Hailey's POV

I'm starting to go insane here.

It's been four days since that night in the alley, four days since Issac got shot, four days since he was rushed to the hospital, four days that Axel has been dead, four very long days that have felt like complete hell.

My dad immediately had to go into work mood the second the paramedics left and officers showed up to the seen, after all there had just been a massive shoot out in the warehouse near by.

My dad had one of his guys look after me as he went back to work and I stuck around him for maybe about a minute or two.

I begged him to go into the warehouse, to go look for a friend of mine that was still in there, meaning Dion, I needed to know that he was okay, but by the time he came back outside he said that no one inside matched his description and that immediately gave me hope that he could be alive still since his body wasn't left laying around.

I instantly tried calling him over and over and every call always went to his voicemail. Officer Owen then proceeded to tell me that he had strict instructions from my dad to take me to the hospital where the Matteo's would be waiting for me and I obviously didn't hesitate and quickly climb into the back of his patrol car.

The drive to the emergency room really didn't take long but it honestly felt like forever with my anticipation. I nearly sprung out of Officer Owens car before he could put it in park and instantly ran into the ER to find Mr. and Mrs. Matteo already waiting here, devastating looks on their faces.

His mom instantly gets up from where she's sitting the second she notices me and runs in my direction, instantly wrapping her arms around me.

"Oh thank God you're okay!" She exclaims, pulling me in closer to her.

I instantly breakdown in her embrace and hug her back, "I'm so sorry," I sob.

"Shhhh, you're okay," she runs her hand up and down my back.

"No, this is all my fault!" I continue to cry.

"Hey," Mrs. Matteo pries me off of her. She places her hands on my face, cupping it. "Don't you dare blame you're self for this, okay? Everything is gonna be fine, he's gonna be fine, you'll see, okay?"

I nod my head as tears continue to spill out of my eyes, and Mrs. Matteo is quickly wiping them away.

"Come, sit," she wraps her arm around my shoulder, leading me towards where her husband is sitting, who's currently preoccupied with his phone, a steely expression on his face.

I sit with Issac's parents for about a good ten minutes, laying my head on Mrs. Matteo's shoulder, when a young lady in baby blue scrubs walks out into the ER, she scans the small crowd asking for the Matteo family and Isaac's parents are instantly on their feet, with me not that far behind them.

The young lady introduces herself and ask's us to follow her through the door that she just came out of and we do. She leads us down a couple more hallways in silence until we're stopping in front of another waiting room, only this one is empty, unlike the ER waiting room.

She then begins to talk to Issac parents, explaining to them that she can't say much right now, she'll leave it to the doctor when he comes out, but that Isaac was immediately rushed into emergency surgery when he arrived to stop the bleeding and to see if bullet removal was possible.

She proceeded to explain that he should be out in about an hour or so, but Isaac's surgery doesn't take about an hour or so, it actually takes a little over two hours for a doctor to come out to speak with us.

He starts off by introducing himself to Isaac's parents, reassuring them and me, that the surgery was a success and Isaac was now down at the ICU and begins to break everything down.

My heart immediately sinks to the bottom of my stomach when the doctor says that Isaac had stopped breathing by the time he arrived to the hospital and was in cardiac arrest, but they were lucky enough to bring him back and was then instantly rushed into surgery.

Although the surgery was a success, it didn't entirely mean that Isaac was out of the waters yet. In order to allow Isaac's body to fully rest, Dr. Okeeffe decided it was best to keep him in a medical induce coma for a couple days to minimize any possible brain damage from the little time he stopped breathing, and assured us that we could see him first thing in the morning.

Sure enough the waiting room phone rings around a little passed 9:30 in the morning the next day and Mr. Matteo gets up to get it, he stays on the phone for a few seconds when he walks back informing us that their son was now on the third floor in his own room. Mr. and Mrs Matteo go on without me as I stick around in the waiting room for a couple more minutes as I try and wake my dad up. He showed up last night after everything was settled, way passed midnight.

