Watched Me Suffer and Called It Growth? Goodbye Forever to All Four of You! Chapter 05

“Paige! Paige!”

“Paige Bennett, wake up!”

Voices crashed over each other.

Colin caught me as I fell. He pressed both hands hard over the bleeding wound.

Warm blood kept pouring between his fingers. He couldn’t stop it.

Spencer came to me. His legs buckled, and he dropped to the floor.

Garrett looked down at me. All the color drained from his face.

Tessa screamed.

“Ah-

“Colin, there’s so much blood. I’m scared…”

“Paige, why would you do something so stupid… I’ll find you a beautiful, peaceful burial plot, I promise. Don’t

worry… We’ll bring the baby to visit your grave on holidays.”

She lowered her head and wiped her eyes. A small smile flickered at the corner of her mouth before she

pressed it away.

Colin turned on her, disgusted.

“If you can’t say anything useful, shut up.”

Tessa had never seen that look on him. She trembled from head to toe.

“Colin, I-I just panicked. Paige is my best friend–”

He didn’t hear a word she said.

All he could see was the look on my face when I turned the blade on myself.

He scooped me up. “Hospital. Now.”

Garrett scrambled to his feet. “Right. Hospital. Stop the bleeding. Just stop the bleeding.”

Spencer ran for the door. “I’ll drive. I’ll drive.”

But when he got behind the wheel, his hands shook too hard to hold it.

In the end, the house manager had to drive.

Tessa stood in the doorway, nails digging into the frame. Her eyes burned.

“Everything was going according to plan. They were supposed to look only at me.”

Her voice thinned. “Why does she get to pull them back the second something happens to her…”

None of them heard her.

In the car, Colin held me tight.

His voice was raw with fear. “Paige, don’t sleep. Wake up. Look at me.

Don’t scare me. Talk to me. Anything. Just make a sound.

I won’t push you anymore. I won’t force you to grow up. You can cling as long as you want. I’ll stay with you.

From now on, I’ll stay with you…”

He bent down and pressed his burning cheek to my forehead.

“Paige Bennett…”

I never answered. The silence was terrifying.

Spencer’s voice cracked beside me. His trembling fingers closed around my hand.

“Paige, it’s me, Spencer. Your brother. Open your eyes.

Look at me again. If you’re gone, what am I supposed to tell Mom and Dad…”

I drifted.

Mom and Dad died in a car crash when I was ten.

At the end, they took my hand and placed it in Spencer’s.

Mom said, “Spence, she’s still little. Take care of her…”

He’d held me and promised that wherever he was, that was home.

Hot tears hit my palm now.

“Paige… Paigey…”

Then Garrett’s voice.

“Paige, I won’t push you anymore. Cling to me the way you used to, okay?

Anything you want. I’ll give it to you.”

Like the year I was twelve, when he pulled me into his room and gave me a jar filled with a hundred

handwritten wishes he’d made himself.

He’d thumped his chest and promised, “Paige, whatever you want from now on, it’s yours.”

The memories flickered past–every soft moment, every accusation.

Blood from my chest had soaked through my shirt.

I didn’t have the strength to open my eyes.

The car had barely stopped before Colin jumped out with me and ran into the ER.

“Doctor, save her. Please, save her.”

Nurses rushed a stretcher over. Several of them lifted me onto it and wheeled me into the resuscitation

room.

Colin’s legs nearly buckled.

He shouted at the closed door, his voice raw.

“Doctor, I have money. More money than you could ever need. Just bring her back. Please.”