"Did you enjoy your birthday party, Liv?" Stephen handed her a glass of wine before moving to sit on the bed beside her. "You looked like you were having fun on the dance floor."
"I had fun tonight. Thank you for planning my party," she smiled and kissed his lips. "I have a wonderful dance partner. Between you, Huck, Kim and the everyone else out there, I didn't think I was ever going to be allowed off the dance floor."
Curling Olivia into his side once she finished her glass and put it on the stand, he moved both of them under the blankets to warm up. Stephen had planned Olivia's 21st birthday party weeks ago and was happy so many people turned up at the club to celebrate with her. Finally getting her to himself, he just wanted a few quiet moments with her. Playing with her engagement ring, Stephen held her close to his chest.
"You're sure you don't need to take anything? Nothing that will relieve a headache or a hangover?"
"I had two glasses of wine and a shot, Stephen. I'm not a big fan of drinking."
"That's because you're a lightweight," he laughed. "Kim said you found your wedding dress. Are you going to let me see it?"
"Sure, when I walk down the aisle."
"You are no fun, Liv! Will you at least tell me a little about it?"
"It's white. That's all you need to know."
"Oh alright. I will live in suspense for another four months. But don't blame me if all I can look at is you."
Turning over to face him, Liv kissed his cheeks moving to his lips. "What else are you going to look at, if not me?"
"You and Kim have been working so hard on getting the wedding ready for just after my graduation, are you sure you don't need my help with anything? I can always put aside my studying for a day a week to help."
"You are doing much more than enough to help. You just need to show up when you need to be there, and on time. I can take care of everything else. My controlling tendencies come in handy on occasion." Turning the bedside lights off, Liv tucked herself between Stephen's arms facing away from him. "Thank you for a wonderful day, babe, I love you."
"I love you, beautiful," kissing her temple as he held her close to him.
Both fell asleep quickly after the long day of celebration. Hours passed by through the night. Deep peaceful sleep for both of them. Neither of them heard the lock on the front door of the apartment being picked. Edison had been trying to call Olivia's cell phone all week, wanting to wish her a happy birthday. Irritated with her for not answering, and for posting pictures of her and her fiancé out at a club dancing away, he decided to take care of the problem himself. Edison managed to frighten off the last two boyfriends she had but this one had the courage to propose to his girlfriend. Livid, he broke into the apartment and took out the Swiss Army knife his father gave him years ago. Searching through the living room and kitchen, Edison found multiple pictures on the walls and side tables of her with Stephen, of Huck and Kim, Stephen with his parents, of her life that he was not part of. Moving into the bedroom, he laid his eyes directly on Olivia sleeping soundly with his arm under her. Stepping to the side of the bed Stephen was sleeping on, Edison sat on the edge of the bed staring at him. After several minutes, Stephen rolled over onto his back, opening his eyes to see the time on the bedside table clock when he felt someone sitting there beside him.
"Shit, Liv, don't scare me like that," Stephen scolded her reaching for the light.
Before he could flip the switch on the lamp, Edison had the pocket knife pressed against the side of his neck and slid it hard across his skin to the other side. "Olivia is mine. She will always be mine. You will never have her. She belongs to me."
Gasping for air, Stephen held his neck with one hand, the other reaching to push Olivia to wake up.
"Hmm, Stephen, not now. I'm trying to sleep babe." Feeling him pushing her side and shoulder, she reached over to touch his chest, feeling the wetness on his body, she turned towards him and opened her eyes. "Stephen?" Turning the light on to see what he had spilled, Olivia caught sight of Edison and jumped up in bed. Looking down at the wetness, the blood covering her hand, Stephen's chest, Stephen's hands, spilling onto the bed. "STEPHEN!" Reaching to grab her phone, ignoring Edison, Liv called 911 putting them on speaker as she applied pressure to the cut on Stephen's throat.
"911 where is your emergency?"
"1982 Hillside Drive. Apartment 808. I need an ambulance!" Liv yelled at them.
Edison watched on from his seat on the bed. "It doesn't matter, Olivia. He's going to die," he laughed. "He's going to suffer for ever touching you."
"Ma'am what's the injury?"
"His throat, he's bleeding out a lot. He cut his throat!"
"Who cut his throat?"
"My ex-boyfriend."
Grabbing her wrist, Stephen held it tight as he could, gasping for whatever air he could get.
"Do you know where your ex is?"
"He's sitting right in front of me."
"The ambulance is pulling into the complex now ma'am. The police are right behind them. Apply as much pressure as you can."
"Stephen! Stay with me, stay with me babe." Liv yelled at him through her crying.
"DC EMT," a man yelled out from the hallway.