After I wake my dad up and get him to go back home and rest, without me, I make my way over to the elevators and up to the door floor. My heart begins to race for some strange reason and my chest begin to feel heavy the second the doors ping open and I begin to follow the hallways to the room number Mr. Matteo gave me only to fall short and stop a few feet from the door.

My hands begin to tremble as I try and build up the courage to go into the room when a deep, soft, voice startles me.

"How bout we go in together?"

I turn around to find Dion standing behind me, a couple feet away, his right arm in a black sling.

"Oh my God!" I instantly go up to him, embracing him in one of the longest and tightest hugs we've ever encountered. "You're okay, you're alive!"

He chuckles softly with a hint of a wince at the back of his voice, "Red," he rasped. "You're kind of hurting my arm."

I quickly let go of him, "oh my God, I'm so sorry!" He smiles. "Are you okay? I tried looking for you last night, God I'm so sorry."

"I'm aight," he smiles, shrugging his injured shoulder, "flesh wound. How is he?" He asked and my eyes immediately begin to glister with tears.

"He's an induced coma," I murmur.

"What are you doing out here?"

"I can't go in there," my voice cracks. "I can't see him like that, Dion."

His lips lightly tug to the side as he sticks his hand out in between us, "c'mon, I'll go in with you," he smiles. "Ang may not be here to give you the girl support she always gives you, but I promise to try my best until she gets here."

I meet Dion's smile with a small one of my own and nod my head placing my hand his as he pulls us into Isaac's hospital room, slow tears instantly begin to run down my face as we step inside. Isaac's parents are sitting on either side of him, both in chairs, his mom to his left and his dad to his right, as Isaac lays in a hospital bed in the middle of the room with a breathing tube down his throat.

"Oh my God," I mumble.

Mrs. Matteo looks over at us and is instantly getting off of the chair, walking in our direction.

"Dion!" She exclaims, wrapping her arms around him just like I did a few moments ago. "I'm so glad you're okay, thank you for being here."

He hugs her back, "I'm okay, Mrs. Matteo, what's going on? What did the doctor say?"

Mrs. Matteo pulls apart from Dion, suggesting that I sit in the chair where she was just sitting at and begins to fill Dion in on everything, apparently they're going to keep Isaac in his coma for two days and that's exactly what they do.

Isaac stays in his induced coma as his family and friends come and go, visiting and checking how he and everyone else is doing. Mr. Matteo leaves every now and then to do something's for work but is never really gone longer than three hours and is back waiting at his son's side, just like his mother and I.

Isaac was officially pulled out of his coma yesterday afternoon and my heart nearly broke to see how out of it he was. He was in so much pain and had absolutely no idea where he was, so Dr. Okeeffe gave him something to help ease the pain and help him sleep and hasn't woken up since. But it's perfectly normal because according to the experts, meaning his doctor, the more Isaac rest the faster his body would heal and that's all I want, for him to be okay.

I was currently sitting in my chair that can be pulled out into a ting bed, listening to music with my headphones, when Angela texts me this morning that she over heard Dion talking to Isaac's dad on the phone about Cris staying in the same hospital as well, but isn't to be bothered, at least not yet.

I've actually been trying to build the courage to tell Mr. Matteo that Cris wasn't such a bad guy, he's actually the opposite, that he took care of me and made sure that nothing happened while I was held captive, but I just couldn't find the right time to talk to him or the right words to say without upsetting him.

I've also been trying to build up the courage to go look for Cris, to see if he was okay after what happened with his cousin, but more because I wanted to thank him for what he did, he put his life in jeopardy because of me, he got shot as well because of me.

I pull my earphones out of my ears and unplug them from my phone, stuffing them back into the small bag that my dad has left here for me. I push the small blanket off of me and stand up from the chair, deciding that this was something I needed to get over with already.

"Everything okay?" Mrs. Matteo looks away from the small television in the room. She's currently sitting in the opposite side of me, with her husband right next to her, a stack of papers on his lap, as he continues to read them over and over. I swear I've never spent so much time with Isaac parents.

"Yeah," I answered. "I'm gonna just gonna take a little walk, stretch my legs a bit, maybe go down to the cafeteria, would you guys like something?"

