Falling Hard (Hidden Secrets Book 6) (17 page)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Kristy

Jackson was right on time to pick me up. He’d called this morning to let me know he’d be here around eleven. Jackson hadn’t been able to get me the next day like he’d thought. There was something going on with his daughter.

Nate had been acting funny since he got home two nights ago. He hasn’t shared a bed with me since the first night.
Maybe he’s just giving me space to feel better?

“How you feeling today?” Jackson asked while we were driving to his office.

“The same,” I replied shortly.

“Not getting any better?”

“No.”

“Any new symptoms?”

“No.”

“Hmm,” he hummed next to me.

Just as I was about to apologize, we pulled up in front of his office. The time it took was really no time at all. He explained that it would be a few days before he got the results back. I was sitting in the waiting room when the girl from Nate’s picture came in. I wanted to hate her. I wanted to rip into her, but I couldn’t. Nate told me she never led him on. He just wanted something substantial in his life and he’d guessed he just latched on to Mary.

He’d said several times that what he felt for her was nothing like what he felt for me.
Although his actions lately could prove differently.
The sudden thought of losing Nate had me laying over on my knees and gritting my teeth to stop from crying in public.

“Kristy?”

“What?” I mumbled into my legs.

“My name’s Mary. You’re Nate’s girlfriend, right?”

Standing up, I look her square in the eyes. “I don’t know what I am to him anymore.” The tears I tried so hard to keep from falling, fell relentlessly down my cheeks. “But whatever it is, it isn’t a girlfriend. If I were, I’d see him. He’d talk to me.”

“Oh, Hun, I’m sure he’s just got a lot going on at work,” Mary tried to reassure me.

“I shouldn’t have come here. This is what I get. Tell Jackson thanks for everything. He knows the number to reach me. It was nice to meet you. If you hurt Nate…”

Without waiting for a response, I walked out of the office and headed in the direction we’d come from.

Pulling out my cell phone, I called my dad.

“Krissy? Are you okay?”

“I want to come back, please,” I sobbed into the phone. “Please, Dad.”

“Of course, baby. I’ll get everything set up. What, uh, what happened?”

“I don’t know. I just want to come home. Can you get me a room at that hotel again? I’ll pay you back for everything…” I started to sob.

“Don’t worry about it, baby. Do you want to fly here or to Sydney?”

“Sydney. I’ll call Aaron and see if he’ll pick me up.”

“I’ll take care of it, baby. Let me call you right back once I get the reservation made.”

Hanging up the phone, I walked into town. My stomach was turning by the time I reached the hotel. Opening the door, I walked inside just as my phone rang. Walking over to the side, I answered.

“Kristy? Where did you go? I would have taken you back.”

“I know Jackson. I needed to do some thinking and thought walking would help,” I lied.

“But you don’t need to be walking as sick as you are. Are you okay? Where are you? I’ll come and get you.”

“I’m fine. Already made it back. Don’t worry about me. Thank you for everything.”

There’s a short pause before he responded. “You’re welcome. It was really no problem at all,” he sounded almost unsure.

“Sorry to cut this short,” I say as I a beep signals call waiting. “I’m going to lay down. Thank you again, Jackson.”

“Take care of yourself. We’ll talk as soon as I have the results in. I’ll try to check in on you too.”

Hanging up, I took a deep breath before answering my dad’s call.

“Okay, baby, I have you a room again. I can’t get you a flight out again for another couple of days yet. Just kick back in the room, I’ll give you the details as soon as I know it.”

“Thanks Dad,” I sniffed.

It took about thirty minutes for me to get into my room. But the minute I hit the pillow, I fell asleep. How had everything gone so wrong? My heart felt like it was slowly being chipped away. Tonight would tell me if he cared that I was there or not. Honestly, I kept telling myself he was just trying to keep his distance until I started feeling better, but come on. I’ve not seen him aside from bumping into him either going in or coming out of the bathroom. Sometimes the off chance that I’m in the kitchen when he comes home, I’d see him too.

My heart hung heavy and I felt like I was losing my life. He’s never said he loved me, but the way he acted… I swore he did. It was in his touch, the looks he gave me, the words he spoke.
How could I be so damn wrong?

***

Nathan

“Please tell me she’s okay,” I pleaded.

When I came home tonight and found my bed empty of the beautiful woman I love more than life, I panicked. The first person I thought to call was Jackson. When he said that she’d came home afterwards, I called Danger.

Pain in the ass he may be, but the man could find a needle in a hay stack. My heart was depending on him finding her. My fear was that Chain had found her, or worse Vin.

“She’s fine. She’s sleeping. I’ve gained another key for the room and will keep an eye on her or have one of my guys. Don’t worry. She’s safe.”

Hanging up the phone, I dropped to my couch and shoved my fingers into my hair, grabbing hands full and pulling hard.
Please let her be okay. And  God, let her understand.

* * *

Kristy

Two days have passed. I’ve gotten a couple messages from Nate, but nothing like what I’d expected to get from him. Not  what I’d expect from someone that loved me. Just a simple text of ‘
Are you okay?
’ and ‘
Feeling any better?
’.  My heart was breaking and all I could do is cry. It didn’t help matters that Jackson has already called me.

“I didn’t wake you, did I?”

“No, I can’t sleep. That’s all I do anymore. Sleep, cry, puke. Yay, what a life,” I ended sarcastically.

“I do have some results in. There are elevated levels that concern me and I would really like to see you to re-exam you with the proper physician here. I’m good at what I do, but this isn’t my forte.”

A knot immediately formed in my stomach. The speed of my heart picked up and I had to immediately sit down on the bed. This can only be bad…

“Can you just tell me Jackson? I really don’t feel like leaving.”

