What else had he missed about Anna Wilder? he wondered.
“So what brings you here on a Saturday afternoon? Was there something you needed?” Peter asked.
Richard could feel his shoulders tense and he forced himself to relax as much as possible. “I need to speak with you,” he finally said. “It’s about Anna.”
“What about her?” Ella asked, and Richard didn’t miss her sudden tension or the disgust dragging down the corners of David’s mouth or Peter’s weary resignation. Only J.D. looked impartial, but Richard was quite confident that would quickly change.
“Perhaps this would be better in private.”
“He’ll only tell us what you said after you leave,” Ella said.
“Not necessarily,” Peter murmured, exchanging a look with Richard.
“You can use my office if you need a place to talk,” J.D. offered.
“Thanks,” Richard said, then led the way down the hall to the administrator’s office.
“What’s going on?” Peter asked when Richard closed the door behind the two of them.
Richard let out a long weary breath. This was a miserable thing to have to dump on a man as conscientious and upright as Peter Wilder. “I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you need to know what Northeastern HealthCare is planning.”
He briefly outlined the memo he had inadvertently read, including their underhanded strategy to defeat the opposition by taking Peter out through any means necessary.
When he finished, Peter’s features were taut with fury. “Sexual misconduct allegations? Malpractice?”
He paused and seemed at a loss for words. “What the hell kind of people does Anna work with?” he finally said.
“We knew they would fight hard and possibly fight dirty to obtain such a potentially lucrative hospital.”
“Yes, but I never expected something so underhanded. And you’re telling me Anna knew about the memo? About what they planned?”
He hated every moment of this. “I’m sorry. I found it at her place. She told me to stay out of it. That it wasn’t any of my business.”
Peter raked a hand through his hair, his eyes dark with betrayal. “She called while I was talking to a potential investor earlier but I haven’t had time to check my messages.”
“I have no proof, Pete. Only what I saw. I couldn’t take it from her house since I didn’t have any legal right to access the corporation’s internal documents. It would have been theft.”
“Even if it was there in plain sight?”
“It wasn’t. Not really. I wouldn’t have even seen it except some papers fell when we were…” Fighting. Kissing. What the hell difference did it make? He caught himself just in time from offering either answer. “When we were talking. I went to pick them up and saw the memo.”
“My own sister is willing to throw me to the wolves. How could she be a party to such a thing?”
“I can’t answer that,” Richard answered.
“I thought after last night, maybe we could manage to salvage some relationship with her. Things seemed…different with her after she read the letter.”
“I’m sorry.” It was painfully inadequate but he had nothing else to offer.
“This is going to kill Ella. As angry as she’s been at Anna, she still misses her sister, especially with all the weddings coming up in the family.”
“You have to tell them.”
Peter nodded, not looking at all thrilled at the prospect. “If we have no proof of what they’re planning, how can we fight it?”
“You’re getting married in a week. Any chance you might be willing to take a little personal time, reschedule your appointments, to stay away from the hospital? If you’re not seeing patients, they can’t entrap you, either through malpractice allegations or anything else.”
“I’m not running and hiding! That’s not the way my father would handle this and it’s not the way I will, either.”
He expected exactly that answer. Richard sighed. “I have a few other ideas. None of them easy.”
“I don’t care,” Peter snapped. “I am not going to let them win, no matter what it takes.”
* * *
Saturday afternoon at Walnut River General brought back a world of memories for Anna: the light slanting through the front doors, the smell inside of cafeteria food, the underlying hint of antiseptic and antibiotics, and the slightly quieter pace.
How many Saturdays of her youth had been spent here waiting for her father while he wrapped up just one more bit of paperwork or attended to one more patient?
Her memories seemed so rich and fresh as she stood in the lobby that she almost expected him to come striding through the halls of the hospital, his stethoscope around his neck, his white coat flapping behind him and that steely determination in his blue eyes.
Oh, she missed her father.
The last eight years had been so strained between them that she couldn’t think of him at all without this hollow ache of regret inside her. So much wasted time. She would have given anything if her father had once communicated in person the things he’d written in that letter about being proud of her and supporting her career choices.
Instead, she had always felt the bitter sting of knowing she had disappointed him.
She pushed the familiar pain away and approached the security guard seated behind the information desk.
“I’m looking for my brother, Dr. Peter Wilder. He wasn’t at home and his car is parked in his parking space out front. Can you give me some idea where I might be able to find him?”
“Don’t know. Sorry.”
His expression was cool, bordering on hostile, and she sighed. She had never met this man in her life. The only reason she could think for his pugnacity was that he belonged to the anti-merger camp and knew she worked for NHC.
She didn’t have time to play hospital politics. Not today.
“Would you page him for me, then?” she asked briskly.
He went on reading his newspaper as if he hadn’t heard her and she nearly growled with frustration.
“It’s important,” she finally said. “A family emergency.”
Though he hesitated, she could see the wheels in his head turning as he wondered whether he might be incurring Peter’s wrath by delaying. Finally he picked up the phone and punched in Peter’s pager number.
She drummed her fingers on the counter, impatient for her brother to return the page. She was still waiting a few moments later when the elevator doors opened and the absolute last person she wanted to see right now—okay, last five, at least—walked out.