"No, honey, I'm okay, thank you," she smiles. "Carmelo?"

"Hmm?" He hums, barely taking his eyes off of his work.

"Do you want something from the cafeteria?" She ask's her husband.

He looks up, "I'm fine thank you."

I nod and smile back, "will you let me know if he wakes up while I'm gone?"

"Of course," Mrs. Matteo says, and I quietly make my way out of the room.

I head down to the lobby a little nervous about seeing Cris, what if he wasn't the nice Cris I was starting to get a costumed to, what if he had a sudden change of attitude because I had got him shot, by his own cousin? Nonetheless I walk up to the front clerk and she immediately greets me.

"Hi, how can I help you?"

"By chance can you tell me what floor and room Cris Roxwell is in?"

She instantly averts her attention to her computer screen and starts clicking away on her keyboard when she's looking back over at me.

"Mr. Roxwell is currently on the fifth floor, room 13 north," she smiles widely.

I smile back and thank her before heading back in the direction I came from and step back into the elevator, pressing the button with the number five on it. The elevator makes two stops loading and unloading a couple more people before finally making it to the fifth floor and I'm soon following the sign that says "north" and standing outside of Cris's door.

I take a deep breath, exhale it slowly, and knock gently on the hospital door. I knock a second time when I don't get an answer, a little louder this time, but get nothing in return and take the liberty of slowly walking in.

I immediately pick up on some soft laughter as I walk deeper into the room and quickly notice that the tv is on, but Cris is soundly asleep in his bed.

"Cris?" I whisper softly hoping that he would wake up, but he doesn't.

I walk up to the bed, to him, and try whispering again, "Cris.." but he still doesn't budge.

Great.

I place my hand on his arm, lightly shaking it this time as I call out his name again, "Cris."

He begins to stir in his sleep, inhaling a deep breath until his eyes are finally opening. He immediately frowns when he notices me standing here, "Summers?"

"Hi..."

"What's going on, what are you doing here?" He croaks, looking around the room.

"You know you should really get some body guards," I joke, "anybody can just walk in."

"Noted. What the hell are you doing here?"

My eyes instantly begin to tear up, "Isaac," I mutter, although I know that he nots referring to that, he's asking what am I doing in his room.

Cris frown only deepens as he seems to understand the hurt sad look on my face but he doesn't say anything, at least not yet. A few seconds go by as we stay there in silence.

"Hailey.." he starts and I quickly look over at him.

He begins to shake his head softly, sitting up on the bed, "I should've got you out the second he brought you in," he says. "I shouldn't have let it got this far, I'm sorry."

Tears start to run down my face, "so you were in on it with Zeb?"

He smiles faintly, nodding his head, "it'll be our little secret though," he winks and I immediately go in to hug him.

I hear him wince and ease up a bit, I was probably hurting him like Dion the other day.

"Thank you," I cry.

Cris doesn't say anything but I slowly feel him wrap an arm around me, embracing me back. "I told you," he hums. "I'm nothing like him."

I pull away from him, smiling, "yeah, I see that now."

"Is he-"

"Yeah," I mumble before he can finish his question.

"That would explain why he never came back to finish the job. Was it your boyfriend?"

I shake my head, "no, my dad."

Cris inhales sharply, slowly releasing the deep breath.

"Your family hasn't told you anything?"

He shakes his head, "I haven't spoken with anyone. I asked the nurses not to call my family so they don't know I'm here, they probably think I'm dead too," he scoffs.

"I'm sorry, Cris."

He immediately shakes his head again, "don't be, he was getting out of hand."

"Still, you guys were family," I remind him.

"Which means you should probably hate me as much as you hated him, just exactly like everyone else does, just like your boyfriend does."

I reach for Cris's hand on the bed, giving it a gentle squeeze, "I'm not like everyone else. I'm not gonna hate, not judge you just because of who you're related to, or what family you come from," I smile.

Cris smiles softly in return, "I can see why he loves you."

I instantly blush and look off to the side, pulling my hand away from him. "Are you gonna be okay? With your family I mean."

