DEVIL: A Stepbrother Romance Read Free Page B

walked through a pair of sliding doors that lead to a restricted area. “Melissa Ryker?” he called out.
    My Mom bolted out of her chair and rushed over to the man.
    “Hi Melissa.” The doctor made an effort of a half-smile, but the look of concern was clearly etched on his face. He reached out his hand for a handshake. “I’m Doctor Wallace. We’re sorry to have kept you waiting. It’s hospital policy that we talk directly to the patient before allowing any visitation in these extreme cases.”
    “Extreme cases?” I asked.
    The doctor turned to me and smiled. “And who is this young lady?”
    “I’m his sister.”
    “Okay.” The doctor nodded and turned back to my mom, dismissing me entirely. “Mitch is in a very severe state right now. We’ve done everything that we can at this point, but he’s undergone a severe amount of trauma. If he manages to live, his life will never be the same.”
    Mom’s face was a state of shock, but she just nodded as the doctor continued.
    “He has damage to his head, broken ribs, a fractured leg and arm, internal bleeding… He was pretty beat up when he arrived.”
    “Can we see him?” Mom asked.
    “Yes, of course. But I just want to warn you that it may be painful to see him in the state that he’s in right now. It’s not a pretty sight.”
    My Mom nodded again, and the doctor turned back towards the restricted doors, motioning for us to follow. The smell of medicine and sickness filled my lungs as we followed him, and I immediately want to run away. The sound of sensors was echoing in the background, and the overall feeling of the hospital was cold and scary. It didn’t seem real.
    We followed him through several twists and turns in the hospital, and eventually arrived to an elevator which took us up several floors. After walking down another hallway, we eventually arrived to room 41. I’ll never forget that number and thought it was strange that even several floors up his room would have a number that was only two digits.
    The doctor pushed open the door and motioned his hand that we could enter. “Try not to disturb him too much. He’s hanging on for his life right now and is on a lot of drugs. He needs his rest. Just press the nursing button on the wall if you need anything.”
    We both walked cautiously into the room, and what I saw absolutely shocked me. Mitch was laying passively in the hospital bed with tubes running out of his arms and nose. His entire face was covered with bandages, save for a small slit where his eyes were, and rest of his body was bandaged as well. He was unrecognizable. A large pool of blood had formed on the bandage around his forehead. By all appearances, I would have thought he was dead, but in the background the slow beeps echoed on his heart monitor, indicating that there was life still inside of him.
    Mom immediately started crying as she moved over to his side and grabbed his hand. “Oh my god, Mitch.”
    I settled beside mom, put an arm around her shoulders and slowly began to cry as well. I had tried to hold back, but the tears broke free anyway. I had never seen anyone in such a terrible condition, and to think that it was my stepbrother broke my heart.
    I thought that the doctor had left for good, but suddenly he stepped back into the room and navigated to the other side of Mitch’s bed. He checked Mitch’s vitals on the computer screen and the motioned his hand towards Mitch’s head. “The driver hit him at an angle but almost head on. It’s not clear if he was wearing a seatbelt, but his head definitely hit the windshield. He’s got a skull fracture here.”
    He lifted a sheet that was covering Mitch and then pointed towards his upper torso. “His car was crushed, and looks like the steering wheel jammed straight up into his ribs. Pretty severe organ damage. He’s lucky that his lungs didn’t collapse. Some spinal damage as well.”
    The door of the room swung open again, and Dad appeared out of nowhere, holding