a moment, something flickered in his eyes - and then cold indifference took over.

"It was just one night, Natalie. Do not turn it into some fairytale that it was not."

Straight to my chest the words stabbed.

Then as if that was not enough, he dropped the final bombshell. "Besides," he said, smoothing down his shirt as if to prepare himself for a press conference, "The one whose throne you and your dead baby tried to snatch…Cassandra. "

My heart stopped. "Cassandra?"

His smirk widened. "She has everything I need - class,beauty, self esteem. Something you never really had."

Eddie lunged forward like he would throw a punch, but I grasped weakly at his arm. "Don't." My voice shook. My body shook. Everything inside me felt shattered.

Jake turned his back and walked away, stopping only at the door. "Get well soon, Natalie," he chirped, as if waylaid by some small talk, and he walked out, leaving destruction in his wake.

The silence after was deafening. Tears were hot and endless, swallowing me whole as I fell into Eddie's arms and sobbed.

He held me as if I were the most fragile thing in the world, while his hand cradled the back of my head. "Nat... don't let him do this to you. Don't let him convince you that you are nothing. You're worth so much more than that asshole."

But his words couldn't reach me yet. Not with the pieces of my heart scattered at my feet.

Jake Lawson has taken away everything: my child, my dignity, and my hope, and cast away like trash.