The Ghosts Of Her Past (A Completed, Steamy Romantic Mystery)

Part Sixty Seven

Eli pulled me away from Gray and I tried to fight him.  The father of my baby is laying lifeless in the middle of my living room floor, and my house is being raided by members of the swat team. 

"Cora stop!" He yelled, and I almost collapsed, but he held on to me. 

"Cora, look at me!" He tried to calm me.

"It's my fault, Eli, he's dead.  Oh my God, it's all my fault." I'm shaking, and I have almost no control over my body. 

"It's not your fault, look at me, Cora." He sat me on the couch and cupped my face to look at him instead of Gray.  "He was sick." He said, and I continued shaking, then noticed all the blood on me.

"Eli, I'm going to be sick!"

"Shit!" He pulled me up and helped me to the bathroom, where I collapsed on the floor and hung on to the toilet for dear life.  I violently emptied the contents of my stomach as Eli held my hair back.  When I sat back, he flushed the toilet and ran out to get a glass of water. 

"Take this, Cora. I need to put something against your neck." He handed me some water, then grabbed a hand towel and pressed it against my wound.

"He's dead Eli, it's all my fault.  Everything that happened to Lisa is my fault too." I was shaking as I was pleading for him to believe me.

"Cora, there was nothing you could have done, he made his choices." He said.

I shook my head. "No, I led him on to think there was a chance, a chance for us when there never was. I made him sick."

"Jesus, Cora, he was a grown man." Eli grabbed another towel and tried to wipe the blood off me.

There was a knock on the door. 

"What?" Eli asked.

"The paramedics are requesting to see Miss Ashley." One of Blaine's men said.

"She'll be right out." He said, then looked at me.  "Cora, you have to let them take a look at you."

I shook my head. "I can't leave Gray." I cried.

"That's not Gray out there, it's just a body, and you are carrying his baby. Let them check you and the baby over." He said.

I nodded.  "Okay."

He helped me from the floor and practically carried me outside to the ambulance. 

"She's almost nine weeks pregnant, and she has a deep cut on her throat." He said as he picked me up and set me on a gurney. 

"Miss Ashley, we should take you to the hospital to be evaluated.  Your wound needs to be sewn shut, and the doctor needs to take a look at your baby." A woman said to me, but I can't focus. 

"Eli, find Blaine, please." I cried.

"I'll do what I can."

"No, please, Eli." I cried. 

"I'll meet you at the hospital, Cora." They were loading me in an ambulance.

"I'll be right behind you!" He said, right before the doors slammed shut, which made me jump.

I don't even remember the ride to the hospital or being brought into the ER, but I heard my mom's voice.

"I want to see my daughter, where is she."

"Mom?" I cried out.

"That's her!" Mom said.

"Please let my mom back here." I felt nauseous again, so the nurse handed me a bowl shaped like a kidney. 

"Cora!" My mom pulled back the curtain and swallowed me into her arms. "Thank God you're okay!" I had almost no energy left to hug her back or speak. The image of Gray laying on that floor keeps running through my mind. 

"He's dead, Mom."

She pulled back.  "I know, sweetie. I am so sorry." She hugged me again, when a doctor walked into the room.

"Miss Ashley, I am the attending physician on call tonight.  My name is Dr. Harris, and I would like to examine you, if that's okay." He said.

I nodded.  "Okay."

He did all the normal examination stuff, while I stared off and blocked everyone and everything out.  I felt a pinch on my neck and heard him saying things, but I couldn't concentrate. 

"Sweetie, did you hear Dr. Harris?  He said there won't be much of a scar."

I looked at my mom.  "Who gives a shit, Gray's dead. Why would I care about my neck?"

She looked down at me. "You're right, let's think about the baby." She patted my hands.

"Could you lay back for me, Miss. Ashley?" The doctor asked.

I did as I was told and stared at the ceiling.  I'm not even sure there are actual thoughts in my head. 

"Are you ready to hear your baby's heartbeat?" He asked. 

I looked at him.  "The heartbeat?" That made me snap out of it.

"Yes, we should be able to pick one up.  I'm just going to lift your shirt." He said.

I just laid there motionless, unable to process anything. Suddenly I heard a swish swash sound and felt everything come to the surface. 

"There's your baby, what I hear sounds healthy." He said, and I started crying.

"It's Dad's heart that stopped beating today." I broke down.

I cried as he wiped my stomach off and sat me up.  Mom pulled me into her arms.

"I'll have someone bring you a set of scrubs.  You're fine and the baby is fine, so a social worker will be in shortly." The doctor left, and I held on to my mom.

"Gray's heart stopped beating." I cried. "It's all because of me."

"That's nonsense, there is nothing you could have done to cause what he did. He was sick, Cora."

I shook my head.  "I made him sick.  It's my fault he hurt Lisa, and it's my fault he felt desperate."

"You didn't make him sick, and he was probably struggling for years.  Maybe even before you, and he was good at hiding it." She said.

Flashes of memories played in my mind.  From the day we met, to our first date. Laughing with him, and tender moments that made me hold on to any kind of relationship we had for years after we broke up. 

I had encounters before Gray, kissing, oral sex, and almost went all the way.  Once with a man that is a priest now, and my brother's friend, but I gave myself to Gray. When we broke up, I had one regretful night with another man, but it was always Gray, until I met Blaine. 

I trusted him and loved him until he became impossible to love, and now my baby's father is dead.