The Everlasting Chapel (13 page)

I call Michael even though he said he’d be
in meetings all day and wouldn’t be available to talk until after
two p.m. I just leave him a message. I call my father and with a
trembling voice tell him about Anne, and that I’ll be in touch as
soon as I know more.

My father says he’ll pray for her, and will
tell Vivian to do the same.

Arriving at the hospital, Spencer parks in
his reserved surgeon spot, and we rush inside. As soon as we walk
through the sliding doors, the nurse takes Spencer aside and
whispers something to him so I can’t hear. My mouth is dry, and my
entire body quivers uncontrollably.

We take the elevator to the fourth floor,
and he leads me down the hallway to Anne’s room, but right before
we enter, Spencer stops me, grabs my shoulders, and looks me
squarely in the eyes.

“
Scarlett, I just want to
be sure you’re prepared for what you’re going to see,” he
says.

His caring, green eyes turn into a blur as
tears fill my eyes again. “Okay.”

“
The attacker broke her arm
and some ribs, and because she had several deep lacerations to the
face, it will be very swollen and bruised. She doesn’t have any
severe internal damage at the moment, though they are watching her
right lung as it did collapse once. Just know I’m here if you need
me, okay?” He kisses my forehead and holds me for a
moment.

Unable to say anything, I just nod and wrap
my arms around him.

“
Would you like me to come
inside with you?” he asks.

“
Please,” I croak. I don’t
think I can handle this alone.

“
She’s sleeping at the
moment, so don’t expect to be able to communicate with her,” he
says.

He opens the door for me, and we step
inside. I brace myself for what I’ll see, but when I see her, I
realize nothing could have prepared me for this.

She’s lying unconscious in the bed with
thick tubes down her throat. Several machines are by her side, and
wires connect her to them. There’s also an IV in her left arm. The
other arm has a cast going from her hand to her shoulder. Her face
is puffed up and is covered in stitches and bruises, and dried
blood. I cup my hand over my mouth, trying to muffle the sob that’s
rising in my throat.

Laila rises when she sees me, and hurries
over to me, burying me in her embrace.

“
There, sweet Scarlett.
She’ll be fine. The doctors have put her back together, and they
are almost certain she’ll make a one hundred percent recovery.” She
strokes my back.

“
Who found her?” I
ask.

She pauses and her breath catches. “I found
her this morning when I came to do some work. She was lying
lifeless in the trash behind the building.”

Oh, dear God. “She’d been there all night?”
I ask in horror, pulling away.

“
Unfortunately, yes. Thank
goodness she wasn’t bleeding too much or she would have lost her
life, poor thing,” Laila says.

“
Are there any leads at
all?” I ask.

Laila takes my arm and leads me away from
the bed and toward the door. When she speaks her voice is hushed.
“There was a guy who had been very interested in her, and had
begged me to give him her contact information. When I didn’t, for
the tenth time, he threw a fit and never came back. That was two
weeks ago. We have his information in the system, but in reality,
it could be anyone.”

“
I thought there were
cameras out back,” I say.

“
There were, but the night
before last someone smashed them in,” she says.

“
Did you notify her
parents?” I ask.

“
The hospital did. They
will be arriving tomorrow morning.”

They don’t know about Anne’s line of work,
but they definitely will learn about it real soon. I wonder if I
should tell them so they’ll have the opportunity to process the
shock before they come. Or maybe the hospital already told
them.

“
Anyway, I have to go,”
Laila says. “I’ll try to be back tomorrow morning before I head to
work. If you need anything, you know where to find me.” She gives
me one last hug, nods to Spencer, and then she’s out the
door.

I hesitantly make my way toward Anne’s bed
and sit down in the chair Laila was just sitting in.

“
Do you want to hear the
details the nurse told me?” Spencer asks.

I appreciate his sensitivity in trying to
keep painful information from me, but I need to know. “Yes.”

