Chapter 5

I woke up with a bird song, the smell of flowers in the air and the cozy warmth of the sheets, almost made me want to continue there enjoying the comfort. But I need to know what had happened to me, where I was and who the hell was that man in my room.

I opened my eyes and was almost blinded by the clarity. I blinked several times until my eyes could stay open without hurting and faced the walls confused.

Instead of being surrounded by the usual light green walls of the room I loved so much, I was staring at pink walls covered in flowers. I had seen this room before, I just couldn’t remember where. Who lived there? And most importantly, why was I there?

I lifted my body from the bed and the whole room turned, making me fall against the soft pillows again. What the fuck was going on with me?

"Hey, let’s take it easy. You’ve been through a lot lately." A brunette woman came into the room already talking.

His voice was almost a humming of the birds and his face so serious, but friendly, that even the scolding seemed a good thing. The dark eyes as the night stared at me with genuine interest and she opened me a wide white smile, showing a dimple.

"Who are you? And where am I?"

That smell in the air, looked like the park when we were in the spring and all the flowers bloomed together, flooding the whole city with a unique scent.

"My name is Flora. I’m a friend of Agnes and I’m here to take care of you."

"Taking care of me? What happened? Where is Agnes?"

I did not wait for an answer I got up from the bed even dizzy, supported my hand on the bed and forced my feet to work. I felt weak, but I walked to the windowsill and looked through the glass for any memory, anything that would help me remember where I was.

The garden seemed endless, I could not identify anything that reminded me of something like this.

"What happened here?" Alice’s familiar voice filled me with relief. " Who said you could get out of bed, young lady?"

"Alice! Thank God." I sighed relieved when she came closer and held me in her arms. " Where are we and why do I feel like I’ve been run over several times?"

She stared at me for long seconds, her silence began to weigh a ton, until she pulled me back to bed. Carefully Alice helped me to sit and then took the place next to me.

"We’re at my grandma’s. Remember we used to come here when we were little?"

So that’s it, it’s been years since I’ve visited Grandma Blanca, as I used to call her. That was why the place seemed so familiar and at the same time so hard to remember exactly.

Ever since my mom and Will got together, I haven’t visited. Mom always said how important Grandma Blanca was, she even helped in my birth.

But for some reason she walked away from everyone after Will arrived. It reminded me of Will...

"Where is Will?" I asked and watched Alice look around, as if she would find the answer somewhere there. " There was someone in my room when I fainted, I called for him, but Will didn’t show up and the man started talking about everything being okay, but then I blacked out."

She took a deep breath and turned to Flora, the two exchanged a weird look and even without saying anything, the other seemed to understand the message.

"I’ll call Agnes. Everything will be fine." Flora said in her voice that she seemed to be able to appease or start a war.

But it was just her leaving the room for me to worry about other things. What were they hiding from me? What could have happened to Will?

"Since when do you stall to say something?"

"Stay calm, my mother will be able to explain to you better what happened, but the bastard is fine."

"Alice!" I rebuked her immediately and she rolled her eyes. No matter the differences between them, Will was like a father to me, even if we fought I loved him too much.

She was about to protest when Agnes entered the room, shutting us both up.

"Oh dear, it’s so good to see you awake! We were very worried about you."

Aunt Agnes was the copy of Alice, blonde, thin, tall, with a beauty to envy in many people.

Despite being fifty-two years old, she did not look more than forty. I admired it in her, not only that of course, her personality had a determined, independent woman of great faith and an even greater heart.

"Mom, Bridget wants to know what happened."

"Oh sweetie, it was very difficult everything you went through. Luckily we arrived on time, before William could get you out of town... "

"What?"

"He had already put you in the car and was leaving, but we managed to intercept the car on the road and get you back."

That wasn’t true, he wouldn’t be taking me out of town when I was practically dying. No, I can’t believe it!

"He wouldn’t do that, I think you made a mistake." I protested knowing that the man who raised me, who took care of me even after my mother died, would not do something like this to me. " He was supposed to be taking me to the hospital when he saw I wasn’t well!"

"I wanted that to be true, from the bottom of my heart I did. But what we found out is that William put the poison in the food. You weren’t having a late reaction to alcohol or anything, he poisoned you!"

"Lie!" was the first thing that came to my mind and I yelled at Alice.

He would never do that, he treated me like a father, called me his daughter, always took care of me and my mother.

"I wouldn’t expect you to believe everything so quickly, especially because he’s been there for you all these years." Agnes spoke slowly, as if talking to a frightened child.

"But the truth is this dear, luckily we found the poison in the kitchen, or it would be very difficult to find a cure."

I pushed Alice’s hand and tried to get away from them. I wasn’t going to fall for that conversation, all this confusion was going too far.

"I’m leaving! I’m going home and I’m going to tell Will I agree to leave Salem, you’ve gone too far making this up about him!"

I took some uncertain steps as they spoke and spoke, but my head had knotted, I could not process anything else.

All the information scrambled in my mind: poisoned, Will trying to kill me and get me out of town, they saving me, the man in black and that strange dream.

"Bri, we have no reason to lie." Alice appeared beside me, supporting me so I wouldn’t fall. " If you want to go to your house I’ll take you, but you need to rest. William is not at your mother’s house. He ran, running away like the rat he is!"

"Alice, look what you say!"

"She needs to know mom!" she protested, turning to me and pouring out the truth. " You were unconscious for a whole week and then you went back and forth, waking up little by little." he said startling me. Had I been out in that bed for over a week? "We stood by you, brought you to Blanca’s house and looked after you!"

"How long have I slept?"

"Almost three weeks, you have a very strong guardian." Agnes said in a kind voice, drawing my attention again. "You two have!"

I frown in confusion, who was she talking about? There was no one else in the room but me, Alice and her.

"You’re pregnant, Bri!" Alice answered my silent question and I stared at her as if she had two heads.

Pregnant? Me? Couldn’t be, there was no way! I never slept with any man...

Parker! The golden eyes and wild hair came to my mind and I sighed with the warm memories that filled my thoughts.

I couldn’t believe I was pregnant! I had seen the man once, we shared nothing more than one night and I was pregnant with him?

Three weeks, I’d been out for three weeks. So that meant... The air became thin and my breath got stuck in my throat.

My life had turned upside down overnight and I had no idea what I was going to do now.

How would I take care of a child? What the hell was I gonna do with my life now that Will’s gone? And if he really tried to kill me, who was this man I’ve been living with my whole life?

"We’re going to need to go to LYNC. You need protection and only Parker can do that."

"What are you talking about, Alice? What protection?"

"Don’t mind her, honey. Alice talks a lot when she shouldn’t, don’t worry, we’ll take care of everything." Agnes took the lead trying to silence her daughter. " You just need to rest, you’ve received a lot of information for a single day, we don’t want you to faint again."

I wanted to protest, but Grandma Blanca came into the room, with her scent of flowers bringing calm with her.

"My girl, you need to get some sleep. You’ll wake up much better."

Before I could say anything, her hands covered my face and with a kiss on my forehead she made me go back to bed, sleep took me quickly and I fell asleep in seconds.