"In here!" Liv shouted for them. Three EMTs and two firefighters came running in to the room. One pushing Edison back towards the firefighter to contain him, all while Edison laughed at the man bleeding out. Feeling the other grab Olivia to move her back to let the others work, she ran towards Edison fists gripped tight. "You fucking bastard! How could you do this! That's my fiancé!"
Laughing and angry, Edison tried to grab her but was pushed back by the fighter towards the hallway to the police. "You are mine Olivia, no one will ever have you but me. You belong to me! You will always be mine. No matter where you go, I will find you."
Seeing the police take him out of her sight, Liv ran back to Stephen's side as they bandaged his neck, rushing to get him out to the ambulance. "Stephen, you can't leave me!" Running to keep up with the EMTs, Liv climbed into the back of the ambulance with them not caring whether they wanted her to or not.
Working fast as they could to hold pressure, the driver went faster down the streets towards the hospital. Stephen reached out for her arm. Liv bent down to him, kissing his lips hard. "We're almost there, babe, stay awake. Stay with me. Please Stephen!"
"I… love… you… beautiful…" Stephen forced out.
"He's crashing!" an EMT yelled and moved Olivia back. Getting paddles to his chest, the doors opened to the back of the ambulance and pulled the gurney down out of it.
"Ma'am please come with us," one of the doctors asked her as four other doctors ran inside with him. "We need to get you checked out."
"Check on him, go with him!"
"Ma'am you are covered in blood. Are you injured?"
Shaking her head no, the doctor led her into the emergency department and into a separate room to wait.
Waiting for an hour, no one had come in to update her. Asking at the nurse's station what was going on, the only response she received was 'we're doing our best for him'.
Sitting in the waiting room for another half hour, pacing in circles around the chairs, finally hearing the door open. Seeing the look on the faces of the two doctors that came into the room, Olivia let out the loudest, crying, shriek anyone of them had ever heard and clutched her chest. Running over to catch her before she fell over, the doctor got her to the chair in time.
"I'm very sorry, Ms. Pope. We did all we could to save him. Your fiancé lost so much blood, there wasn't a chance to repair the damage," he told her. "Is there anyone you want us to call for you?" Shaking her head at them, her eyes stayed focused on a spot on the floor. "Ms. Pope, we need to inform the police." Nodding that she was alright with it, the other doctor left to tell them.
Once the doctor was convinced she was not injured herself, he stepped out of the room to leave her alone.
"Liv?" Barely hearing her name being said, Huck ran over to her and kneeled down to make her see him.
"He's…" she tried to tell him but couldn't push the words out.
"I know. Are you okay? Did he hurt you? Is this your blood?" Huck spouted off questions at her. Checking all the parts of her skin that were exposed in her now red stained pink nightgown, seeing there were no cuts on her, Huck grabbed her chin to push her head up to look directly at him. "The cops have Edison. He's not going to get away with this. We need to get you out of here though; get you changed out of this."
Agreeing, she slowly stood up and headed towards the door with him and Kim on the other side of her. Stopping just before they exited the room, she looked at the doctor in front of her. "I need to see him."
"Liv, that's not a good idea," Huck told her. "He's not… it's not a sight you should see right now."
"I want to see him!" she yelled, making everyone's attention turn to her.
"Huck, let her see him," Kim told him. "She needs to see for herself that he's gone. Dr. Hays, can you make it a bit more…" Understanding what she was asking, he went off to prepare Stephen's body. "Okay, Liv, they'll come get us when they're ready. I promise you can see him before we leave this building."
Nearly two hours later, Dr. Hays came back to get them. Telling Huck they were ready, all three went down the hall to see him.
"Just me. I want to go in alone," Liv told them.
Hesitating a moment, both let her go in alone. Pulling the sheet down from over his face, she started sobbing harder than she was before. Whispering how sorry she was to him, that she loved him more than anything, begging for him to suddenly wake up.
Kim and Huck stood outside the door watching her through the window.
"I could kill Edison right now," Huck growled seeing her in this state.
"The cops have him, Huck. She's never going to have to worry about him again. They said he confessed what he did. Liv's going to need you now more than ever. We need to take her out of there. She needs to go home and rest."
"They aren't going to let her back in there, it's a crime scene. She'll have to come back home with us. I'm sorry, I can't let her go to a hotel or somewhere else, Kim."
Putting her hand on his shoulder, she leaned in and kissed his cheek. "I know. I wouldn't let her either. You are her best friend and she's going to need you. I can take care of whatever needs to be done if she wants. I can call his parents and tell them what happened. You need to be with her. And the first thing you can do to help her is get her out of here."