"Yeah," he nods. "With Ax out of the picture I'm the next male in line."

I clench my eyebrows together, "you are?" He nods softly. "What about Ax's dad?"

Cris begins to shake his head, "he has stage four pancreatic cancer, he was diagnosed a few months ago, it's why he kept pushing Ax so much, he wanted to make sure the family was left in good hands before he left. He'll be lucky if he makes it till summer."

"And your dad?"

"Not around," he answers dryly. "My uncle ran him out of town when he found out he was beating his baby sister, I think I was probably like nine years old when he left."

"God I'm so sorry, Cris.."

He shrugs his shoulders, "shit happens, kind of makes me wish I had older brothers rather than sisters sometimes."

"So they could be next in line?"

He nods. "I don't really care for this life, if it were my choice I would've ran away along time ago, but I owed my uncle for taking me in, for taking my sisters in, my mom into his home." He scoffs softly, "I was always his back up plan in case his son didn't work out."

"You didn't have the luxury of walking away," I mutter.

He shakes his head, "does anyone ever really?"

"I should probably get back," I tilt my head towards his door. "I just wanted to check in on you, thank you for everything that you did."

Cris nods his head quietly, "you don't have to thank me, Summers."

I smile down at him one more time and begin to walk away, stopping a couple feet from the door and turn back to look at Cris. "Oh before I forget, I'm gonna talk to Carmelo, I'm gonna clear your name, it's the least I could do for saving my life."

His small smile soon starts to turn into a wide grin, "thank you."

I smile in return, "good luck with everything, Cris, really," and turn to walk out of the room.

I walk down the empty wide hall way and make my way back to the elevators and back down to the third level that Isaac is on. As soon as the doors ping open I make a left and start to walk towards the back of the hospital, towards the rooms, stopping in front of 35

I place my hand on the door handle, ready to push it open when I hear someone softly call my name.

"Hail?"

I look behind me to find my dad standing in the middle of the hall way and immediately turn back around to face the door.

I still hadn't really spoken to him since the night I left my house, I still hadn't gone home since everything happened, I couldn't yet, I wanted to be here for when Isaac woke up.

Nonetheless I did thank my dad for everything he did that night, I even stayed with him the first night Isaac was brought in, or I should say he stayed with me, but we didn't speak much. I still didn't know what to say, I still felt hurt, I still felt some what betrayed, I hadn't had much time to process anything with everything that's happened.

"Hail please," my dad begs and I turn to look at him. "Give me a chance to explain myself."

I nod my head and turn back around to sit in the small waiting room down the hall. My dad follows closely behind me, taking the seat right next to mine. Its awkward and quiet for a few seconds.

"Can we make this quick," I utter softly. "I wanna be there when Isaac wakes up."

My dad sighs long and hard, "I never intended for it to get this far, sweetheart, I swear. I literally just wanted to get us out of the bad runt we were in. Your mothers medical bills," he begins to hesitate. "They really did us in. I fell behind on everything, we were weeks away from losing the house. I couldn't lose anything else after her, I refused to, so I did the only thing I could think of, I asked for help, I took out a loan with his dad."

"Did he know that you were a cop from the get go?" I asked.

My dad shakes his head, "no, it took him a few months to find out and then everything changed, he offered me a deal, actually no, I wouldn't even call it a deal. He gave me an easy way out of my new debt and I didn't think twice about taking it. I had heard plenty of stories, seen the cases of what happens when Carmelo doesn't get his money when he's suppose to, and even though I had everything back on track at home I was starting to struggle again. I was getting ready to send your brother off to school, it was starting to get harder and harder to save, to make my payments on time, I was falling off track, we were starting to live pay check to pay check again, so I took the offer. I would no longer be in his debt the second I started working for him."

"You should've told me, dad. I could've looked for a part time job, you could've made Caleb get a part time job!"

My dad scoffs, "you were too young, baby, plus it was my mess to clean up, not your guys."

"I would've found a way to help," I muttered. "I could've baby sat, cleaned, charged for tutoring, anything could've helped."

