CHAPTER THREE

LEONA'S POV

Reynolds Miller.

He was the driver!

I felt my head take a 360 spin as I tried to ground myself in the realization that my best friend could be dead and it would be because of her shitty ex boyfriend.

I soon snapped out my realization and rushed forward to help Maddy, who was actively being squeezed by car against the cafe windows.

Tears started rolling down my cheeks before I could stop them, she was still conscious but barely breathing.

“Maddy…” I slurred. “Please stay with me okay. I’ll get help now, just don’t give up on me now…please…please.” I burst into tears and scrambled for my phone, trying to make a call despite my shaking hands.

I quickly got on the line and dialed 911. “Hello…I…my…she’s hurt. Maddy is dying” I tried to talk between tears.

“Hey, hey. Calm down, breathe and tell me what’s happening.” The dispatch caller said, trying to calm me down, but nothing could calm me down other than seeing Maddy well and unharmed again.

“It was a truck, it hit her. She’s badly injured.” I finally managed to say out loud.

“Okay love. Just stay where you are, we’ll track your location and get to you immediately.”

They came as quickly as possible, with the police and an emergency truck.

The car was slightly shifted, just so that she could be moved out and then she was slowly brought out from the sandwiched car.

She was drenched in blood and cuts, I rushed to her side, crying hysterically. “Maddy, Maddy, can you hear me?” 

“Maddy please stay with me, I need you.” I cried, but I got pulled away as she was being loaded onto the stretcher and into the ambulance.

I tried to go with her, and was met with the same pair of hands that held me earlier. The paramedics, they offered me a blanket and a bottle of water still trying to calm me down.

But all I could do in that moment was cry, I cried for minutes, maybe hours.

All of this was my fault, if I had never come onto her today she wouldn’t need to leave the house, she’d still be crying about Reynolds by now.

She would have been sad, yes. But unharmed and alive. Fuck, why do I have to always ruin every good thing that comes my way.

I could have just held back. Buried my feelings, never spoken of them.

“Hey Kiddo.” A male voice said from behind me, I turned around to see Mr. Adam.

A stubby caucasian police officer with grey hair at the sides, who had arrested me more times than I could count in the past, for continual violence and maybe busting people’s ass.

“Hey.” I responded, standing up and wiping my face quickly.

He walked towards me with a look that was a mix of pity and concern. Patting me by the shoulder he said. “She’ll be fine, don’t worry. I’ve seen the good she’s done in your life. Stopped sleeping in the cells ever since you met her. God’s not gonna let an angel like her die on you okay?”

“Yeah, okay.” I sniffed, wiping my nose.

“C’mon, let’s go.” He gestured for me to get into his car, so we could leave for the hospital.

The drive to the hospital was long and silent. I stared out the window, praying in my heart that Maddy would survive.

When we finally pulled up at the entrance, I got out and ran as fast as I could upstairs to the emergency wards.

I stopped at the corridors and had to ask for directions. “Hi, hey, hey. I’m, I’m for the ward of an emergency patient brought in some minutes ago. Maddison Alaine. Auburn hair, green eyes, badly injured?”

“She was wheeled into surgery some minutes ago. So you can’t go in there now. I can take you there just to wait, but before that I’d like you to fill out some documents.” The nurse said, already moving me towards the reception.

“Oh..okay.” I responded, following her she brought out some documents and placed them before me.

“So.” She started. “Who are you to the victim? Family? Friend? Spouse?” She asked.

For a minute I could have said spouse, but I quickly pushed that thought away and responded. “I’m a friend. More like family.”

“Okay then. Fill out here and here.” She continued.

Her voice faded into a blur in my mind, because all I could think about was Maddy. When I finished, she led me to the surgery ward, and gave me a seat at the front.

I sat there for minutes, maybe hours. Eventually I started dozing off,  just then the doors of the emergency ward opened and a few doctors walked out.

I rushed towards them immediately. “Doctor, is she going to be okay? How is she?”

The other doctors walked off, but one stood back. She was tall and slender, with her hair in a bun.

She took off her glasses, heaved a sigh of tiredness and then responded. “She’s out of harm's way for now. But she has lost a lot of blood and suffered a severe head injury, which unfortunately has plunged her into a coma.”

I held my breath. I didn’t know if I should have been relieved or disappointed at the news. “So…So..” I stammered. “How…how long will she be in…in…the coma.”

“We are uncertain for now, but we’ll continue to monitor her condition for the time being.” She responded, putting her hands into her pocket.

“Fuck.” I said in tears, dropping my head in my hands. “This is all my fault.”

“Hey, hey.” She said walking towards me. “I see you care about her a lot, but that doesn’t mean you should beat yourself up for it. The driver has been apprehended. Madison is in good hands. So don’t blame yourself for what you didn’t do.”

I wanted to believe her. I really did. But believing her meant ignoring what I saw with my own two eyes. I raised my head to look at her. “Wait, what?”

“Yes, the driver has been apprehended." She responded, giving me a skeptical look.

“Reynolds has been arrested?” I questioned.

“Who’s Reynolds? A drunk middle aged man was driving that truck, he turned himself in after he saw the impact of the accident. Good guy. Bad situation.”

“But…” I started.

Reynolds was the driver of that truck, not some middle aged fuck. I was sure of what I had seen.

“Uhm, do you maybe know where they are now.” I turned to ask her.

“Last I heard they were downstairs, the police are still taking statements.” She responded.

“Thank you, thank you so much. Please take care of Maddison for me.” I said and stood up to leave.

Reynolds was behind this, I was sure of it. And when I get him, he’ll regret ever crossing paths with me. I headed downstairs to confirm what I had heard.

Mr. Adams was standing with a couple of other police officers, and by their vehicles stood a man with his head down.

Judging from the guilty appearance on his face, body build and cuffs around his hand. I figured he was the supposed driver.

“Mr. Adams, can I talk to you for a minute?” I said, calling out to him.

He turned at the sound of my voice. “Yeah. What's the issue kiddo?” He asked, closing the distance between us in a few steps.

“Okay, so. That guy is not the driver. He is not the person I saw driving that truck when maddison got hit.” I said.

He raised a brow at me in confusion and asked. “So if it wasn’t him then who was it?”

“It was Reynolds. Reynolds Miller.”

He went silent for a minute, then started laughing like I had cracked a silly joke. I stood staring at him in disbelief.

“I’m serious, it was Reynolds.”

He stopped for a minute, wiping imaginary tears from his eyes. “So you expect me to believe that Reynolds Miller, the son of  Alexander Miller, a top billionaire and practically the most influential man in this city decided to get into a truck and hit Maddison.”

“Yes. Yes exactly. He was the one driving that truck, I know what I saw. And I saw clearly that it was Reynolds driving it.” I responded in a pleading tone.

“Have you been using again?” He asked, looking at me with a rather serious expression.

“Wait what, no. I’ve been clean for like months now. How could you even ask that.”

“Because you sound like you’re high on drugs again Leona.”

“But you have to believe me, it was really him. You can check the security footage or whatever, it was him!” I tried to convince him, but he raised a hand at me.

“Enough of this joke, you’ve been out of trouble for a while only because of Maddison. But now that she’s down you’re trying to get yourself in a ruckus again.”

“But I—”

“Stay out of this Leona, learn to live without misfortune following you around. And if I find out you’re causing any more trouble I won’t just be locking your ass up this time.” He shut up and walked away.

I stood there boiling with rage. I was definitely going to deal the life out of Reynolds' ass, and by the time I’m done with him, he’d be begging to die.