Chapter 130: Jump or better yet die
**KIERAN MORRISON**
Time slowly continued to tick, and each time a nurse walked out, my heart would leap, but it was still the same.
Nothing yet.
In reality, it had only been fifteen minutes which felt like an eternity.
My eyes swept across the waiting room, taking in the familiar faces who were also waiting for Ollie to wake up. William was slumped in a chair with his head in his hands, and Vince’s arm was draped across his shoulders. I was surprised to see Heath and Claude, I didn’t even realize when they arrived.
Then I saw him.
Xander sat in the corner, staring down at his hands. Something cold settled in my stomach.
How had he gotten to Oliver so fast?
He wasn’t even in our group. He’d been assigned to a completely different section of the woods, from where we were collecting samples.
So how had he been the first one there?
My jaw locked as I stared at him, he looked up as though feeling my gaze from across him, and for a split second, something flickered in his eyes before he looked away.
I didn’t say or do anything but stare.
Let him feel it. He should know that I was watching every breath he took because if he had anything to do with Oliver bleeding on that forest floor...
"Where is my son! What happened to him!"
The voice cut through the air. I turned to see Oliver’s mother rushing through the doors, still wearing her work scrubs from a different hospital.
Her face was pale with panic, her eyes wild as they searched the room.
Her gaze fell on me first, then snapped to the doctor who was emerging from the operating area. She was already crying, her hands shaking as she reached for him. I stood up as well, the doctor was out at last. Ollie’s mom beat me in talking to him.
"Is he hurt badly? I want to see him! Where is he?" The words tumbled out between sobs as the doctor tried to guide her to a chair.
"He’s out of danger now. His vitals are stable, but he hasn’t regained consciousness yet. We had to perform minor surgery to relieve some pressure and clean the wound."
The doctor’s voice was calm, but each word felt like a hammer blow to my chest.
Minor surgery.
I only left him alone for less than five minutes, why will Ollie need surgery?
"My baby will be okay, right?" Mrs. West’s voice broke completely.
The doctor nodded, and I felt some of the crushing weight lift from my chest. But it wasn’t enough. Not until Oliver opened his eyes and looked at me.
"We’ve done everything we can to stop the bleeding. If he’d been found any later, it would have been critical. The injury to the base of his head and neck was severe - he lost quite a bit of blood. You mentioned he slipped and fell, but the trauma pattern doesn’t match a simple fall from a little height."
I froze at those words.
My eyes snapped to Xander, hadn’t he told me Oliver had slipped? That he’d just found him like that?
The doctor wasn’t finished. "The injury suggests significant force. We also found wood fragments embedded deep in the wound - deeper than what a fall would cause."
I marched towards Xander who jumped from his chair.
"I didn’t know, I just found him there. I assumed he’d fallen..."
His words felt wrong to my ears and I stopped to think, if Xander had hurt Ollie, he wouldn’t have been there, waiting for me to discover him. And the ambulance he had called had been the first to arrive.
"How could this have happened? Who would want to hurt him?!" William’s yell echoed across the room.
The doctor sighed. "I’m not saying someone deliberately harmed him. But the evidence suggests this wasn’t a simple accident."
My hands clenched into fists.
Oliver had been struck. Someone motherfucker had hit him hard enough to nearly kill him.
I thought back to that moment in the woods. The sound I’d heard. I had been trying to find out the source... when I had mysteriously bumped into Amanda. It had been as if she had popped out of thin air.
The pale guilt, and fear in her eyes were because she was afraid of being discovered.
That bitch!
"Kieran, where are you going?" I barely heard Vince calling after me
I was already walking toward the exit, because if someone hurt Oliver...My Ollie.
They wouldn’t live to regret it.
The automatic doors slid open in front of me, and the cool evening air hit my face. My hands were steady now, and my mind crystal clear.
Because I knew exactly what I was going to do.
**
The drive to her house happened after every calculation I’d made. I knew she lived alone with her single mom, who sometimes worked part-time in Sol’s club, the one owned by Vince’s boss. And from the messages I exchanged with Sol over the hours, Amanda’s mother was currently working her shift in the club.
This would leave the bitch alone.
I made my way to the second floor.
I didn’t bother knocking, the old house and crappy lock couldn’t keep me out, and not tonight when fury coiled around my ribs with each heartbeat.
The apartment was dark, and silent except for the faint hum of the fridge.
I moved through the empty living room, and then I saw her.
She had the guts to lie curled in her bed, her chest rising and falling with the careless peace of sleep. My vision blurred red.
She had hurt Ollie and here she was sleeping when my boyfriend was fighting for his life.
I crossed the room in hurried, determined strides. The sound of my footsteps snapped her awake. She looked startled as she scrambled upright, but it was too late. My fingers clamped around her shoulders, dragging her up to her feet,
Her face drained of colour when she met my eyes. I didn’t know what she saw in my gaze, but it was enough to make her visibly tremble.
"It was you," I hissed, rage pouring into my voice.
"I don’t know what you’re talking about. Why are you here?!" Her voice shook with the pathetic attempt at denial. She tried to sidestep me, but I tightened my grip, not giving her an inch.
"You hit him, didn’t you? Didn’t you?" I roared, " You want to know why I’m here, I’m here to make you repay with your life!"
Fear bleached her face as she shook her head frantically. "Is he going to die? I didn’t kill anyone! I didn’t mean to hurt him! You have to believe me, I didn’t mean—I just wanted to punish him a little, but that’s all!" Her voice broke into sobs that grated on my ears.
Her admission only stoked the fire inside me. She just confessed that she had done it!
"Do you know he’s in pain? He’s not waking up! And it’s because of you!"
"I’m sorry! I’m sorry!" she cried, "I was jealous, I didn’t think... I swear, I only wanted to teach him a lesson, I didn’t think it would be this bad!"
"You didn’t think?" My words came out like ice, freezing the air between us.
She collapsed against me, sobbing into her hands. "Please. Trust me. If I can do anything, anything to make up for my mistake, I swear I’ll do it."
Oh, I planned to make sure she did just that.
Without a word, I grabbed her arm and yanked her forward. She stumbled after me, choking on her pleas as I dragged her out of their apartment and through the empty hall.
We climbed until the air grew colder. My chest burned, each breath harsh with fury as I shoved open the final door and forced her onto the rooftop.
"Kieran, where are you taking me?" Her voice cracked with panic.
A frosty smile etched on my features. "You said you wanted to make it up to him. I’m giving you the chance."
My hand locked around the back of her neck as I pushed her forward, closer to the edge. Below us, the streets glared with indifferent lights.
"So jump." I mouthed coldly.
Her eyes widened, terror flooding them as she shook her head violently, trying in vain to free herself from my grip. "No...no, please! If I jump, I’ll die!"
I pressed harder, shoving her until her back slammed against the railing. The metal rattled beneath her weight, and her fingers clawed at mine in desperation.
"Exactly," I spoke with icy hate. "Do you think you deserve to live after what you did? Now you either jump... or I push you. If you do it yourself, it would be you atoning for your mistakes, if I do it, it will be my revenge. Either way, you die and go to hell. Your choice, Mandy