My sleepless night was due in part to every bone and muscle on the right side of my body aching from the crash, and in part to the image of the man racing away from the accident frozen in my head. I hadn't told anyone about it—not even Will or Julie. The latter slept soundly in a chair beside my bed, but I knew she'd be awake in a heartbeat if I needed her.

Liv had volunteered to stay in Will's room, but I knew she'd do the same if he needed her. Skye had gone home a few hours ago, promising to check on both of us first thing in the morning. I took a shuddering breath before pushing myself—albeit one-handed and awkwardly—up to a sitting position.

It was only when the breath broke on a pained whimper that I realized I had used my injured arm. Knife-sharp pain sliced down from my right shoulder to my fingertips. Julie's eyes fluttered open at the sound.

Blinking rapidly, she rubbed her eyes before sitting up and focusing on me. "Malia? What is it, sweetheart? Are you in pain?"

Her voice was soft, her gaze worried as it swept over my body. I opened and closed my mouth several times as tears filled my eyes and spilled down my cheeks. I knew I had to tell someone—I just didn't know if I could. I didn't know if I could stomach reopening that wound so soon.

But apparently, my body had other plans. Fear, grief, and anger coiled into a knot in my stomach before traveling up my throat and tumbling from my mouth in a flurry of words. "I... I saw him." My voice broke, but I didn't stop. "He was... he was there. But he didn't even... didn't even check to see whether we were okay. He just... just ran away."

Raw, bitter sobs wracked my body, but I was so tired of crying. I was tired of feeling resentment, anger, and bitterness toward a man who clearly was too much of a coward to own up to his mistakes.

Julie shifted from her chair to the side of the bed but didn't touch me. When I looked up at her, I saw her face fall as she glimpsed the pain and grief on my own. "Who, sweetheart? Who did you see?"

I swallowed hard, pushing the tears back and forcing myself to speak. "I saw him." Once the words were out, I couldn't stop. A dam had been unleashed inside me, and I was powerless against the force of it. "He was there. B-but he didn't even c-check to see whether we were o-okay. H-he just l-left."

I felt my breath hitch, my throat tightening with unshed tears until I almost couldn't breathe. I swiped at my face, but they just kept coming, blurring my vision until I couldn't see Julie in front of me. "Why did he leave? Why didn't he stay? Why weren't we enough?"

The words caught in a tight, painful knot in my throat, cutting off my rambling. Curling into a ball, I wrapped my arms around myself as if I could contain the explosive emotions whirling around inside me. "He told her that he wanted to take me with him. But he didn't even check to see whether we were okay! He didn't even try to stay!"

I shook my head vehemently, digging my fingernails into my arms as if that could stem the tremors shuddering through my body. Calm the shaking breaths that escaped from my lips, faster and faster until I was gasping for air. My hands and feet tingled, simultaneously becoming numb while stabbing me with sharp pins and needles.

Julie spoke, but her voice was muted and distorted. "Malia, you need to breathe. Breathe in through the nose—" she inhaled slowly through her nose— "and out through the mouth—" she exhaled deeply through her mouth.

But I couldn't. With every breath, I felt as though my grip on reality was slipping away—I felt as though I was going crazy. "Why did he leave?" I cried, my own voice as distorted to my ears as Julie's was. "Why wasn't I enough?"

As my cries grew louder and more frantic, Liv's voice sounded from inside the doorway. "Mom? Malia? What's going on?"

Julie's voice was tense as she hastily responded to Liv's questions. "Olivia, go get Will. Now." Her tone brooked no room for argument.

Hurried footsteps filled my ears as Liv rushed out of the room. A few seconds later, I heard Will's rough, hoarse voice, the worry evident in each syllable. "Lia? Lia, are you okay?" 

"Will!" No sooner had the last syllable escaped my mouth in a broken, breathy whimper than he opened the door and entered the room. He paid no heed to Julie, who remained by my side, nor to Liv as she silently entered behind him and came to stand beside Julie.

Reaching my side in seconds, he dropped to his knees beside the bed, taking one of my hands while gently guiding the other to his cheek. "I'm here, my love," he said, his eyes intent and focused on my face. "I'm right here. Just take a breath."

The pain that had been in his gaze when he'd first entered the room moments ago had vanished. Even though sweat beaded on his brow and his body was trembling, he didn't let any of the pain he had to be experiencing show on his face. Hysterical sobs shuddered through my body as Will gripped my hands, squeezing gently.