“
The good news is that she
wasn’t raped. Dr. Kent, the doctor who stitched her up, believes
the attacker meant to kill her. She had a stab wound to the
abdomen, but miraculously the knife didn’t hit any organs. However,
the strange thing is, the attacker didn’t take her purse, so we
have no idea what the motive was.”

I close my eyes, trying to control the urge
to scream. I can’t believe someone would do this to Anne. She’s the
sweetest girl I know. But to think this is the second time she’s
been the victim of a violent crime, and even before she’s turned
twenty-two, it breaks my heart. Now she’ll have more issues to deal
with. Like she needs that.

“
Do they know when she’ll
wake up?” I ask Spencer. I would like to be here for that. I’m the
only one she has until her parents arrive tomorrow.

“
Could be hours. Days.
Weeks. Months. In cases like this, we just never know,” he
says.

Ever so carefully, I take her cold, limp
hand in mine.

“
I’m not going anywhere,
Anne. I’m staying right here until you wake up.” I reach into my
purse and find my phone. I call work and let Staci know I can’t
make it back today. When she asks me if everything is alright, I
just start to sob.

“
I’m available the rest of
the week, too, if you need a few days off,” she says.

I thank her, and say I might take her up on
her offer. Once I hang up, I see that Michael is calling me.
“Excuse me,” I say to Spencer, and head into the hallway to answer.
“Hello.”

“
Scarlett, I got your
message. Christ. How is she?” he asks.

“
She’s…stable.” I force my
emotions down, calming myself with deep, slow breaths. “She looks
horrible.” My voice is thick and bitter. “The attacker stabbed her
and beat her black and blue.”

“
Oh, God. I am so sorry.
I’ll be right over.”

“
She’s just sleeping.” I
don’t know why I said that because I really need his support right
now. Maybe it’s because Spencer is here and part of me doesn’t want
the awkwardness of the situation. I realize it’s a rather selfish
motivation, but if I’m emotionally unstable, it won’t help
Anne.

“
I’m coming, and that’s
final.” The stubborn, sexy bastard hangs up.

I go back into Anne’s room.

“
Michael’s on his way,” I
say to Spencer.

He nods, and for just a split second, and
ever so subtly, his eyebrows furrow.

“
Listen, I…” I
start.

“
You don’t have to explain
anything. And I certainly hope you’re not feeling guilty on my
behalf. I meant what I said, Scarlett. Friends with benefits. I
hope you don’t turn weird on me all of a sudden.” He gives me a
sideways smile, and his eyebrows crinkle.

“
No,” I say. “But thank you
for reassuring me. I really don’t want to lose you as a
friend.”

“
Neither do I.” He walks
over to me, pulls me in for a hug, and squeezes hard. “After Anne
wakes up, she’ll need someone to help her out for a while. We’ll
discharge her, but it could be weeks until she’s able to perform
the simplest of activities.”

“
Her parents might just
take her back with them to Florida.” I watch her sleep. “She’s
planning on going to college.”

He holds me a while longer before pulling
away and looks into my eyes. “Do you want me to wait with you until
Michael gets here?”

“
No. You go back to work.
I’ll be fine,” I say.

“
Are you sure?” he asks,
giving me a concerned look.

“
Yes. Thanks for driving me
here. And I’m sorry you missed lunch.”

“
I’ll just get something
from the vending machine,” he says. “You can buy me lunch in a few
weeks. Are you completely sure you’ll be okay by
yourself?”

My eyes widen. “Yes! Now get out of here.” I
push gently on his chest.

“
Okay. But if you need,
I’ll be just down the hall.”

“
Thank you.”

I sit down in the chair again, and call my
father. When I give him the details, he tells me he wants to come
over. I insist on him staying home, saying she’s just sleeping
anyway. We talk a little about how his treatment went today, and he
says it went just fine. I reprimand him for trying to sugarcoat how
he’s really feeling. He tells me to stop treating him like he’s a
child, and for once not to worry about him. My response? Yeah, like
that’s ever going to happen.

