Don't Play With My Soul

Susan Blackman's POV

I wanted to yell at him for constantly telling me to do the right thing. I know what the right thing was, I didn't need him to tell me. All the girls knew was that he wasn't there for them as a father should be. I used the hand scanner to unlock the penthouse suite; Martin followed right behind me.

"I shouldn't have brought you here. Zenia still hasn't warmed up to you, and I don't want to upset her more than she already is."

"Susan, I think it's best that you tell her the truth right now. You're the reason why I wasn't there for the girls."

"I'm the reason Martin? Oh, of course you would say that because that's all you were always good at, putting the blame on me."

He stepped back through the door. "You know what, when Jasmine gets back from her honeymoon, I'm going to tell her the truth. I don't care how she'll feel about you afterwards, but they deserve to know!"

He walked out the door and I rushed after him. "Martin! Martin don't you dare!"

He walked into the elevator and I was left with tears welling up in my eyes. I don't know why he had to come back into my life to spoil everything that was going good for me.

I walked back into the penthouse, slumped and drained. As I walked passed Zenia's room, I recalled her telling me that she wasn't going into her boutique today, and she seemed so sad and distant. I blamed myself. I used to be so close to both my daughters, but ever since Martin came back, I feared that I would lose my girls to the truth.

I knocked on Zenia's bedroom door before entering.

"Zenia? Are you in here? Zenia?"

It was awfully quiet. I made my way inside her bedroom and came face-to-face with a horrible image. My daughter's body was lying motionless on the bed and her wrist was rapidly bleeding. The floor was already covered in a pool of blood. "ZENIA! ZENIA! OH GOD! OH, DEAR GOD! ZENIA, WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

I noticed the razor she used to cut herself, and I quickly tossed it off the bed before checking her pulse for any signs of life. Nothing.

I retrieved my phone from my pocket and called the emergency number. I relayed to the dispatcher my daughter's critical condition. "Ma'am, an ambulance is on its way right now."

"Please hurry. She's not breathing. She's not moving. There's blood everywhere. Please, hurry!" Hot tears rolled down my eyes and I began feeling like I was dying as well. "Zenia! Zenia! What did you do?!" I cried as I looked at her. After the longest ten minutes of my life, I heard the sirens outside the entrance of the building. I ran to the entrance of the elevator and met a team of paramedics.

"This way! In here!" I ushered them through the suite and into Zenia's bedroom.

There was a short pause from them as they took in the awful sight.

"Check for pulse," one said and they began speaking in terms and language I couldn't comprehend. I was too distraught to even bother to try to pick up on anything. Zenia's hand was tightly wrapped and she was carried away on the gurney. I rushed after them and found a spot in the back of the ambulance.

"Heart rate is low. Pulse fading. No other signs of vitals," a female paramedic said as she inspected Zenia and hooked her up to the heart rate monitor in the ambulance. "Is she going to be okay?! Is she going to be okay?!" I repeated the same question over and over.

My feet rushed me through the emergency room of the hospital.

"No ma'am, you're not allowed passed this point. You'll have to stay in the waiting area over there."

I was stopped by a doctor. "That's my daughter!" I angrily shouted.

"I know that, and we're going to do all we can to revive her, but you need to wait out here."

I nodded and wiped away the tears as I watched the back of the doctor rushing through the double doors Zenia was carried into.

I threw myself onto a hard, uncomfortable chair and cried. I took out my cellphone to call Jasmine. In the haste of everything, I'd forgotten about my other daughter.

"Jassy," I said through sobs when she answered after the third ring.

"Mom? Why are you crying? What's going on?" Her voice became serious with deep concern.

"Jassy. It's... your sister... Zenia."

"Mom, Evan, Jevan and I are already packing. EJ ran into some trouble so we're coming home tomorrow."

"No. You need to come now."

"Mom, is something else the matter?"

"Zenia tried to kill herself," my voice broke.

