Crashed into Love: Episode Five by Seline White Page B

visitor and left.
    I froze, clutching my sheets. Loneliness wrapped me in its empty embrace. My situation hit home for the first time. I was in a hospital, in Samoa, and the man I’d given my heart to—trusted to be there for me—had gone. For a day, a month, a year… who knew for how long?
    A tinkling sensation happened in my chest and I swore it was my heart shattering into unfixable pieces.
    Tears leaked faster, but I swiped at my cheeks. You will survive this. You were strong without a man, you will be strong now. I’d go home and continue with my life as if nothing happened. Hopefully, in time, I’d grow to think of my coma-dream as exactly as it was—a fantasy. Not real. Mind-candy—sweet, rich, delicious, and entirely bad for me. Now it was time for a diet.
    “Nina?” Dad asked, inching closer to the bed. His receding hairline was unkempt, face lined with more wrinkles than last time I saw him. “Nina…”
    “I never, in a million years, thought I’d see you here.” My voice wobbled and I hated myself for allowing Liam to hurt me this way. Damn him!
    “How could I not be here? I’m your father. When Kiwi Air called me to tell me what happened…” Tears glossed his eyes and the gruff man who raised me in a single parent home broke in front of me. “I’m so sorry. For everything. I should never have told you who to be. I had no right. Are you okay? Can you ever forgive me?” His torrent of words were a balm against all my past hurt. I never thought I’d hear my father admit to being wrong, let alone apologise. He was such a proud man.
    “I forgive you,” I whispered.
    His mouth twisted in both amazement and relief. “I’ve missed you so much, little girl. I thought I’d lost you.” I let him gather me gently in a hug and the smell of old spice and rosemary hit me. Home. Liam might have left me, but the crash brought back my father.
    He pulled away, smiling. “I was given a free flight to come and see you if I acted as a representative of Kiwi Air. They wanted to pass on their condolences and have booked you on a scheduled service to fly back to NZ in three days.” He pulled an envelope from his corduroy pocket. “They also offered a compensation package of ten thousand dollars for what happened.” He pushed the cheque into my hand. “You can put that towards anything, and I’ll be proud of you, whatever you do.”
    My heart swelled and I looked away. I hadn’t told him I held my pilot’s license in retaliation for his disowning me. I wasn’t ready to tell him just yet. “Thanks for helping with the paperwork.”
    The thought of going home was horrid, but at least the money was a bonus. I could put it toward my license and be finished all the more quicker. Then I’d leave and Liam would never find me. God, that really pissed me off. What if I wanted to find him ? Everything he’d done was so unfair. He’d made me powerless.
    Ignoring the hole where my heart used to be, I smiled at my father.
    He patted my hand and sighed. “I’m just so happy you’re safe, Nina.”
     
    * * * * *
     
    Three days later I was stiff and achy, but after a thorough investigation by Doctor Ali’tasi, I was cleared to go home. My father and I had started the tentative relationship of being friendly again and he’d decided to stay for another week, so I was flying home with Joslyn.
    The hospital shuttle dropped me off at the airport with an emergency travel document, as my belongings and passport had been incinerated in the blaze. I had nothing to my name. Even the baggy jeans and ugly paisley shirt I wore weren’t mine.
    I sat in the departure lounge, staring at nothing. My back was ramrod straight and my whiplash was only a twinge.
    My thoughts had nothing to keep them occupied, and Liam kept popping in to pour salt on my shredded heart. Images of him kissing me in the waterfall; the exhilaration of flying together; the whispered “I’m yours” when we slept together for the first and only time.