"Why did he leave?" It was only when my voice cracked on the last word that I realized hysteria had already set in. "Why didn't he stay? Why weren't we enough?"

Gasping breaths tore from my chest as I looked up and glimpsed Will's face in my blurry vision. All I could make out was his smooth skin. "Why did he leave? Why didn't he stay? Why weren't we enough?"

I heard the door open and a hurried conversation before Will squeezed my hand tightly. "You're going to be okay, Lia." His voice was distorted, and I felt weightless, as if I were falling into a deep, dark hole.

The last thing I saw before darkness swallowed me up was the brown of his hair as he leaned over me. I drifted through a sea of oblivion, feeling as though I were just below the surface of consciousness. I could move the right side of my body easily, but the left side took immense concentration. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't find the strength to blink or open my eyes. Focusing harder, I broke the surface as I finally opened my eyes to slits.

I felt a thick blanket covering the lower half of my body, but could only make out a blurry face in front of me. Will? I tried to ask, but my lips wouldn't work. It felt like my tongue was glued to the roof of my mouth.

I carefully moved each finger on my left hand before wiggling my toes under the blanket. "Lia?" I heard a faint and distorted voice say. "Are you awake?"

I tried to open my mouth to respond, but didn't get a chance. He lowered his voice when he turned to speak to someone else. "She's awake. Go let Mom and Skye know." Liv.

Little by little, my vision cleared until Will's face came into full view. His beautiful hazel eyes were locked on mine, the worry and fear in them taking my breath away. I finally managed to unstick my tongue from the roof of my mouth before gathering enough strength to speak. "Will," I whispered before closing my eyes again, my voice barely audible.

The sea of oblivion under which I'd been submerged was trying to tug me back down. I fought to stay awake, pushing against the blackness creeping into the edges of my vision. "I'm... I'm awake." His cool hand brushed a strand of hair off my sweaty forehead, the soothing motion nearly sending me back under. "You... you're here."

He let out a relieved breath before squeezing my hand. "I'm here, Lia. Go slow. The doctors said it would take some time for the sedative to wear off completely." It was only when the words left his mouth that I realized how pale he was, the cuts and bruises from the crash stark against the pallor of his skin.

"Do you remember what happened?" He asked. I saw him run a hand through his hair and realized he was hoping I'd say no.

Whenever I tried to think back, knife-sharp pain sliced through my brain. All I could conjure up was a hazy image of Julie looking at me with worry on her face. My voice was weak and faint when I responded. "Your mom... your mom was here."

Concern creased his face as he nodded. "Yeah, she was. You had a panic attack, Lia. A bad one. They had to sedate you because they couldn't get you to calm down. You kept repeating the same thing over and over. 'Why did he leave? Why didn't he stay?'"

No sooner had the last word left his mouth than I heard a raised voice, panic evident in every syllable. "What happened? Where is she? Is she okay?"

Will froze for a heartbeat before glancing toward the door. When he looked back at me, I was already nodding in response to his unspoken question. Even with the fog clouding my senses, I'd already recognized her voice. I knew neither Will nor Julie had thought to reach out to my mother, so the only other conclusion was that the paramedics had found my phone and called her.

Regardless of how the impending conversation went, I knew I'd never think of her as my mother again. She'd long since lost the right to be called that.

Julie's calm voice filled my ears as she responded, her tone free of any anger and/or disappointment she might have been harboring toward the other woman. "Will and Malia were involved in a serious car accident. They both sustained significant injuries but are expected to make a full recovery. Malia had a severe panic attack earlier and was unable to calm down, so the doctors had to sedate her. She's resting; Will is with her now. I'll ask her if she feels up to it."

I heard Skye's voice a moment later, though I noticed the slight strain in her words. "Mrs. Abbott, why don't I take you back to the waiting room until Mrs. Callahan gets the okay from Malia?" The tension in her voice was painfully obvious; she wasn't nearly as subtle at hiding her emotions. But she knew I needed to decide for myself whether or not I wanted to see her, regardless of what Julie had said.

When the gentle knock sounded on my door, Will didn't even flinch. "Come in," he called out, never taking his eyes off me. He squeezed my hand and gently kissed the top of my head.

Julie opened the door and stuck her head in, the anxiety and tension on her face evident. "Malia, your mother—"

I cut her off. "She's not my mother."

