Chapter 5 Regrets And Contemplations

Claire's POV

I kept blinking my eyes in the hospital. Everything felt heavy and wrong. The faces around my bed belonged to people I loved but their expressions scared me more than the pain shooting through my body.

Mom gripped the metal rail while Dad stood rigid beside her.

The doctors whispered among themselves and nurses checked machines that beeped constantly. Everyone looked at me like I might disappear if they blinked.

My mind kept circling back to one name: David Don Carlos.

Was he the one who brought me here? The thought made no sense but nothing else did either.

How would he know about the accident unless he had been watching me?

The questions multiplied faster than I could process them and breathing became harder with each one.

"The cab driver," I tried to say but the words came out as barely a whisper.

Voices echoed strangely in the room as if someone had turned up the volume on everything except my own thoughts.

My parents shifted from foot to foot and my sisters huddled together near the window.

Their restlessness filled the air like smoke.

I wanted to tell them I was fine but my throat felt raw and speaking took more energy than I had.

Instead I lay there thinking about how this whole mess started with one stupid moment of weakness.

If I had just looked away when I saw David with that other girl none of this would have happened.

The jealousy hit me like a punch and I let it control my actions instead of being smart about it.

Now a stranger was lying in another room somewhere because of my drama.

"Your body needs time to heal properly," the doctor said to my parents while checking my chart. "She should be ready to go home in two days but she needs complete rest until then."

Dad's face went pale and Mom started crying softly. My little sisters covered their faces with their hands the way they always did when something upset them.

I reached out to touch them but they were too far away.

The doctor leaned close to my bed and spoke gently. "Claire, you have to let your body recover.

Your family will be back soon but right now sleep is the best medicine."

After they left the hospital became quiet in a way that felt wrong. Even the nurses spoke in whispers and their shoes made soft sounds on the linoleum.

Through my door I could see other families saying goodbye for the night.

The worst part was watching the cab driver's wife in the hallway.

She collapsed against the wall and sobbed while a nurse tried to comfort her.

Her husband was hurt because of me and there was nothing I could do to fix it.

Two days crawled by before the doctor finally said I could go home.

Dad barely spoke during the drive and I could see his jaw clenched in the rearview mirror.

His eyebrows kept moving which meant trouble was waiting for me at home.

Mom turned around from the front seat and smiled but worry lines creased her forehead.

She was trying to make me feel better but we both knew what was coming.

I walked straight to my room hoping to avoid the conversation but Dad's voice stopped me at the stairs.

"Claire Smith, where do you think you're going?"

My hands started shaking and heat spread across my face. Mom appeared beside me and put her arm around my shoulders.

"Are you okay sweetheart? You feel warm," she said while pressing her palm to my forehead.

"I'm fine," I managed to say but my voice cracked.

Dad crossed his arms and stared at me with the same expression he used when my report cards came home. "Fine? You call this fine? Do you have any idea what you put us through?"

"She just got out of the hospital," Mom said sharply. "Can't this wait until tomorrow?"

"No it cannot wait. If that man hadn't called us we wouldn't have known anything happened to her. From now on you're grounded Claire and I don't want to hear any arguments about it."

His tone made it clear that begging would be useless. I nodded and went upstairs without another word.

My room felt different after being gone for two days but I was glad to be somewhere familiar.

I put on music and tried to clear my head but everything kept coming back to David.

The way he looked at me during our date and how stupid I felt for believing he actually cared..

Then seeing him with another girl like I meant nothing at all.

A knock at the front door interrupted my thoughts.

"It's Don Carlos!" someone shouted from outside.

The voice sounded familiar but I couldn't believe he would actually show up at my house

How did he even know where I lived? Had one of my friends given him my address?

I stayed on my bed listening to footsteps downstairs and voices that were too quiet to unde

rstand.

Whatever he wanted to tell me was irrelevant and I wasn't sure I had the energy to deal with him right now.