Michael arrives fifteen minutes later,
carrying a huge bouquet of white roses. He immediately comes over
to me and wraps his free arm around my shoulders, kissing me on the
temple. In an instant, the tears are back and I melt into his
chest, the need to be strong dissolving with his presence.

“
She looks…pretty beat up.
Who would do such a thing?” he says.

“
We don’t know yet, but the
police are on it.”

He sets the vase down onto the side table.
“And you…such a good friend. I’m sorry you have to go through
this.” He stokes my hair back, and takes me in his arms again. His
tender side takes me off guard. I haven’t seen this side of him too
much, and it makes me wonder how much more of himself he held back
before. It kind of pisses me off, although he was very clear about
the terms of our previous forged relationship. It’s as if I’m
getting to know Michael all over again. Or not even Michael, just a
completely new guy who has so much more depth to him, and is much
more caring.

I tell him about Anne’s history, that she
was raped at the tender age of seventeen, how she had given the
child up for adoption, and how her parents had disowned her. I also
tell him that she’s trying to mend things with her parents, and
that they’ll be here tomorrow morning.

I call Bernadette and ask if she’ll cover
for me tonight at Ophelia’s, and she gladly agrees to.

At six, Michael steps out to pick up some
pizza. He returns within half an hour and we eat in silence.

Just as Michael’s about to leave for a
late-night meeting, Spencer returns. The second he walks in the
door, my heart stops, and then when it realizes it has to keep
beating, it jolts into hyper-mode. I immediately take control of
the situation. I mean, how many girls have to introduce a friend
with former benefits as of less than forty-eight hours ago to the
man she loves? If I don’t do something, it could get very messy
very quickly.

I clear my throat and do my best not to make
it glaringly obvious that I’m trying to stand between them.

“
Michael, this is Spencer.
Spencer, Michael,” I say.

Oh the air…it thickens.

Spencer’s face is just as before: impassive,
relaxed, and friendly. Michael’s eyes, however, darken, and his jaw
and entire body coils tightly.

“
Glad to meet you,” Michael
says, shaking Spencer’s hand. The way he says it makes it sound
like he has just found the target of his next murder. “You’re
Scarlett’s father’s doctor, right?”

“
Yes.” Spencer smiles, but
it’s a stilted grin at best.

“
Michael was just leaving,”
I say, trying to move the conversation along.

“
I’m in no hurry.” Michael
takes my arm and pulls me gently toward him.

What, is this like cave-man syndrome? Wasn’t
he just leaving for a very important late-night meeting? I don’t
need this shit right now.

“
Well, I just came in to
check on Anne and Scarlett,” Spencer says.

What the hell? Why are they talking about me
as if I’m not even here?

Michael eases his arm around my shoulder.
“Thank you for checking up on them. But as you can see, they’re
both doing just fine.”

Does he think he can speak for me all of a
sudden? If so, that’s going to be a bit of a problem in this
relationship.

“
Yes, thank you.” I give
Spencer a smile and a nod. “I’ll talk to you later.”

Michael’s eyes flare just a tad. He’s acting
like a possessive son of a bitch. Spencer nods toward me and heads
out the door.

“
What was that all about?”
I hiss once we’re alone.

“
I don’t know what you’re
talking about,” Michael says.

I give him a ‘really?’ look. “Thank you for
checking up on them? What is that supposed to mean?” When he
doesn’t answer, I continue. “Do you think you can speak for
me?”

“
I just said thank you,
Scarlett. That’s all.”

“
I noticed how your eyes
flared and how you went all rigid when he walked in,” I
say.

“
Well, how am I supposed to
act when the guy who just screwed you less than forty-eight hours
ago is checking up on you? Did you really think I would be okay
with that?” he whispers.

“
He’s a doctor who works at
this hospital. Besides, you don’t have anything to be jealous
about. I love you. I only want to be with you.” He must not have
realized how good-looking Spencer is. He mustn’t have seen him too
well at the club since the lights were dim and Spencer was standing
behind me when Michael and my eyes connected.