A Broken Fate (The Beautiful Fate Series book 2) (2 page)

“Oh, God, Ava,”
he trembled, “don’t ever do this to me again.” Ari let go of what remaining strength he had and cried into my hair.

Chapter 3

Remember

Ari pulled down the shade of the window that peered into the waiting room.
With dark circles under his eyes and clothes that were uncharacteristically unkempt, Ari looked exhausted. His hair flopped down onto his forehead. His shoulders were tight with tension.

“You look tired,” I said quietly.

Ari let out a long breath between his lips.

“I am,” he said, and his eyes closed when he spoke. In that moment, my strong man looked like a scared boy.

“Ari, will you do something for me?”

His eyes fluttered back open and he looked at me longingly.

“Anything.”

“Promise?”

“Of course.” He came to my side, worry radiating off him in waves. His eyes bounced around my body, searching for a way to help me.

I moved over in my little hospital bed.

“Hold me.”

His shoulders loosened slightly and he smiled a bit.

“I can’t, Baby. I don’t want to hurt you.” He gently rubbed his thumb across my cheek.

“Please.”

His eyes were so dark and heavy. I could tell he was struggling to keep them open.

“Please.”

Giving in to my request, Ari slipped off his shoes, he crawled into my bed and curled his body softy around mine, cradling my head to his chest. He ran his fingers gently around the outline of my lips and the crease of my eyelids.

“What happened to me, Ari?”

He stopped moving his fingers.

“Ava, I don
’t think...” he paused. “I mean, I don’t know how to tell you just yet. Let’s talk about it in the morning.”

“Ok,” I said dropping the subject.

Ari fell asleep moments later. I listened to the gentle thump of his heartbeat, and the soothing sound of his soft breathing. His chest moved ever so slightly with the rhythm of his breaths.

I wanted to touch him, run my fingers through his unruly hair and across his soft lips but my h
and throbbed. I hurt all over; my head was pounding and my side ached with every breath I took. Snuggling my face in to his warm chest, I fell asleep.

When I awoke the next day, I was still wrapped up in Ari. He was awake and he looked and smelled clean. His hair, no longer drooping down over his eyes, was back to its original messy state that stuck up everywhere. He had changed his clothes into clean jeans and a tee-shirt. He was propped up on his free hand and stared off into the distance while he ran his fingers through my hair. His face was still worried, though, and he still had that little wrinkle in his forehead. I lifted my hand and smoothed his forehead out with the backs of my fingers.
Smiling down on me, he took my hand, kissed it and put it back at my side.

“Good afternoon, Mrs. Alexander. Sleep well?”

“You left?”

Ari shook his head no.

“I didn’t leave. I used your shower.” He nodded his head in the direction of the en suite bathroom.

“My parents brought up some clothes for me while you were still asleep this morning. They sat with you for about five minutes. I hope that was okay.”

I nodded. I did not remember his parents.

“I need to let Dr. Phillips know you
’re awake.”

Anxiety took hold of me and I stiffened – I didn
’t want Ari leaving me; I was so scared.

Ari kissed my forehead, picked up a phone near the bed and called the nurse
’s station. I let out a shaky breath and he looked down at me, concern on his face.

Moments later, the doctor arrived with a too-eager-to-help smile. He looked me over in a general way and then said he thought I could have more visitors once I had eaten. He checked my eyes with his flashlight again, took blood pressure, checked my pulse and went over a long list of my injuries.

With five broken ribs and three cracked ones, rope burns around my neck, a deep wound on my wrist and burns on my left hand; it was needless to say that I had somehow been severely injured. There were two hairline fractures on my skull but no readily discernible damage to my brain. I was in a coma due to brain edema. Once the swelling reduced, they were able to remove me from a ventilator. My head injury seemed to be not as bad as initially thought; though Dr. Phillips warned me, something could possibly show up later. Dr. Phillips stated again that I had been involved in a very traumatizing series of events and that my failure to remember my past was just part of my mind trying to protect itself. He said that I would most certainly have to deal with some post-traumatic stress in the months that followed and that it may take some time for me to regain all of my memories.

“What happened to me?” I asked the doctor. I couldn
’t help it. I had to know why I felt as scared – no, as terrified, as I did. He looked from me over to Ari. Ari nodded at him and Dr. Phillips patted him on the shoulder and left.

“Ava,” Ari
took in a breath, “you were kidnapped the day after our wedding. You were held captive in a small house out in the hills; you were actually just a few miles away from home the whole time. We found you almost a week later. I don’t know what happened to you while you were gone except that you had been grievously hurt. You are the only one who can tell us what happened.”

“Who kidnapped me? Who would do something like this?”

Ari frowned. “His name is Damien Kakos. You would know him as No. 6 though. You like to dehumanize the Kakos as much as you can. He had five brothers.”

I scrunched my face up and shook my head trying to remember. I looked at the five black tally marks on my left wrist.

“What happened before that?”

Ari shook his head,
“do you remember your dreams?”

I stared at him, blinked and then tried to look away. I do not talk about my dreams with anyone.

“I know about them, Ava. The scissors. The people and their screaming. You’ve told me about them before. You are Greek. You are more than Greek you are the descendent from Atropos… The Fates. Those men knew who you were and they wanted to destroy you. But you beat them. You won. I don’t really know how… you never shared that information with me. I only that you killed them, Ava. The first two kidnapped my sister and you went after them. One was shot to death the second hanged. I don’t really know about the rest – only what the news reported. No. 3 was pretty gruesome. No. 4 not so much. No. 5 was… intense. There are some things, Ava, that you would not tell even me. I’m sorry I can’t be more help.”