My dad lays his left hand on my right knee, "your education came first, it still does and it always will. I want you and Caleb to achieve your dreams, I want to give you the life your mother and I couldn't have. I didn't tell you to protect you guys, I specifically told Carmelo that I didn't want my family involved, that I didn't want his family, his life, anywhere near you two."

My dad begins to chuckle softly, "believe it or not, but I nearly cried of happiness the second Caleb told me he wanted to go out of state for school, weight was instantly lifted off of my chest, I wouldn't have to worry about him getting involved with the wrong crowds, all my attention could be focused on you until you decide to fly the coop."

"And if I choose to stay?" I asked.

"It doesn't really matter now, does it?" My dad mumbles. "Life still found a way for you to get involved with The Matteo's."

"Dad-"

"All those little petty small arguments we had over Isaac killed me because I knew I couldn't say anything without exposing myself. I had never met him before, but I knew the kind of kid he was, I was the one always cleaning up their mess, covering up for them, I knew what that family was about, what problems they came with and I didn't want you anywhere near that, Hail. I know the small shit you probably think I don't, I know about his OD from the first time you guys broke up, I know the real reason why you got sick, the real season why you ran off to Carmen's, I know it all, sweetheart."

I look down at my hands on my lap, not really knowing what to say. Do I apologize for not telling him? Am I gonna get in trouble now?

My dad places his large hand over my own, cupping it, "I'm sorry that you had to see that, that you had to deal with that alone, that you got involved with that type of lifestyle, that I couldn't protect you from it, but I want you to know that you can always come talk to me, baby girl, about anything, and if you still want to stay with Carmen I'll respect that, you can come home whenever you're ready, I just want you to know that I'm sorry, kiddo." He leans in to place a kiss on the side of my head and gets up from his chair getting ready to walk away.

"Dad.."

He stops and turns to look behind him, I quickly get off of the chair and go up to him wrapping my arms around him, not necessarily saying anything. My dad immediately embraces me back and we stand there for a couple of seconds, "I love you," I whisper. "I'm so sorry."

