Forgiven (34 page)

“If you think that I am letting you out of my sight for one minute, then you are sadly mistaken,” I said walking over to Angie to hand her the sandwich.

“Caleb, I can’t stay with you for the next six weeks,” she argued.

I shrugged my shoulders. “Well it’s either I stay with you or you stay with me. So unless your roommates want a guy moving into their apartment, I think it’s safer if you stay with me.”

She shook her head and laughed. “I should’ve known you’d get all over protective of me.”

“You’re damn right,” I said emphatically. “Now stop arguing and eat your sandwich.”

She gave Emily a pointed look before turning her attention to the sandwich on her tray. “Yum, egg sandwich,” she smiled.

We sat eating and talking about school when there was a knock on the door.
Who would be knocking on the door?
The door opened slowly and two police officers walked in.

“I’m sorry to disturb you, my name is Officer Simons and this is my partner Officer Thomas. I was the officer that took the statement about your father. We just need to ask you a few questions, Angelina,” he said politely.

I could see the fear in Angie’s eyes—the last time she talked to the police they told her they were letting her father out of jail. Jillian and Heather looked confused, and I guessed they still had no idea what happened over spring break. That was another thing we had to deal with, his possible court date. I reached over to place my hand on hers. “I’ll be here with you the entire time. I’ve already talked to them, it will be fine,” I tried to reassure her.

“Why don’t we step out for a minute,” Dad suggested.

“Okay, come on ladies. We’ll be right outside if you need us,” Emily said.

The girls followed my parents out of the room. The officer looked over at me. “Are you staying?” he asked.

I felt Angie’s hand twitch in mine. “Please let him stay,” she pleaded with the cops.

“It’s fine with me as long as it’s fine with you,” Officer Simons replied. Angie nodded. “First, we need to ask you for your version of the events last night.”

Angie took a deep breath before starting, explaining the whole story from the moment I broke up with her, Josh convincing her to come over, to the scene when she walked into the apartment.

“He had a knife to Caleb’s throat,” she sniffed. “I…I called 911 right away and I…I was going to stay out of the way until the police arrived, but then…but then Bryan had Caleb pinned underneath him.”

She took a deep breath before continuing. “I was so afraid that I would never get to see him again if this guy killed him, so I ran over and jumped on his back, pulling him to the side so that Caleb could get up.”

Her whole body started to shake. “When I tried to get away from him, he…he…he stabbed me with the knife.” Her body was wracked with sobs. I carefully pulled her into my side to offer the only support I could, and she turned her face into my shoulder. It tore me up inside to hear her tell the story, and I felt tears spring to my eyes. It was because of me all of this happened, and yet here she was in my arms, willing to forgive me. I still wasn’t sure that I deserved someone as wonderful as Angie, but there wasn’t anything in this world that was going to make me push her away again. I loved her and for some unknown reason, she loved me just as much.

I felt Angie slowly get control of her emotions, although the look on Officer Simons face told me that he had something else to say and he knew it was going to upset her. He actually started to shift on his feet—no man liked watching a woman cry, especially someone as sweet as Angie.

“Thank you, Angelina,” he said. “We’ll put your statement in the file. Bryan was medically cleared last night and has been taken into custody. It looks like he’ll be pleading guilty to all the charges.”

Angie pulled her face away from my shoulder. “Thank you, Officer Simons,” she said, sounding relieved. She looked up at me, as I waited for the other shoe to drop.

“Angelina, I need to discuss something else with you,” Officer Simons started to say, but he realized Angie wasn’t paying attention when she didn’t turn around.

I looked down and saw the fear in her eyes. “Angie?” I tilted her face up to mine.

She shook her head at me. She knew what this was about and she wasn’t ready to face it yet. She had been through so much in the last few days that I just wanted to throttle this cop for adding more shit to her plate. But I knew he was just doing his job.

“Angie, we’ll get through this together, whatever it is,” I promised, wiping away her tears.

