Ex-Husband's Regret (Ava and Rowan) novel Chapter 21

My head is throbbing. Actually scratch that. My entire body is in pain. I try opening my eyes but I can’t. It felt like they were weighed down by stones. I try calling out to Noah, to anyone, but no sound leaves my mouth.

I am moving. Or someone is moving me. Every movement jolts me and just makes the pain all the more excruciating. I wish they would go slowly. Or just stop all together.

“We need a doctor!” someone shouts.

I didn’t understand what they were talking about or why they needed a doctor. Or what was going on. I tried staying conscious but darkness embraced me once more and I fell into it willingly.

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When I came back to myself again, I’m not in pain but I still can’t open my eyes. Nor can I move my body. I feel like my limbs were laden with cement. Like I was trapped inside my own body.

I can hear people talking but it all sounds so far away. As their words are submerged under water or something. Nothing made sense and I didn’t understand why this was happening to me.

I was desperate to see Noah, to hear him. He must be so worried that I hadn’t called him. Yet there was nothing I could do.

I fall back to the nothingness, unable to keep up with what was happening around me. My last thought is Noah and how sad he would be that I haven’t called.

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I wake up and the room is shrouded in light. The brightness of it makes me wince.

“You’re awake” an unfamiliar female voice says,

I try opening my eyes again but with the lights accosting them it’s nearly impossible.

“I’m so sorry about this” she pauses and I hear movements. “You can now open your eyes, the light won’t be a problem”

“Like I’ve been hit by a train…what are you doing here?”

He surprises me when he takes my hand in his large one. I go to pull it away but he tightens his.

“Please don’t” he pleads in a small voice. “I need this, I need to remind myself that you’re alive, that I’m not dreaming”

My brows pull together in confusion. Did I wake up in an alternate universe or something? Because things were just not adding up.

“Are you okay, Rowan, you didn’t hit your head or something, right?” I ask, feeling his forehead with my other hand.

He doesn’t get to answer because the door opens and a doctor walks in. He looked at my chart before his eyes find me.