My dad tightens his arms around me, "you don't have anything to be sorry about, kiddo." He kisses the top of my head again, "I have to go to work, I'll check in on you later."

~~~~

I make my way back into Isaac's room to find his mom still in here in the same spot that I had left her but her husband, Isaac's dad, he's long gone. Apparently he had to step out and attend to some important matters and would return as quick as he can. I glance over towards the bed in the middle of the room as my hands cling on to the rail at the bottom of the bed.

"Nothing yet?" I ask Mrs. Matteo.

She looks up from the small white tablet in her hand and sets it down on her lap. "No," she softly shakes her head, looking to her right, to her son. "They just came to check up on him again while you were gone, his vitals are the same, they're still good, we just gotta keep waiting," she mumbles.

I exhale a long deep breath as I walk around the bed and squat next to it, reaching for Isaac's hand.

"Come on, baby," I squeeze his hand gently. "I know you can hear me, I need you to wake up," I whisper. "Please."

"He will," Mrs. Matteo mumbles, I quickly look up her, a soft confused expression on my face. "I can feel it," she continues as she looks over to her son. "He's gonna wake up today," she smiles.

"I hope so," I sigh and stand back up to my feet, making my way back over to the chair that I've been sitting on for the past couple days.

I quickly grab my blanket that's hanging off of the arm rest and drape it over my lap, making myself comfortable once again. I grab my kindle from the little stand next to me and look up to find Mrs. Matteo just staring at me and offer her a small smile.

"Why don't I go get us some real food?" She smiles in return.

"Oh," I quickly start to shake my head. "I'm not that hung-"

"Nonsense child!" She quickly talks over me. "You've barely ate since we've got here, you need food and you will eat food, understood?"

"Yes ma'am," I answer softly.

"Good," she reaches for her expensive bag that she has sitting next to her. She gets up to her feet, slinging her bag on her shoulder, "I shall return in a bit," she smiles. "Call me if anything happens, please."

I nod my head, "I will."

Mrs. Matteo leans to down place a quick kiss on her son's cheek, telling him that she'll return in a little while and walks out of the room. I look back over at Isaac, who's still peacefully sleeping and pray to God silently that he wakes up soon.

I grab my kindle from off of my lap and open it attempting to read some chapters to distract my mind, sadly it doesn't work. No matter how much I try I just can't seem to concentrate on the words in front of me.

I huff and slam my kindle shut, placing it back onto the little stand next to me, annoyed and grab my bag from the ground, pulling my earphones back out, quickly plugging them into my phone and get comfortable on my chair.

A few more minutes pass by as I continue to scroll through my Facebook and watch short videos here and there, when there's a soft knock on the door and it slowly creeks open.

I instantly pull my earphones out of my ears and place them on the same table that my kindle is laying on, expecting Isaac's mom to walk back in but it's not her, it's a actually a man that I don't recognize, a tall, lightly tanned skin, dark haired man, who oddly looks familiar for some strange reason.

"Oh," he says a little taken back, his is voice deep. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize that anyone was in here."

I quickly pull the hospital blanket off of my lap, immediately getting off the chair, "no, you're fine, I can step out really quick if you'd like."

"No, please stay," he quickly blurts out, walking deeper into the room until he's standing on the left side of Isaac's bed. "I wouldn't even know what to say or do if he woke up," he says looking down at him.

I frown, slightly shaking my head, "Im sorry, I'm not following, who are you again?"

He looks up at me, "you must be Hailey, the girlfriend, right?" I nod. "I'm Fernando," he continues, placing a hand over his chest.

"Fernando?"

He nods, "his uncle.. Or I don't know, I probably don't even deserve that title anymore."

I slowly sit back down in the chair behind me as I begin to puzzle all the pieces together.

"Your his mom's other brother," I mumble.

He nods.

"H-how?"

"Salvador," he huffs.

"Sal?" I frown, his uncle nods. "But why?"

Isaac's uncle scoffs softly looking over at Isaac, he shrugs his shoulders. "If Salvador good for anything, it's guilt tripping you. He said that he was in critical condition, that it might be my one and only chance to meet my nephew and say goodbye, but he looks pretty stable to me," he chuckles.

I chuckle along nervously with him not really knowing what to say, "I'm sorry that you had to come all the way down here, Mr. -?"

"Fiorelli."

I secretly smile on the inside, so that's Mrs. Matteo's maiden name.

"But please, call me Fernando," he adds.

"Well, Mr. Fernando."

"Please, you don't have to call me Mr, Hailey. Fernando's fine."

I nod while smiling, "well, Fernando, I can assure that your nephew is perfectly fine. You're more than welcomed to stick around still."

He forces a small smile onto his face while beginning to shake his head, "thank you, but I should really get going before I get spotted here."

"Um, I know we don't know each other, like at all, Mr. Fiorelli, but you came back for a reason, right? Why not just wait it out and see it through."

Fernando continues to shake his head softly, forcing a puff of air out of his nose. "He looks like him," he mumbles while staring down at his nephew. "Like Matteo," he continues, looking over at me now, "like his dad."

"He has your guys eyes," I smile.

Mr. Fiorelli smiles, and his smile actually seems genuine this time. He glances over at me one last time and says, "it was nice meeting, Hailey," before turning around.

Fernando stops dead in his tracks as he's about to exit the room, when Isaac's mom, his sister walks in. She's a little preoccupied looking down at the cup holder in her right hand as she attempts to balance the drinks with one hand, and the food in her other.

"I hope that you like everything in your burgers, sweetheart," she looks up and immediately drops the bag of food she had in her hand, hanging onto the drinks like her dear life depended on it.

The room is so quiet that I can hear Mrs. Matteo's own breath hitch from the sight of her oldest brother standing in the room., I can see her chest starting to rise up and down from where I'm sitting.

"Hi, Adriana."

~~~~~

FYI guys, the next chapter will be the last chapter.

Dun, dun, duuunnnnn lmao

I hope you guys liked the chapter! Don't forget to comment, vote, share it with your friends, whatever the cool kids are doing now a days!

Tootles

-K 💕