She nodded and slowly turned her head back to the cops. They both at least had enough grace to look guilty for bringing up her father now.

“Angelina, I was trying to get in touch with you yesterday. Your father’s court date has been set for next Tuesday. Right now he is pleading not guilty, so the Prosecutor may need you to answer some questions. However, your father may see you in the court room and change his plea.”

When Angie only nodded, he walked over and put his hand over hers in a gesture of comfort. “I’m sorry I had to do this to you today. I’m glad to see that you have an amazing support system.”

She wiped the tears from her face. “They’re the best.”

“You have my number, so if you need anything, please call me,” he offered.

“Thank you,” she said gratefully.

“You’re welcome,” he said, giving both of us a quick nod and walking out the door.

I could tell Angie was still shaken by everything, so I lay her down and just held her. I could feel her shoulders shaking with her silent tears. “Shh, baby. Everything will be okay, I promise.”

I continued to rub little circles on her back, trying to calm her down. We were quiet for a long time while she processed everything, but after some time I felt her breathing even out and I knew she had fallen asleep. I didn’t want to leave her, so I decided to close my eyes for a few minutes.

I felt something lightly brush my forehead. I slowly opened my eyes to see Angie staring up at me. I wondered how long I had been asleep. I rubbed my eyes with my free hand, my other one was still wrapped around Angie.

“How long have I been asleep?” I asked groggily.

She picked her cell phone up off of the table. “About two hours.”

I leaned over and kissed her forehead. “Feeling better?”

She sighed, “I’m still scared to face him, but I know you won’t let me do it alone. If you’re there everything will be okay.”

I kissed her quickly on the lips. “I’ll be by your side every step of the way.”

She smiled at me and cuddled in closer. If we weren’t in the hospital, this would be perfect.

A few hours later, Emily came back with clothes and some other stuff for Angie. Since she had to stay in the hospital for the next few days, I was going to spend every moment with her. The hospital staff wouldn’t let me spend the night, so I planned on going home when visiting hours were over and coming back first thing in the morning. I’d already talked to my professors about missing class for the next few days. Surprisingly enough, most of them had heard what happened and were really understanding.

Throughout the week, Angie had tons of visitors. Her room was full of flowers and ‘Get Well’ cards. She sat and talked to everyone. But by Sunday, Angie was more than ready to get out of the hospital. She was getting cranky. She was trying to be as nice as possible to everyone—that was just Angie—but I could tell her patience was wearing thin.

“Ugh, if I don’t get to go home today, I am going to lose my fucking mind,” she groaned.

I shook my head, as I held her hand. “Have some faith. I think today’s the day.”

“It better be,” she huffed, and all I could do was laugh, which turned out to be the wrong thing to do. If looks could kill, I’d have been bleeding on the ground.

Thankfully, Dr. Peterson came in a few minutes later. “Good Morning.”

“Hi, Dr. Peterson. Please tell me I can go home to today,” Angie said, looking hopeful.

“Well first, I want to see how your sutures look and run a few blood tests. If everything looks good, I see no reason you can’t go home today,” he smiled.

Dr. Peterson went over to Angie and lifted her shirt to reveal the cut on the left side of her stomach. I still cringed when I saw it, as I thought of what might have happened. He finished examining her sutures. “Everything looks good. I’m going to have the nurse take some blood, but it shouldn’t take more than a few hours to analyze it. Sound good?”

She let out a relieved breath. “Sounds perfect.”

After Dr. Peterson left the room, I took her hand in mine. “See, all it takes is a positive attitude.”

“Yeah, this coming from the guy who has slept in his own bed every night this week,” she pouted.

I ran my thumb across her bottom lip. “My bed’s not comfortable unless you’re in it with me. Besides, you aren’t staying in your own bed for a while.”

She kissed the pad of my thumb. “True, but your bed feels like mine.”