“There are more… these men, are there more of them?”

“No… you are done.”

Scrunching my nose in thought, I remembered, once again, the words my mother had spoken to me.
I was not safe, I was not done. Ari was wrong.

As the day lead on,
I was able to remember odd details of my life and I worked at piecing them together. I remembered scenes from London, and as soon as I remembered London, I thought of August.

“I remember someone,” I said. My words brought a smile to Ari
’s face.

“That
’s great, Ava! Who?”

“August!
Where is he?”

Ari
’s smile faltered a bit and he laughed.

“Oh, August is going to love this. He
’s at our house right now, but he’ll be up here a bit later to see you.”

“Ok,” I smiled.

The nurse (I already decided I hated her), popped in and checked my fluids. She then turned to Ari and flashed him another toothy smile.

“We
’re going to need a DNA sample from you.”

“It can wait,” he responded coldly.

“Well, no, I am afraid it can’t. It won’t take but a few minutes; the lab is just down the hall.”

“Well, yes, it can and it will wait, until someone else is here and able to sit with her.”

The nurse’s cheeks turned red and she looked down at her hands.

“Yes, sir,
I will bring Mrs. Alexander some lunch. When you both feel more comfortable, I can take you down there.”

“I know where the lab is,” Ari snapped, “and we
’ll order her lunch from here.” The nurse nodded then left.

“What was that about?”

Ari closed his eyes and shook his head.

“It
’s nothing, Ava. They found traces of rohypnol in your system and they found DNA in your body that was not from you. They’re just ruling some things out…that’s all.”

“Oh.” I looked down in my lap.

“Hey Baby, it’s going to be ok.” He put his hand on my chin and kissed me softly on the lips. “We are going to get through all of this together.”

“Mm hmm.”

“Hungry?”

“Mm hmm.”

Ari picked up the phone by the bed and ordered my lunch.

I ate a peanut-butter-and-banana sandwich on whole wheat bread and then worked a bit on a cup of tomato soup. Ari
’s mom and dad came in to see me after lunch. They were still not quite in my brain’s focus. I could not quite place them, but they did seem familiar. My attention was caught by the sound of Ari’s mom crying and I tilted my head to the side to look at her curiously.

“I saw you,” I said to her. “I saw you on the beach. You were holding a candle and the sky was full of lights.” They all three looked at me as if I were nuts.

“What?” I said indignantly. “I saw her, I swear. She was crying and she hugged him,” I said pointing to Ari’s dad. “I saw it.”

His dad
’s jaw dropped. “The news,” he said, shocked. “That was on the news; she saw the footage.”

I shrugged. “I guess I don
’t remember that what I saw was from TV. It seemed so real to me.”

Ari said, “I can
’t believe you actually saw that! Do you remember anything else?”

Wrinkling my forehead, I tried
to think of something… anything.

“No, sorry.”

“It’s ok, Baby, you will. Slow and steady. That’s the best way for your memory to recover.”

His parents stayed with me for a long while, talking to me and telling me little stories about the first time they met me, and about moments we had all shared together.
They re-capped their family history for me, showing me
who
they were with their family stories. I vaguely remembered some details, but the memories were fuzzy.

“Oh, Ava Baby,” Ari
’s mom said, “we just love you so much.”

“Love,” I
cocked my head to the side again. “All tonight is, is love, Baby, nothing else but love,” I quoted her from my wedding day. Her kind words had helped get me through the day.

A giant smile spread across all of their faces.

“You remember?” Aggie asked softly.

I nodded my head.

“I will never forget, Aggie. I love you and Andy so much.”

She wrapped her arms around me in a gentle hug and when she finally let go, Andy stepped up to take her place.

August knocked on the door and I beamed up at him. I did not need any help remembering his face, maybe because he was tied to such a dark part of my life. The sad, hard moments were harder for me to forget I guess. I remembered the awful events of August in London and the two deaths that came before the trip. I even remembered how August had had a hand in the killing of No. 4. Ari slipped out of the room when August and I started talking. I could see the worry in Ari’s eyes.

“Ava, I have to go back home to France,” August said, delivering mind-numbing news. “I am going to be there for a while with my family. I
’ll be looking for jobs in California, and as soon as I land one, I will be back, okay? I promise.”

I frowned
and August laughed.

“I had no idea you cared so much, but don
’t worry, Ava, your husband has already given me permission to crash in your pool house. We get to be roomies again!”

I smiled and rolled my eyes at him. Only August would beg Ari, at a time like this, to let him live with us. That was why I loved him.

He was catching a flight right away and I was going to miss him terribly. I knew August would be back; there would be no keeping us apart.

Ari returned minutes later and August pulled him in to a hug. They exchanged a quiet goodbye, August smiled back at me and left.

Exhausted and in pain, I was still able to convince Ari that I was fine so he would hold me again. His parents stuck around until the evening, then left to let me rest.

The next morning Lauren came in, crying, with Julia behind her. Rain had been falling steadily all morning and I could hear the squeak of their wet shoes on the tiled floor of the hall long before the two girls came in my room. I set about comforting Lauren as best I could...she needed it more than I did. Julia painted my toenails and brought me some of the clothes I had asked her to bring.

“I looked everywhere for your Cubs shirt, Baby, but I couldn’t find it,” she said.