Falling For The Biker: The Vice President's Girl Chapter 131

Wren

I stare into space, eyes blank but my heart...my heart is heavy.

I'd known even before I was rushed into surgery. I'd known my baby wouldn't make it, but I hoped.

God, I held onto hope and I prayed...I really, really did.

Another tear spills from my eyes, across the bridge of my nose and it soaks the pillows.

And then, I hear the door open but I don't turn. Not even when I hear the tentative tap of footsteps.

The bed sinks under the weight of the person, and when I feel a hand rest on my arm, I break.

It's Ezra.

The sobs spill from my throat a little louder, the tears fall a little faster.

"I'm s-sorry," I cry. "I'm so...so sorry."

He gently squeezes me. "You've got nothing, sweetheart, nothing to apologize for."

His voice is a thick rasp, hoarse, that shows he's been crying.

I lost our baby. I couldn't protect our baby.

I couldn't protect....him.

Him.

He was going to be a boy...I felt it.

We didn't even get enough time with him, but he was already everything to me...to us.

"I'm the one who's sorry," he chokes out. "I should've come quicker. I should've fought harder, I should've..." his words fail him.

And I feel a drop of wetness on my arm, then his head falls on me as he sobs. Loud, heart-wrenching sobs.

I press my lips together, holding in my own cries as his body racks.

"I'm so sorry, Wren, god..."

My eyes squeeze shut, throat tight.

We're both filled with guilt.

Guilt that we failed. We failed our baby, we let him down. And now, he's gone.

I didn't get to feel him grow, to feel him kick...to hold him.

Also, I'm filled with so much anger. Anger at Reginald and Lydia. Anger at Tristan.

They finally broke me, they succeeded in ruining my life, my whole world. They shattered it all.

And Ezra, my Ezra...he's so broken. And I know he blames himself. I should tell him it's not his fault, I should tell him we'll be okay.

But I don't.

Because I physically cannot. The words, for some reason, are stuck in my throat, clogging it up some more.

I don't know how long we just stay sobbing in the silence, no other words exchanged. We don't even look at each other.

Then, I feel him get up, and I sniffle. "I'm sorry, Wren," he says again.

Still, I don't respond, and I don't turn to him.

Not when the doors open again. Not when I hear the doctor come in, and not when I hear Ray, and Quincy's voice.

They all try to talk, they all offer their condolences, but I don't respond to anyone. There's nothing to say, I just want to be left alone.

"We'll keep an eye on her for a few more days," the doctor says. "But she's good, stable. We already had a chat with her."

"Okay." I hear Raymond. "Thank you."

"If you need anything, or have questions, please let us know."

The door opens and closes.

And just when I'm about to suck it up and face the people that care about me, I hear it.

It's tiny, it's barely audible but I catch it anyway.

MaryAnne's coo.

My chest tightens, and the last thread of control I had over my emotions, shatters.

Some months more, and I'd have heard my baby coo too.

***

[Four Days Later]

The clubhouse goes quiet when I step in with Ezra and Ray behind me.

I pause in my tracks and look back at both of them. "Where is he?"

"I'll take you," Ray replies and walks in front of me.

Quietly, I follow him as he leads me down the bright basement stairs of the clubhouse, and towards a makeshift cell.

My stomach still hurts but I walk through the pain, teeth gritted as sweat beads on my temples and spine.

There's a low groan that comes from a few feet away and when Ray comes to a halt in front of the cell, I stop too.

Sitting inside and chained to the wall like an animal is no other than my ex-fiancé Tristan Fuller Smith. Son of the woman that shot me.

Christ, she wanted me dead. A little higher and she would've shot me in my chest, she would've taken me and my baby.

She'd have taken both of us from Ezra, from Ray...from our family.

Tristan's eyes lock with mine and he scrambles to his feet. "Wren?"

God, he's a mess.

Bloody hands hold the cell bars firmly, eyes blood shot, his blonde hair is a tangled mess.

His gaze slides down my body, and back up to my face and his eyes well up with tears.

"I'm sorry, Wren," he sobs. "I...I messed up, I went too far—we went too far—I d-didn't—"

I hold up a hand and his words cut off abruptly.

When I made the decision to see Tristan, I was filled with so much anger but now, looking at him, I see just how young he is, and I don't even have the strength to hold up such rage anymore.

All I feel is pity.

Pity that he was compelled by his sick mom and uncle to hurt me, and I know that he had a choice. A choice to tell me about it when we were together, a choice to not go through with the diabolical plan in the first place.

Yet...yet...

"Does your wife know about this?" I ask.

A tear rolls down his cheeks. "Sh-she isn't...it wasn't r-real."

I inhale sharply.

Then I nod, slowly.

Of course it was a farce. It's crazy just how much effort they put to hurt me, to break me.

I'm not moved in the least bit by his tears. He's crying out of fear, especially as his eyes dart to Ezra and Ray at my sides.

I wonder what they did to be able to break him like that. Gone is the man who nearly choked me to death, gone is the man that reeked of menace.

And for a minute I want that man to rear its head again, so that whatever I do in my anger can be justified.

My jaw ticks and I step forward. "Your mother shot me."

He swallows.

I place a hand on my stomach, on the wound that would always be a reminder of my loss.

"I w-was pregnant." My lips tremble, and my eyes sting. "She took my child, and what's to say I wouldn't take her little ray of sunshine too."

He pales when my words dawn on him. "Wr-Wren, p-please. I'm sorry, so s-sorry."

"Sorry's not going to bring my baby back, would it?"

"No, no, but—"

I scoff. "Nothing you say, Tristan, would undo what's already been done. No excuse, no apology, nothing!"

"I know that. God, I know that, but I want you to know how sorry I am, Wren. For every single thing." He grips the bars tighter. "For the way I treated you in Seattle, for the fake death, for the threats, the violence...I am so, so, sorry, Wren."

I take a step back, throat thick.

Forgiveness.

How do you forgive such a thing? How do you let it go?

But there's a quiet strength in it, a relief of the weight that holds you down.

Nothing would bring back my baby, nothing would repair or replace the loss. But I can choose to let go, no matter how fucking hard it is.

I can choose to forgive, not for Tristan. But for myself, for my future babies, for my family.

Because resentment, hatred...it has a way of spilling over onto the people that love you. And that's not what I want.

God, I want to be better.

I want to be free.

And so, I take another step back.

"Hurt him," I say to Ray and Ezra. "But don't kill him."

Before I can turn to walk away, a shot rings out, and I pause.

Tristan screams and falls to the floor as blood gushes out his knee cap, his hands tremble, tears streaming down his face.

And then I lock eyes with the man holding the gun. The man that fired it.

Ezra Jax.

The love of my life.

His hard gaze pins me and I see it then. The dissatisfaction in the twist of his lips. He wants to kill Tristan, he wants to finish him off.

I see then what Ray talked about.

Ezra would do anything to protect me, no matter what. But Ray wasn't all right...because Ezra, with all his stubbornness, will always listen to me.

Even if it means letting Tristan keep his life.

And I realize that, Ezra and I...we're not dangerous together. Instead, we keep each other safe.

It's the first time in four days that I've really looked at him. I've been so caught up in my grief that I forgot it's his loss too.

My eyes soften totally and my lips move. "I love you."

Just like that, his chest rises and falls on a deep breath as the tension leaves him.

"I love you, Birdie. So fucking much."

Suddenly, it occurs to me that Ray's here. When I turn my gaze to him, his lips lift in a small smile.

And I know...I know he's definitely coming around.

My heart soars.

"Go ahead, boys." I nod and walk out of there with a grin that feels new to my face because I'm sure now that...

Ezra and I will be together.