Chapter 28
Since we burst into the ER, Lou hadn’t stopped sobbing, saying that what happened to Ellie was her fault.
They told us to wait for the doctor. I tried to remember if Alan was on call but then realized his daughter was returning from Paris today. I was about to ask a nurse about him when Jim and Aiden entered the waiting area.
Lou stiffened in my hug. "Aiden?"
"Hello, Louise,” Aiden said.
She opened her mouth to say something else, but the double doors swung open, and Alan stepped into the room with another doctor I’d never met.
"Family of Ellie Donovan?" he asked.
Louise took a step toward him. “I’m her mother.”
Jim stayed behind, but Aiden walked up to us. Alan’s eyes paused on me for a second, but he said nothing and motioned for us to follow him. We trailed behind the two doctors as they led the way through the brightly lit hospital hallways. Alan unlocked one of the doors and let us in.
"Alan, how bad is it?" I asked as soon as we were in the privacy of his office.
Aiden sent me a confused look. Although Alan treated him, Aiden didn’t know he was my close friend.
Alan sighed. "Ellie was likely a victim of assault. We have already notified the police. Luckily, the knife missed her vital organs. The blood loss wasn't severe, either."
"But?" Aiden asked, his voice trembling.
"The real problem is the head trauma. We did a CT, and there's swelling in one part of the brain due to the impact of the fall. Doctor Sawyer is a neurologist. After discussing the situation, we think that the best solution is to induce a coma."
Another sob tore from Lou’s chest. I looked at the two doctors. "Are you sure it's necessary?"
Alan’s colleague nodded. "It will minimize the risks of any negative consequences of the trauma. We will monitor the injury and run CT scans daily to see if the swelling reduces. In the best of cases, the recovery would take some days."
Aiden spoke again. "And in the worst?"
"Let's take things one day at a time, Aiden, shall we?" Alan said, his tone reassuring. "Your fiancée is young. Let's hope everything goes according to plan."
A stiff frown forged across Lou’s face. "Fiancée? But you and Ellie weren't even together."
My heartbeat sped up. I wiped my clammy hands on the fabric of my pants and draped an arm across Louise's shoulders. "Let's talk about everything later."
“You need to sign some forms,” Alan said to Louise.
She freed herself from my hug and approached the desk. Dr. Sawyer grabbed a pen and went on to explain the nature of the paperwork to Lou, while Aiden and I exchanged worried glances.
As soon as we left Alan’s office and returned to the waiting room, Louise crossed her arms. "Now, can someone please explain what I missed?"
"Ellie and I are together. We've been living together in Paris since September, and we got engaged in October. We aren't getting married yet, but we will when Ellie is ready," Aiden blurted out.
He wasn’t a coward, unlike me. His voice didn’t waver, and he didn’t break eye contact with Lou.
"Why didn't she tell me?” Louise asked. “Why do I know nothing about it?"
I shifted my weight from one foot to the other, and she spun around to face me. "Wait a minute. You knew, didn't you?"
My heart plummeted to the pit of my stomach. "I did."
"And you kept things from me. You knew things about my daughter and didn't tell me. How long have you known?"
I drew a lungful of air, looking at the ceiling as if someone had written the best way to break the news there, and heaved a sigh, finally mustering the courage to look at Louise. "September."
"So, Ellie trusted you more than she trusted her mother, and now she's...she's...oh, God."
Louise clamped a hand over her mouth and dashed out of the room.
"Lou!" I rushed after her, but Aiden reached me and gripped my arm. "Let me. I need to talk to her. It's my mess to fix. You did nothing wrong. You wanted to help me, and Louise needs to hear that from me."
He was wrong. I broke Louise’s trust knowingly, even though my intentions were good. But if Aiden wanted to explain himself to his future mother-in-law, I wouldn’t stand in the way.
I gave Aiden a dejected nod and sat on a plastic chair. Jim appeared in the doorway, holding two cups of coffee. "Kennedy—"
"Jim, wait for me with Thierry. Ellie's in Intensive Care. I'll tell you more later. I have to talk to Ellie's mom."
"Alright. I'll be here," Jim said.
He sat by my side and handed me one of the cups. “No, thanks,” I said. “Aiden needs it more.”
“You okay?” Jim’s eyes searched my face. “Is it about Ellie?”
“Her mother.” I rubbed my face with my palms. “I kept stuff from her, and she found out in the worst of ways.”
“I’m sure it’s nothing you can’t fix,” Jim said. “We all screw up. Nobody’s perfect.”
I hoped Lou would forgive me, but I was no fool. She’d be hurt, and even more so when she learned about everything I could’ve said but didn’t.
***
Just when Aiden and Louise reentered the waiting room, a nurse told us we could see Ellie. Lou went in first, and when it was Aiden's turn, I took her elbow. “We need to talk. Please.”
“We need to.” Lou sniffled.
I told Jim to call us if there was news, and we exited Harris Memorial. Lou wrapped her arms around herself and paced the sidewalk for a solid couple of minutes before lowering herself onto a bench by the hospital entrance.
I perched next to her. “Lou—”
“I failed my daughter,” Louise whispered. “She wanted to talk to me, and I only thought about work and my client. She’s been through so much since she moved to France, and I had no clue. Aiden nearly drowned. You saved him, and I had no idea. You really meant it when you said you had trouble trusting people because you sure as hell don’t trust me.”
“No.”
“That’s what I already know.”
“No, what I mean is that trust has nothing to do with why I kept quiet. You’re mad, and I’m sorry for being a coward for so long. But I’m not sorry for protecting Aiden.”
“He told me about his father.”
“Did he tell you about Steve?”
Louise’s brows jumped up to her hairline. “What does he have to do with anything at all?”
Aiden said nothing to her. He must’ve thought it was too much for Louise to take, but my dad was on his way here from France, and he knew about another betrayal of Steve’s. Lou’s uncle leaked the information about Aiden that later appeared in every newspaper.
“Steve told Aiden about Ellie’s scholarship. Only that he made Aiden believe she was in Rome.”
Louise paled even more. “What?”
“He lied to the boy, Lou. And I was scared for Aiden’s life. I didn’t want Steve to harm him or Ellie even more, so I made sure both of them were safe and happy in Paris. If I’d told you the truth about Steve back then, you would’ve confronted him. He’d have known Aiden was in France, and I didn’t want him to. I wanted Aiden to get his fresh start.”
“And my uncle kept lying to me. I believed he changed his mind because nobody told me otherwise. I’m not a kid, Thierry. I would’ve handled things in the right way if I’d known, but you must think I’m not able to. Is that all?” Lou turned her sad eyes on me. “Is that everything, or are you hiding something else?”
“Just one more thing,” I whispered, taking Lou’s hand. “And if I didn’t tell you anything, it’s because I hoped to solve it on my own. I’m just not sure I can.”
“Tell me, then,” Louise said.
“I have fertility issues. I did some tests, and they didn’t turn out okay.”
Louise’s hand slipped from mine. “I guess you didn’t do them now, right?”
“A while back,” I said. “I’m still taking supplements and watching my diet, but I’m almost sure it’s not working.”
Louise ran her fingers through her hair and pulled a pack of tissues from her coat pocket.
“I see,” she said, dabbing at her wet cheeks with one. “I actually thought something could be wrong with me, not you. But you know what? Maybe it’s for the better. I already have a daughter, and it’s high time I put her first.”
Louise rose from the bench and strode toward Harris Memorial.
Her steps never faltered. She never stopped to see if I followed her, which told me more than her words did.
Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: Truyen247.Pro