Chapter Nineteen

Despite leaving the apartment almost half an hour ago, Eli still felt betrayed. How could Clare have done that to him? Why had she lied to him? Why wouldn't she just tell him the truth from the start? Would it have mattered? His conscience asked him. Had she told you that she was pregnant from Jake, would that have stopped you? Eli dumbfounded at his own questions, looked down at his feet. It most likely wouldn't have stopped him. He had wanted Clare for so long, that it must've been imbedded in his soul. When she offered the chance to be with her, he took it. Even though he was drunk, he still wanted that chance.

But look at what that one time had cost him.

He was pretty sure his reputation was destroyed by now. Would any other publishers deal with what public relations dealing with him would most certainly be? He highly doubted it. He was going to have to find a new occupation; being an author was now out of the question.

What about Clare? His conscience asked. Despite her lie, does she still not deserve your love?

He was quickly growing irritated with himself. It felt like he was purposely trying to guilt himself. But he realized that wasn't the case: He already felt terrible about leaving Clare all alone. There were people that wanted to see her hurt. His head instantly snapped up. "Idiot!" He snarled at himself, and began jogging back to the apartment. How could he have been so stupid? He just left the door wide open for someone to take Clare, or worse. If something happened to her...

He ran faster with each passing moment as his conscience whispered what could have possibly happened to Clare in his absence. And with each passing moment, they got progressively worse until he was at a dead run, bursting through the apartment complex's front door and up one flight of stairs. Before he could run up the second flight, he saw her. At least, he suspected it was her. Taking only a few more steps forward confirmed his suspicion.

"Clare!" He cried as he ran over to her. She looked... broken. He turned her body over slowly, and she was limp. "Oh, no, no, no." He leaned his ear against her chest, wanting to hear a pulse. When he didn't feel a pulse that way, tears blurred his vision, but he pressed his pointer and middle finger against her neck and finally felt a faint pulse. "She's alive!" He said, almost crying tears of joy. He didn't know for how long, but that wasn't going to matter. He was going to rush her to the hospital right this instant. "Stay with me, Clare, okay?" He whispered, and picked her up slowly, cradling her limp body close to his chest as he went down the flight of steps into a panicked crowd.

"What happened!?" One man asked.

"Is she going to be okay?" Another person murmured.

"Someone call an ambulance!"

"There is no time for that!" Eli snapped at them all as he walked past. "The hospital is right down the street. I am going to take her in my car."

"But what happened to her?" The first man asked again. "We have to report this with the authorities. What do we tell them?"

Eli looked down at his broken angel. Without looking up he said, "Tell them that this was an attempted murder. Someone pushed her down the stairs. I found her."

He left the small crowd speechless as he made his way to his car. He gently put Clare in the backseat and got into the driver's side and went to the hospital as fast as he could. When he got there, he gently lifted Clare back into his arms and cradled her close to his heat as he walked in the front door of the hospital.

Nurses swarmed him.

"Her name is Clare Diana Edwards." Eli explained as one male nurse finally tore her from his grasp. "My name is Elijah Goldsworthy. I found her at the bottom of a flight of steps. I suspect she was pushed down them."

"Anything else?" The male nurse asked as he and the group connected Clare to the IV's.

"She's about three, four months pregnant."

The male nurse looked at him and for the first time, Eli could feel genuine sympathy from someone besides Clare. "Is the child yours?"

Giving Clare one more glance as she was taken away, Eli nodded. "Yes."

"I will make sure to keep you informed, Mr. Goldsworthy." The male nurse said, giving his shoulder a reassuring pat before sprinting off in the direction of the rest of the team that had taken Clare away.

He didn't know how much he liked the idea of being left alone. He had no one to talk to about this. No one to lean on. The one person he did depend on was now the person he was most afraid of losing. He couldn't depend on Clare now. He didn't even know if she was going to make it. Inhaling sharply, he sat down slowly in the waiting room.

He leaned his head back against the wall and was almost instantly asleep.

"Mr. Goldsworthy?"

Upon hearing his name, Eli quickly sat up straight and wiped the corner of his mouth. "Yes? Yes?"

"Ms. Edwards is currently asleep, but she's in stable condition." The male nurse from earlier informed him with that sympathetic smile of his.

"What's the damage?"

"From what we could tell, she suffered some sort of trauma before falling down the stairs. Multiple skull fractures, a few broken teeth. It would seem to be that she was savagely attacked."

Eli had to look down in order to keep the tears from spilling. Someone had attacked Clare and pushed her. His hand clenched into a fist and he suddenly had the urge to punch this man right in the jaw. But that wouldn't solve anything. This was his entire fault, and he knew it. He was the only one to blame, not this man that was doing his best to keep Eli in the loop. "How long before I can go and see her?" Eli asked, not looking up.

"As soon as I leave, you're free to stay with her until she awakens."

"How long do you think it'll be before she does wake up?"

"At least a couple more hours."

Eli nodded and stood up. "Thank you." He said softly. "One last question: Which room is she in?"

"Down the hall and she'll be the last door on the left."

Eli muttered yet another thank you before making his way down the hall and found the room with Clare's name on the front. He exhaled and sat down, pulling the chair close and holding her hand.

"I love you, Clare. You'll get through this. We'll get through this. I promise."

And I'll find the son of a bitch who did this to you.