"Stef," I cried out. He came to my side and immediately pressed a kiss to my cheeks and then my lips. My eyes quickly took his appearance into mind and he seemed okay.
"Oh baby … " his husky voice whispered out. I searched his eyes and saw the same fresh tears that were in my family's.
"Where's Allie?" I asked, realizing my sweet little girl was the only one not among them. Each person shifted their eyes from me to the doctor.
"Grey, I am Dr. Murray. As Jennifer told you earlier you were in a car wreck. You have a few broken ribs, a broken wrist and a concussion. We've been giving you pain medication to help you while you were coming around."
"Where is my daughter?" I didn't give a shit what happened to me.
Dr. Murray looked to my mother, even placing a hand upon her shoulder. The others looked her way as if they rehearsed this moment. My always smiling mother stepped closer to my bed while her hands wrapped around my uninjured one.
"Oh Greyson," she whimpered out. I did nothing but stare at her; I needed to know what was going on. "The wreck was horrible, darling." Her eyes shifted from my face to my injured arm; her lips puckered as she attempted to hold back the approaching tears.
My father stepped closer, pressing a supporting hand against my mother's back. "Tell her, Elle."
I was about to scream; they all knew what was going on and were treating me as if I wasn't mere inches from them. This wasn't fair-I was no child-I was a mother that deserved the truth. Yet, no words escaped my dry throat. As much as I needed to know what happened, I knew after I did, there would be no going back.
"Greyson, our sweet Allie isn't with us anymore. She-" she stopped to clear her throat. "She is home with our Lord."
I stared at her unblinking. "What?" I whispered out for clarification.
My mother's face scrunched with sorrow but finally, she said it. "Allie didn't make it, Greyson; she died before they got her to the hospital."
Those words. They brushed over my face but didn't sink in. It wasn't possible. I wouldn't believe it. I was okay, Stefan was too, so why would she be gone?
I felt my head shaking from side to side as I looked around to the other members of my family.
"Where is she?" I asked frantically.
My father walked up to the other side of my bed and squeezed my upper arm. "No!" I yelled, trying with pointless effort to pull my broken arm away from him.
"Grey … " The doctor whispered in a soothing tone that did nothing to settle the pain and agitation in my heart.
None of what these people were saying mattered. There was only one I would believe, but when I looked to Stefan for the first time-I became terrified. Very slowly he had backed away from me. A hand cupped over his mouth as his eyes were glassy from the encroaching tears.
No … this wasn't true. It wasn't real. My eyes squeezed shut, willing myself to awaken from this horrifying nightmare. When I opened my eyes there was no change.
"She's not." The tears were forcing my voice to fluctuate.
He blinked one slow blink before connecting our eyes. "She's gone."
My stomach dropped and my heart broke in such a literal sense I wondered if I would ever recover. I needed to see her; that was my baby. My sweet little love. My angel on Earth, but she was mine. It wasn't time for her to leave yet, why would He take her away?
My left hand covered my mouth as I continued shaking my head. The word 'no' coming out repeatedly, but nothing changed. I cried out, but nothing anyone was doing was going to make this better. I just wanted her.
The soft undeniable sound of Stefan's voice broke through the cries. "I'm so sorry." It hurt to think it, but sorry wasn't enough to fix this.
My Allie was gone.
I shot up, my heart beat rapidly against my chest as beads of sweat accumulated under my mass of thick hair. Tears streamed down my cheeks as my body heaved up and down. I quickly looked around the room and relief flooded me as I recognized my bedroom. It wasn't the hospital bed I was waking up in; I wasn't reliving one of the worst moments of my life. Even better, I knew there was liquor in the other room. I wiped away the endless trails of tears with the sleeve of my robe and flipped my legs out of bed.
This was ridiculous. I wasn't sure how much longer I could stand thinking things like this. The past was in the past. Things weren't meant to be with me and Stefan and Allie … my sweet Allie … but she was in a better place. I stumbled my way into the kitchen, hardly trusting the rubbery feeling in my legs. My hands grasped the countertop, and I pulled air into my lungs as quickly as I could. This had to stop.