Chapter 25

Cal made his way quickly back to the hotel where he was greeted by a hysterical Stacey.

"About time! What happened? What did you do?" Stacey asked, watching as he went to the mini bar to get a drink.

"I didn't do anything. I just arranged for someone to get in between them that's all." Cal told her. He decided he would tell her that Rose thought Jack had cheated and was now planning to return to the US in the next few days without Jack.

Stacey looked at him suspiciously as he told a story of how he had paid some woman to throw herself all over Jack, making it look as though he had been unfaithful. Rose was furious and threw a glass of wine over him. Cal knew it wasn't the best story he could have came up with but in the short distance between their hotel and where Jack had been taken away, it was the best he could do. He would just feign ignorance when she finally found out what had actually happened to him.

"So what now?" she asked, sitting down on the bed.

"Now? We head back home. We can't be gone when Rose get's back." Cal told her. "We get a flight back tomorrow.

Stacey nodded and took the drink he poured her; still not entirely convinced he was telling her the truth.

...

Across town, Rose was sitting in a cold bare waiting room nervously tapping her feet. Jack had been brought in and taken straight to surgery and the nurse had told Rose she would keep her updated. In the meantime, she had spoken to the police and told them everything that had happened. They had asked her so many questions and she struggled to remember everything that had happened. They had asked if she knew anyone that would have targeted them for any reason but Rose didn't even know how to answer that. They were in a foreign country where they knew no one. How could anyone have targeted them? After about an hour of questions, the police finally let her go back to the waiting room, asking her to call them if she could remember anything else. She lifted a magazine from the table and started flicking through it, barely taking in the words or pictures. Eventually she through it back down, finding that looking at it was making her head throb. She leaned back and closed her eyes, trying to force the horrible image of Jack's lifeless body from her memory. She looked down at her hand and started playing with the beautiful engagement ring that Jack had given her and suddenly she thought of all the people back home. She had to call people, she had to let them know what was going on. Taking her phone from her pocket, she looked at the time. It was almost midnight. Rose tried to do the math in her head. That meant it was almost 7pm back home. She scrolled through her phone before she finally reached Amy's number. She took a deep breath as she pressed the call button and lifted the phone to her ear.

"Hello?" the cheery voice answered quickly.

Rose cleared her throat and started to try and speak but found the words couldn't come out.

"Rose?" Amy asked. "How is everything going? Are you two having a blast?"

"Amy." Rose finally said, tears threatening. "Something's...something's."

"Rose? What's wrong? You're freaking me out." Amy sounded nervous.

"Something's happened." Rose finally said. "To Jack."

"What do you mean to Jack? What's wrong with him?" Amy demanded. "Rose? Tell me what's happened."

Rose took a deep breath as she told Amy everything. After explaining everything, she waited for Amy's reaction. After what seemed like an eternity, Amy finally spoke.

"Is he alright?" she cried. "What's happening? I'll get booked on the next flight over there."

"No Amy, please just wait until I know what's happening. I'll call you once I've spoken to the doctor. There's no point in you rushing over here for nothing." Rose pleaded. She had no idea what to expect and although she probably could have done with having someone with her, she knew that Amy had Sarah to think about and the last thing she wanted to do was have the little girl worried about her uncle Jack.

"Ok but promise me you'll call as soon as you know anything?" Amy begged.

"I promise." Rose said before finally hanging up the phone. After that, she made the same phone call to Melissa and Fabrizio who were just as worried as Amy and also offered to come over to London as soon as they could. Again Rose declined. If anyone was to come over, she thought it best that it was Jack's sister. After placing her phone back in her pocket, she started pacing around the waiting room wondering if anyone was ever going to come and tell her what was happening. Eventually after hours of hanging around, a doctor finally appeared in the waiting room, closing the door behind him.

"Mrs Dawson?"

Rose looked up, taken aback by the address but she decided not to correct him. "Yes?"

The doctor explained to her that Jack had suffered two puncture wounds to his abdomen. One was fairly superficial and hadn't majorly punctured the tissue but the other had left a deep laceration.

"So what does that mean?" Rose said, standing up in front of him.

"Well we weren't sure at first until we started operating because we didn't know how deep the knife had gone and whether it had severed any major artery. We knew there was a good chance that it hadn't because if it had, he likely wouldn't have survived the journey here. Luckily the blade had missed any major artery or organ so we've been able to seal the wound and stitch it up." The doctor continued. Rose felt as though the room was spinning as he continued to explain everything to her. He spoke in medical jargon which she found difficult to keep up with but she nodded along with him until he finally stopped talking.

"I only need you to tell me one thing Doctor." She whispered. "Is he going to survive?"