“Right, I bet you were.” She narrowed her eyes. “You ruined my moment, and I knew right then and there I had to get rid of you like all of the others. Obviously, Jon needed a grand gesture, not a confession of true love—and when I found out who you really were, I knew exactly how to do it.”
“What do you mean?” I tensed up—and then I saw the door crack—someone was there.
“You have a secret, don’t you Melanie.” Gina’s sinister smile returned. “Jon doesn’t know who you are, but he’s finally going to love me when he finds out that I saved him—from a fucking Devereaux
.”
“Oh god…” I felt the color drain out of my face.
“I thought I had my answer when I found out who your little brat belonged to—but Jackson was just as unreliable to me as he was to you.” Gina tapped the gun against her head and pointed it at me again. “I’ll make sure Charley is well taken care of after you’re gone. She is the heir to the Devereaux fortune after all—well, what’s left of it.”
“You fucking bitch.” I lost it when she mentioned my daughter’s name—I felt everything inside of me just snap.
I jumped out of my chair, and the door behind Gina flew open. Gina spun towards the door, ready to fire, but her finger didn’t squeeze the trigger when she realized it was Jon. That gave me enough time to hit her in the ribs with everything I had—all of the rage—all of the frustration—all of my bottled emotions. They came out in the form of a thunderous shot to her ribs that was so hard I felt something snap in my shoulder when I drove it into her. The gun went flying, and she hit the ground. A second later, Jon was on top of her with his knee across her neck. I looked up to see Gina reaching for the gun and scrambled for it—a split second before her finger touched the trigger, I managed to dislodge it from her hand.
“I’ve always loved you…” Gina looked up at Jon, and her eyes filled with tears.
“You need help,” Jon exhaled sharply and got up when Leo came charging into the room.
I found a doctor to check on my mother and sprinted to the lobby to make sure Charley was okay. She was still sitting in the lobby with a smile on her face, completely obvious to everything that had just happened—she was also oblivious to the fact that the two guys sitting nearby were members of Leo’s security team. I let them know that Leo might need some help, and hugged Charley so tight that she started to complain—my shoulder ached the entire time, but I didn’t care. She was safe. That was all that mattered.
I really hope all of this is finally over…
“Mommy, are you hurt?” Charley tilted her head when she saw me grimace after I broke our embrace.
“I’ll be fine.” I winced and nodded.
“I was the one in the accident, not you.” She narrowed her eyes. “Can I see grandma now?”
“It might be a little while…” I sighed and sat down next to her.
The police arrived a few minutes later, and Gina was marched through the lobby in handcuffs. I took Charley to the break room so that she wouldn’t see it. Jon noticed I was hurt once he joined us and insisted that I get my shoulder checked out. I refused to go anywhere until I found out that my mother was okay—especially since I had no idea what Gina gave her. We returned to the lobby to wait, and a few minutes later, the doctor came out and talked to us. They were doing a toxicology screen, but they didn’t think it was anything to worry about—it seemed that Gina was telling the truth when she said that she just gave my mother something to help her sleep. I was happy to hear the news, but I wasn’t going to be able to truly draw an easy breath until I saw my mother open her eyes.
“Now that you know she’s not in any danger, you really need to go and get your shoulder checked out.” Jon looked over his shoulder at Charley. “I’ll stay with her…”
“Thank you.” I nodded and winced.
I went over to the emergency area where an x-ray confirmed that I had a broken collarbone. There wasn’t much they could do for it except put it in a sling and tell me to keep it immobilized. Thankfully, it wasn’t bad enough to require surgery. Charley had fallen asleep in her chair when I returned to the waiting area, so I sat down next to Jon and put my head on his shoulder. He gently put an arm around me and gave me as much of a hug as he could. It did hurt a little bit, but I didn’t care. I was just so happy that everything was over.
“I think it’ll get easier from here—it has to.” He leaned his head against mine. “I never thought I would fall for a Devereaux…”
“You heard that, huh?” I exhaled sharply and leaned back.
“Yeah, and I decided to save you anyway.” He chuckled under his breath.
“I think I saved you…” I raised my eyebrows.
“It’s debatable.” He shrugged.
“You have your version; I have mine.” I patted his arm.
It’s over. That’s all that matters.
I stayed there snuggled against Jon until the doctor told me that they had been able to wake my mother up. I got to go back to her room and see her, but she was still pretty out of it. She didn’t even notice the sling on my arm before she fell asleep again. The doctor said she would probably sleep off and on until morning, but I really didn’t want to leave her. The doctor said that since the circumstances were rather extenuating, he would let all of us stay in her room rather than sitting in the waiting area. Jon got us some dinner from the cafeteria while Charley quizzed me about my sling. I told her that I fell in the hospital, which was somewhat true—and it appeased her curiosity. It didn’t take Charley long to get bored—and she fell asleep with her head against my good arm.
“So…” Jon looked over at me. “It seems that I’m going to need a new administrative assistant. Do you know anyone that needs a job?”
“I might know someone…” Somehow, despite all of the despair that had surrounded me since I left Taylor’s rehearsal, I managed to laugh. “I’m not sure we would get much work done though.”