“It’s really something that needs to be discussed face to face. Can you come down to the office today? I’ll get my friend down here and we’ll talk about it.”

Sighing knowing I won’t be able to stand to wait, I agree to meet at his office in two hours. After hanging up, I ran to the bathroom and lost what little lunch I’d eaten. Pulling myself from the floor, I showered and headed out the door. There’s no way I want to drag this out any further.

Walking into his office, it was bustling. A blonde woman greeted me with a smile.

“You must be Kristy,” she beamed.

“Yes,” I answered questioningly.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m Shannon, Jackson’s wife,” she held out her hand.

“Oh, okay. Nice to meet you,” I said with a forced smile.

Within a few minutes, Jackson was calling me into his office. A man with black glasses, grey hair and a wrinkled face sat next to him looking through a file that I can only assume is mine.

“Kristy,” Jackson greeted me. “How are you feeling today?”

“Nervous. Can we just cut to the chase here?”

A small smirk formed on his face. “Of course. Have a seat. I’d like you to meet Dr. Franklin Campbell. He’s a General Surgeon.”

“Surgeon?” My voice was high and shriek like in tone.

“Yes. Dr. Williams has showed me the results from the bloodwork he’s taken. We need to do…”

“Wait,” I held up my hand. “I’m not following here. Why would you show him the results of my bloodwork?”

Looking at Jackson’s face had my heart racing. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t calm myself down to give them time to explain.

“Dr. Williams showed me the results because you show signs of Lupus. It’s more urgent than ever that we figure out what’s going on now due to the pregnancy.”

I shot up to a standing position, stumbling backwards. “What… What did you just say?” My eyes filling with tears.

“Dr. Williams and I have discussed your results and we need to schedule a biopsy to be done.” When I don’t respond, he looks at me. “Ms. Reeves?”

All I could do was shake my head. There’s no way I heard him properly. Try as I may, I couldn’t focus on what they were saying. My mind kept playing the words Lupus and pregnancy over and over again.

“I… I need to go. I need to do something.”

“Kristy, why don’t we sit down and talk,” Jackson said as he steered me back to the chair I just stood from.

“What… How…”

Jackson hands me a tissue and it was then I realized I was crying. After all I’ve been through… After all that I’ve lost… This is what I get. A damn disease and a baby I may not even be able to have.

“Am I going to lose my baby?”

Jackson let out a deep breath. “I don’t know. If you have Lupus, you’ll need to start treatment and that will be very dangerous for the baby. But if you don’t, then I see no reason you won’t be becoming a mommy. The first thing we need to do is have this biopsy. You won’t know otherwise.”

Nodding my head, I closed my eyes to try and collect myself before I left. Jackson said he was going to go get me some water. The quiet closed in on me and I couldn’t sit still. When Jackson walked back into the room, he found me pacing a hole in the floor.

“I can’t do this right now, Jackson. I can’t do this right now. Let me think about all this okay. Thank you for taking the time out to help figure this all out.”

“You’re family now. I’d do it for anyone else. You make it sound like you aren’t going to be around.”

“How’s your baby doing?” I asked in hopes of steering the conversation away from me.

“She’s a fighter. She’s been put on oxygen, but she’s happy so she’s not letting any of this stop her. Honestly, I expected nothing less with the mother she has,” he said with so much pride and love that I felt my heart squeeze in my chest.

“I’m so glad to hear that. I was worried after you called and said that she was having problems.”

“Thank you for your concern, Kristy. I have no doubt that she’s going to be just fine. Her coming early just hasn’t been the best thing for her. They are giving her steroid shots and she’s on a breathing treatment to help her lungs toughen up. Problem is, it’s making her cranky come nights and Shannon refuses to let me help her at night.”

Shannon doesn’t realize how lucky she really has it. From the looks of things, I’m doing all this all on my own… if I get to keep my baby.

The evil part of me doesn’t even want to tell him he’s going to be a father, but I’m not that kind of person. He deserves to have a chance to be involved if he wants. Though his involvement will be rather small considering I’m going back to Australia. One thing I know for sure is I’m not telling him until I know if the baby will be okay.

“Just give her weekends. On Friday and Saturday let her sleep and you get up with her. It’s a fair trade if you ask me,” I whisper, holding my hand over my stomach.

“You’re one smart woman. No wonder Nate loves you so much,” Jackson said putting his arm around me.

“Yeah, love, sure.” I mumbled as I stood and started to walk for the door. “I need to go. Take care of yourself and that beautiful baby. Goodbye Jackson.” I hurried out of the office.

“Kristy, what-” I hear Jackson say just as I made it outside, but I didn’t stop.

With all my might, I ran toward the hotel. My heart was breaking. Everything I’ve ever wanted was mine for such a short while…

Now, I sit here pacing my hotel room in tears. I’m all out of whack. All I wanted was for Nate to wrap his arms around me and tell me how much he loved me. But the more I wished for it, the further he seemed to push himself away.
What am I going to do?

My phone started ringing. The hope that it would be Nate soon fell away when I saw it was my brother.

“Yeah?”

“Kristy?”

“Yeah,” I said, getting a little agitated.

“Okay, there’s a flight for you out tomorrow. I’m here in the lobby of the hotel. I wanted to make sure you had an escort because we just can’t be too careful with Vin. May I come up or will I be disturbing you?”

“What’s there to disturb?” I rattled off my room number and hung up the phone.

A few minutes later, there’s a knock on the door. After checking to make sure that it was Aaron, I opened the door and let him in. Walking back toward the bed, I sat down, unable to meet his eyes.