Chapter 4-Her Identity

(Ryan & Xavier)

“Hey, bro!”

Ryan entered the hospital, his voice cracked through the sterile silence of the waiting room, loud enough to make a nurse glare at him, but he didn't care, he grinned anyway, with a duffel bag slung over one of his shoulders barging into the quiet hospital.

“Man, you look like you’ve been hit by a truck,” Ryan said, dropping the bag beside him. “Here, these are fresh clothes, coffee, and a muffin. Just to get you out of this shit”

Xavier managed a ghost smile. “Thanks dude.”

Ryan watched him for a moment, his humor fading. “You’ve been sitting here since morning. Talk to me, man. What’s going on?”

Xavier ran a hand through his hair. “She is inside the emergency room now. She came out of nowhere, I tried to stop, but I couldn't. She has no siblings, no ID, nothing.

Ryan leaned back. “You told the cops?”

“Not yet. I need to know who she is first.”

“Why?”

Xavier turned sharply . “Because someone like her doesn’t just appear in the middle of nowhere, bumping into moving vehicles without second thoughts. Something is definitely wrong.”

Ryan frowned. “You’re starting to sound like your dad. Always seeing ghosts in daylight.”

“They said she is Nichole.” Xavier spoke.

Ryan frowned. “Nichole? You know her?”

“No, but… there’s something about her. The way she looked before she passed out.

“So what are you saying?” Ryan said.

“I’m just saying it didn’t feel like an accident.” Xavier said unknown to him the kind of feelings he is having inside of him.

Ryan exhaled slowly. “Bro, you want me to dig?”

“Yes man.” Xavier answered without hesitating. “I need to know who she is, everything, where she lives, who she’s married to and what she’s running from.” Xavier said.

Ryan nodded. “Okay, I got you dude, just give me a few hours.”

Ryan left the office in search of evidence.

Immediately Ryan left, Xavier changed into the clean shirt his friend had brought, but it did nothing to wash away the heaviness. Every time the doors slid open, he half-expected to see her…breathing and alive. He didn’t know her yet, but something in him needed her to survive.

Hours passed, time stretched thin, fluorescent lights buzzed and nurses whispered.

******

By evening, Ryan returned. His face was grim and his usual swag and humor gone. He came inside and sat beside Xavier without a word. Xavier on the other hand was eager to know what the update is all about and why his sudden change of mood.

Ryan! What's up?

“I found her,” he said quietly.

“She is Nichole Raymond. A twenty-six year old lady who was married, but….”

Xavier lifted his head. “Married?”

“Yeah.” Ryan pulled out his phone, scrolling through screenshots and clippings. “She is married to this guy Raymond Hollis. A real estate mogul who is perfect, rich, connected and with clean records on papers, but behind closed doors…. it is a different story.”

Xavier’s stomach knotted. “How different?”

Ryan turned the phone, showing a photo of a woman’s bruised face hidden behind dark glasses. “Neighbors said that she was manipulated, abused verbally and physically, to a point of having a miscarriage of her first baby after years of no child issues, and there were no charges against the husband after the incident.

She tried to leave him two weeks ago. He froze her accounts, fired her driver, even had her phone tracked. The night you hit her…” he exhaled, “…she might’ve been running as well.”

Xavier’s jaw clenched, his heart heavy. He looked toward the emergency doors again and this time, he didn’t just see a stranger fighting for her life. He saw a woman who’d been fighting long before he ever hit the brakes.

Ryan rubbed the back of his neck. “Bro, at this point her issue is the worst. I think you should let the police handle this.”

“No, I cannot do such a thing “ Xavier snapped back.

“Why Bro?”

“Because she needs help, she needs my help… our help Ryan.” “We can't just allow her husband to go scot free after what she has suffered. No man.”

“Okay so what do you want to do now?” Clearly she is still vulnerable.” Ryan said with his hands spread out to ascertain the truth in his words.

Xavier's mind spinned, nothing matter to him now, he thought about the rain, the road, the terror in her eyes before the crash, none of these was just a random

“She deserves better,” Xavier said finally.

“Bro?”

“Yes, she deserves her life back.”

He rose slowly, the muscles in his jaw tightening and swearing under his breath. “I’ll make him pay for what he did. Every single thing he took from her”.