GIO (Interracial Rockstar Romance)

Damn you, Ru. Why did you have to hurt her?

I wanted to scream and rip the cot and everything apart.

I never fell asleep that night.

I never stopped thinking of her.

And most of all, I held on to the hope that we would be together again. And that everything would be okay.

Chapter 23

Simone

Music was my refuge.

I could crawl

into the space between the notes

and curl my back to loneliness.

~Maya Angelou

I lay on my side in the hospital bed. My mother sat right next to me, held my hand, and smoothed down my hair with the other. It had been so long since I’d seen her. More gray scattered around her long black wavy hair. She didn’t have any wrinkles but worry creased her face, making her look older.

“I’m okay.”

Tears left her eyes. “I know, baby. I know.”

I didn’t know how long I’d been out, just that when I opened my eyes, my dad and mother stared back at me. It was the most perfect thing for me. Just the thing to help me heal. The only thing that would’ve made the moment better was Gio standing right there next to him.

Midnight told me later that Gio had beat Ru to a pulp and been arrested for aggravated assault. Suddenly, the calm that my parents had brought me, all vanished.

No. Not Gio.

He was the last person that deserved to be in jail. Ru should’ve been thrown up under one, but not my Gio. That news crushed me. I couldn’t eat or sleep after that. It seemed life was too fucking unfair. The only thing I needed in this moment was Gio, and the world had locked him away.

He’s innocent. He’s fucking innocent. All he did was help take down a monster.

I’d said the same to Midnight and the police officers that interviewed me. I demanded that they release him. I threatened to file a lawsuit and take that jail apart brick by brick unless they let him go. Midnight ended up finishing the interview fast and hired two of my lawyers to explain that I was just as crazy as Gio.

My mother patted my head. “It’s going to be okay.”

I nodded and closed my eyes. “I know.”

Is Mom right? Will Gio ever be free? And will I ever be me, again?

I’d changed. Everything about me shifted to something darker. Before Ru attacked me, I had a faith that lived inside of my heart. He’d crushed that. There was no more faith in the world, after that. He ruined that sweet part of me. I didn’t know if I could ever look at a man I didn’t know in the same manner again. In I didn’t want to be around any guy I didn’t know for too long. Even the police officers made me uneasy.

My mother disrupted my thoughts. “Stop thinking too much.”

“I can’t help it.”

“You have to. Negative thoughts bring negative things. Be positive. He’ll get released and you both will...”

“What?” Tears threatened to leave my closed eyes.

“You both will heal and start over.”

“I hope so,” I whispered.

Sleep didn’t take me like it used to. Mom passed out in the chair next to me. My father came in, woke her up, and took her place. Fear filled his eyes and I had to turn away, scared to think about the things that might’ve been going through his head.

I hated having everybody worried about me. I just wanted all this craziness to end.

Early in the morning, my parents left to go get breakfast and take a shower in their hotel. I’d practically begged them to take time for themselves. There was no need for them to stress over me anymore. Gio had saved the day. He’d stopped Ru before he could hurt me.

At that moment when I began to pass out on the bathroom floor, Ru had opened the door and picked me up. Who knew what had been going through his sick head? He’d clearly planned to drug me before I’d come to his room. That was why he’d wanted me to drink from that glass when I first walked in.

Why would he do that? How did he think everything would be the same afterward?

Maybe he figured I would forget him raping me after he drugged me. I would’ve probably woken up confused and thinking I’d gotten drunk and slept with him. Perhaps, he’d figured I’d be naked in his bed and Gio would walk in on it.

Gio would’ve never believed that bullshit.

Either way, Ru hadn’t been thinking rationally. That sick monster only wanted to hurt Gio and me, so I did my best to avoid trying to understand why it happened. I just had to make sure shit like this never happened to me again. Trust in humanity had left me. Any new man coming into my life would now be guilty until proven innocent.