I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face. How had I gotten so lucky? I leaned into kiss her as Emily walked in, followed by Josh.

“Would you two give it a rest,” she whined.

Angie pulled away. “Really Em?” She turned to Josh, “Hey Josh, how’s the head?”

“Better than it was, I haven’t had a headache today,” he said.

She smiled. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

He smiled back. “I could say the same thing about you.”

Emily put her hands on her hips. “If you guys are done being all mushy, we stopped and grabbed us all some lunch—after we packed up stuff for Angie for the next few weeks.”

“You guys didn’t have to do that.”

Emily rolled her eyes, “Right, and have Mr. Overprotective here, bitch about you having to do it yourself? I don’t think so.”

She turned to direct her glare at me.
Oh shit, here we go
. “And you,” she said pointing at me. “Better realize that you are gonna have to put up with us coming over all the time. You’re not going to keep her from me, just so we’re clear.”

I knew better than to cross Emily—she still scared the shit out of me. I knew I wasn’t the only one when I saw the look on Josh’s face. “Emily, you can come over anytime you want, but there is no way I am letting her out of my sight.”

She shook her head, but smiled. “I know.”

“What did you guys bring for lunch? I’m starving.” Angie asked.

“Cheesesteaks, if that’s okay with you?” Emily replied.

“Oh, Em, I love you. Did you get me the chicken cheesesteak with honey mustard?” Angie almost screeched.

“Of course,” Emily pretended to be offended.

Angie rolled her eyes. “Just give me the damn sandwich.”

I had to hide my laughter otherwise Angie may have actually hurt me. It was hilarious to see her like this. Besides I knew she would calm down when she got the hell out of the hospital. I couldn’t wait for her to be out of there either. I wanted her next to me in my bed. I knew that there wouldn’t be any fooling around for a few weeks, but just having her in my arms was enough for me.

The food was enough of a distraction that she didn’t notice the time passing and was surprised when Dr. Peterson came back to her room. “Well Angie, I have good news. We can let you go today.”

“Awesome,” she practically jumped out of the bed.

“Remember, you are going home with restrictions. First, no strenuous activity—you may go to class tomorrow, but no lifting or exercising of any kind. Second, you need to come back next Tuesday to have your sutures removed. If it’s easier, you can make an appointment with my office and we can do it there.” He turned to me. “Caleb, you’re to come with her and I’ll remove yours as well. Also, I expect you to take excellent care of her. Don’t let her do anything strenuous,” he reminded me.

“I won’t,” I said, giving Angie a pointed look, knowing full well she was going to try and do more than she should. That was part of the reason I wanted her to stay with me. The other part was that we’d wasted enough time, and I wanted to make up for every lost minute.

He shook both mine and Angie’s hand. “I’ll get the nurse to bring the paperwork. Once everything is signed, you guys can get out of here. Caleb, tell your father he needs to visit more often.”

“I will.” I smiled, Angie’s happiness was contagious. While Josh cleaned up lunch, and Emily and Angie packed up her stuff, I called my parents to let them know we would be leaving soon.

I looked around the room. “How are we going to get all of these flowers back to the apartment?”

“Oh, I’m leaving them here. The nurses said they could deliver them to patients who didn’t have any,” she said.

I walked over and pulled her into my arms. “You’re amazing, you know that right?”

She giggled and kissed me on the cheek. A few minutes later the nurse brought in the necessary paperwork for Angie to sign. Once she finished filling out the forms and the nurse went over the restrictions to her activities again, we were on our way out the door. Angie was frustrated that they wouldn’t let her walk out, but I reminded her she only had to wait a few more minutes and then she would be free.

I pulled my car up out front—Emily and Josh were going to meet us at the apartment. I was starting to get a little nervous. I was worried about Angie’s reaction to being back where it all happened. Josh and my dad had made sure everything was cleaned up and that there were no bloodstains left. Slowly, I helped her into the car. I knew she didn’t need it, but I wanted to.