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Samuel breathed harshly.
“Emma? Emma, are you okay?”
I blinked, trying to breathe in and out as a myriad of images I hadn’t remembered up until that point flooded my mind. Being stuck in a wreck, my bodyguard trying to talk to me, the acute pain in my head. Blood everywhere.
Samuel touched my shoulder. “Emma?”
I unbuckled myself. We were on the side of the road, parked at a bus stop. Samuel shook me slightly until my eyes focused on him. “Emma, say something.”
He had a cut on his temple where he must have hit the side of the car. Blood was trickling down his face.
The other car’s driver got out of his car and gestured wildly at Samuel.
“I’m okay,” I pressed out.
Samuel nodded, then he grabbed his phone. “Dad, I need you to pick Emma up quickly.”
An ambulance arrived before Pietro did. Samuel sat silently beside me, ignoring the other driver who tried to argue with him.
“I’m riding in the ambulance,” I told Samuel.
“I should come with you.”
I wasn’t sure if I wanted that. I knew once the shock had lessened, I’d be furious. Not just at Samuel but also at me for getting into a car with a drunk driver. I should have known better. He should have too. But he was in denial of his problem, and I wasn’t.
Samuel regarded me. “Or I could drive there. I can’t leave my car here.”
“You should ride with your dad,” I said as the paramedics helped me onto the stretcher. I explained that the blood on my nightgown wasn’t from the crash, but I wasn’t sure if they believed me.
“It’s too dangerous for you to ride alone,” Samuel said with a frown.
“Getting in a car with you was too dangerous.”
I swallowed hard, guilt burning a hot trail through my insides. The disappointed and hurt look in Emma’s eyes almost killed me. I pressed a quick kiss to her forehead before I told the ambulance driver to be extra careful and explained the consequences if he wasn’t.
Dad arrived when the ambulance pulled away.
I felt almost sober by now. I had definitely drunk a bit more than I should have tonight. It had been a shitty day.
Dad touched my shoulder. “What happened?”
The usual lie lay on the tip of my tongue, but I was fucking tired of lying. I’d put so much energy into deceiving Emma…and she knew. “I drove drunk today and lost control of the car.”
Dad frowned. “You should have called. Come on. I’ll drive you to the hospital.”
I sank down in the passenger seat.
When I rubbed my face, it came away bloody.
I hadn’t even noticed I was injured. That was why the paramedic wanted to take a look at me.
“Has this happened before?” Dad asked carefully.
“Me driving drunk?” I asked with a hint of dark humor.
“Yes.”
“I don’t remember the last time I didn’t drink something,” I confessed. It felt good to admit it, but at the same time, shame crawled under my skin like cockroaches.