The coldness with which I delivered the statement—not to mention the detached expression on my face—clearly threw Julie off. I could feel the shock reverberating from Will as he looked down at me. She stared at me in shock for a moment before continuing.

"Right. Well, Daniela is in the waiting room with Skye and Liv. She was adamant about seeing you, but I told her I'd check with you first to see if you were feeling up to it." The unspoken question hung in the air as her words echoed in the small room.

I looked back at Will; the anxiety and unease in my gaze was a sharp contrast to the calm aloofness on his face. But the tension in his grip on my hand revealed his true feelings; he was just as unnerved by Daniela's unexpected appearance. "You really should get some more sleep, Lia. Maybe she can come back in the—"

My heart thumped painfully in my chest when I opened my mouth to respond. I hadn't seen or spoken to Daniela since I'd overheard the fight between her and Delan. The anger boiling inside me lent no room to the shame that threatened to overwhelm me at the thought. "No. Let her in." As much as I wanted to put off the impending confrontation, I knew I couldn't avoid it forever.

And—even though I didn't want to acknowledge the callousness inside me at the thought—I wanted to see her face as I confronted her about the wreck. I was almost positive she'd had no prior knowledge as to Declan's whereabouts before or after the wreck, but the only way to know for sure was to ask her face-to-face.

I swallowed hard as Will nodded, walked to the door, and stuck his head outside. A sharp, hurried conversation passed between him and Daniela before he wordlessly opened the door all the way to allow her inside. Before she so much as took a step across the threshold, warm and strong hands gripped my own as Will and Julie came to stand on either side of me.

The tension gripping me lessened ever so slightly at the stability I felt as we grabbed each other's hands. But it was more than stability—it was reassurance.

I turned to look at Julie; the love and support I found in her eyes had me fighting back tears. "We've got you, Malia," she said, her voice as serious as I've ever heard it. "Me, Will, Olivia, Skye—we're your family now."

Her words gave me the courage I needed to take a breath to speak. The words echoed in the room, my head, and my heart. "Let her in."

I simultaneously heard Daniela draw a trembling breath and the door creak open seconds before I glimpsed her face. She faltered a bit when she noticed Will and Julie on either side of me but steeled herself before speaking. "Malia, sweetheart, are you okay? When I heard what happened, I rushed over here as fast as I—"

I held up a hand as I cut her off, a surge of anger coursing through me at the affectionate term Julie had so lovingly used when speaking to me now being uttered by Daniela. "I'm only going to say this once, so you'd better pay attention. After I'm done, you can walk right back out of this hospital room, and we'll never speak to each other again."

The latter raised her eyebrows at my sharp tone, but didn't respond. Swallowing hard, I forced each word out, feeling like a piece of my heart was being removed with every syllable. "After the paramedics had extracted Will and me from the truck, I glimpsed a hazy figure fleeing the crash scene. I also saw his face as he cast a fleeting glance at the accident."

My heart was pounding in my ears, and I was trembling. The lingering effects of the sedation had worn off entirely now, leaving cold, burning anger in its place. Daniela's face was white. I watched her mouth open and close several times, but nothing came out.

I managed to keep my voice steady as I continued, despite the scream that was clawing its way up my throat. "Do you have even the slightest idea who I'm referring to?"

The seconds following my statement seemed to stretch into minutes. Hours. An eternity.

When Daniela finally answered, she had to clear her throat several times before speaking. Her eyes welled up with tears that cascaded down her cheeks a heartbeat before she breathed her answer. "Yes."

My mouth trembled, but I clamped my lips together. I wouldn't cry in front of her. I couldn't. I swallowed the tears building inside me as I said, clearly and without any hesitation whatsoever, "I've made my choice. Whether you decide to honor it is up to you. Regardless, I'm not coming back."

I felt more than saw the blow land. She shrank back, as if I'd physically struck her. The devastation and regret, mixed with sorrow, were painfully evident on her face. But I felt nothing—no pity, no anger, no resentment—toward this woman. Not anymore.

The silence that followed my condemning statement was cold and heavy.

Daniela's face was red and blotchy as she struggled to hold back the tears brimming in her eyes. Without a word, she turned away, her body hunched with the weight of keeping her restrained sobs in. When she reached the door, she cast one final glance back at me, but I didn't move a muscle.

It took everything in me not to break down right then and there. Only when the door finally shut behind Daniela did I allow the tears that had been building inside me to cascade down my cheeks.