"ZENIA TRIED TO DO WHAT?!"

I remained silent. I was crying again.

"Oh God! Mom, where are you? What happened?"

I breathed in and out slowly as I tried to calm myself. "I can home from work, and I went into her bedroom to speak to her. She was laying down on the bed, wrist cut, and blood all over the floor. Her condition is bad, Jassy." "Mom, call Emma and Ethan to keep you company. I'm coming home right now. EVAN! EVAN!" I heard her yelling before she hung up.

I dialed Emma's cellphone number with shaking fingers.

"Hey Susan. How are you?" she answered in her usual cheerful voice.

"Emma."

"Oh, dear Jesus. I'm so sorry about what EJ did. He had been punished and-- "

"Zenia tried to kill herself. She's in the hospital, and I don't know if she's going to be okay."

"What?"

I began crying through the phone.

"Susan, I'm on my way. ETHAN! ETHAN! EJ!" she began calling. "Susan, we're coming."

After twenty minutes, Emma, Ethan and EJ arrived. I was happy to have the company and the comfort of another woman.

"Have you heard anything from the doctors as yet?" Ethan asked.

"No. No one is telling me anything."

"She's going to be okay. She has to be okay." Emma comforted as I laid against her chest. My tears were ruining her top, but she didn't care.

"This is all my fault. I shouldn't have said those harsh words to Zenia. All she wanted to do was help me, and I turned around and acted like such a damn idiot," EJ said as the tears fell from his eyes. His father pulled him against his shoulder and patted his back.

"Yes, this is all your fault. I didn't raise you to be so unkind and selfish!" his mother snapped at him. "Now Zenia is in this situation because of you!"

"Emma, no. Please don't say that to him. He didn't know Zenia would do this to herself," I defended.

It wasn't the young man's fault at all. He had no idea this would happen, and if he knew Zenia would have made a suicide attempt, I believed he would have handled things differently between them. "I should've known she was still under too much pressure. The baby, the fights, the store, her friend..." EJ was going on and on, but I couldn't hear anything else after he said 'the baby'.

"'The baby'? What baby?" I asked, alarmed.

All eyes landed on him.

"Zenia didn't tell you?" he asked with surprise.

"No."

"She had a miscarriage last year. I was the father."

"WHAT?!" everyone asked in unison.

I was about to lash out even more when I was suddenly interrupted by a doctor.

"Doctor, Doctor. How's my daughter?" I rose from the chair. A weight was laid on my shoulders, and a painful feeling was blocking the oxygen in my throat.

"Ma'am," he began with a sympathetic expression on his face; I wasn't liking it one bit. "Your daughter has gone into Hypoglycemic Shock. It's a condition where there heart isn't getting the required amount of blood to flow to the body. "Zenia lost a great amount of blood. Three pints to be exact. We've managed to stop the bleeding, but we need to conduct a blood transfusion as soon as possible."

"Well then what are you waiting for? Go ahead and give her blood."

"In Zenia's case, her blood is rare. She can give blood to everyone, but she can only receive blood from one blood type. I'm afraid we don't have this blood type in our inventory. She's O-negative."

"Oh God

"Oh God. Oh God! My daughter is going to die. Are you really telling me that my daughter is going to die and there's nothing I can do? I'm not the same blood type as her!"

"Usually, the first siblings may have the may blood type. Does she have a sister or a brother?"

"Sister. But she isn't here. She's not in the country. She's on her way but she won't get here for hours."

I began breaking down.

"Ma'am, ma'am, please calm down and relax. Zenia is hanging in there... she's--"

"SIR CODE 56! CODE 56! WE'RE LOSING HER!" Another doctor ran between us and pulled the other doctor away.

I ran after them with Ethan and Emma calling after me, "Susan! Susan wait! You can't go in there!"

I pushed through the doors and saw the flat line on the EKG.

"ZENIAAAAAAAA!" I yelled at the top of my lungs before everything around me went dark.