Ella’s eyes were swollen and her nose was red, as if she had been crying. Anna had just a moment’s advantage since Ella was busy digging through the messenger bag slung diagonally over her shoulder and didn’t see her immediately.
Her sister pulled out her cell phone and started to punch in a number when her gaze suddenly caught sight of Anna and her fingers froze on the phone.
Anna was grateful for the tiny window of opportunity she’d had to prepare herself for the coming confrontation. Otherwise, she was certain Ella’s vicious stare would have destroyed her on the spot.
In some corner of her mind, she knew her imagination was running in overdrive but suddenly the previously empty foyer seemed filled with people, all of their attention focused on the two sisters.
Every warning bell inside her was clanging, warning her to escape, that she didn’t need this right now. But she couldn’t do it. Though it was one of the hardest things she’d ever done, she forced herself to step forward, until she was only a few feet away.
“Ella,” she murmured, aching inside, wishing she could make everything right again. After that one word, she had no idea what else to say, but her sister didn’t give her a chance, anyway.
Ella glared at her. “If we were kids again, I’d be ripping your hair out right now. Literally. Hank by painful hank, until your eyes watered so much you couldn’t see.”
Under less dir
e circumstances, Anna might have smiled at the threat and the way Ella’s hands fisted on her messenger bag. She wouldn’t have put anything past her feisty little sister. Ella might have been the youngest Wilder but she had always been able to hold her own with the rest of them.
Suddenly Anna missed her sister and the closeness they had once shared, with a fierce hollow yearning. She missed late-night gab sessions and shopping trips to the mall and fighting over their shared bathroom.
While Anna was trying so hard to prove herself, her sister had become a beautiful dedicated physician and she had missed the whole process because of her foolishness.
“Don’t believe everything you hear, El.”
“Are you calling Richard Green a liar? He knows what he saw in that memo and I believe every word he says.”
Anna closed her eyes, hurt all over again that Richard had so quickly allied himself with her siblings against her, that he trusted her integrity so little.
With good reason, she reminded herself. She couldn’t blame him for this. She had created the mess through her own stupidity and it was up to her to make it right.
The magnitude of the task ahead of her seemed daunting, terrifying, but she had to do it, for her family’s sake and for her own.
“I would never call Richard a liar. He saw exactly what he said he saw.”
“So you admit it!” If anything, the shadows under Ella’s eyes looked darker, almost bruised. “You’re part of Northeastern HealthCare’s dirty tactics to destroy Peter’s reputation! How could you, Anna?”
“I didn’t know about the memo, El.”
“That’s easy to say now that we know about it.”
She couldn’t argue with Ella. Nothing she said would convince her sister, and in the meantime, she was wasting valuable time.
“I’m not going to stand here in the hospital foyer and have a shouting match with you. You’ll believe what you want to believe. Nothing I say will make any difference.”
Ella’s mouth drooped and she looked as if she might cry again. “What happened to you, Anna? The sister I loved so much would never have been a party to something like this.”
Ella’s use of the past tense sent a shaft of pain through her but Anna fought it down. She deserved all of this. How could she blame Ella for thinking the worst of her when she had purposely created so much distance between them that Ella had nothing else to judge her by?
“Can you tell me where to find Peter?”
“Why? Have you come to twist the knife a little harder?”
She sighed. “Where is he, El?”
She thought for a moment her sister wasn’t going to answer but then she shrugged. “He’s in his office with Richard. They’re working on strategy.”
Great. Not only did she have to face her livid brother but now she had to see Richard again. This was shaping up to be one fabulous day.
“None of us will let you do this to him, Anna,” Ella said, her voice fierce and determined. “You need to know that. Whatever friends Northeastern HealthCare has in this hospital won’t be on your side for long when word leaks out about these dirty tactics. The entire hospital will mobilize to protect Peter before we let you destroy him.”
“Fair enough,” Anna murmured.
Knowing any further arguments with Ella were futile and would only deepen the chasm between them, she turned away and headed for the elevator.
As she rode up to the fourth floor, she realized Peter had kept his part of the bargain from the night before. She was certain of it. He was still leaving the choice of telling David and Ella about their father’s letter up to Anna. If she had learned about James’s indiscretion that had resulted in Anna’s conception, Ella would have said something. She would have at least looked at her a little differently.
The last thing any of them probably wanted right now was a closer kinship with her.
The door to Peter’s office suite was closed and her hands trembled as she reached to open it.
Forget this and go home.
The thought whispered through her mind and for an instant, she was deeply tempted. Seeing the disillusionment in her brother’s eyes would be hard enough. Seeing it all over again in Richard’s and knowing she had lost his love forever would be unbearable.
She stood for a long moment, trying to bolster her courage. She had no idea what she would say to Peter but she had to attempt some kind of explanation.
Finally she knocked on the door before she could talk herself out of it.
“Yeah,” Peter said gruffly and she took that as all the invitation she was likely to receive.
She pushed the door open and nearly wept with relief to find her brother alone in his office.
“Where’s Richard? Ella said he was up here with you.” It was the first thing she could think of to say but Peter didn’t seem to think it was an odd opening volley.
“He had to leave to pick up Ethan. His son.”
“I know who Ethan is. He’s a great kid.”
She was stalling. She recognized it but this was so excruciatingly hard with Peter watching her out of those eyes that reminded her so much of their father’s.
“I guess you’re probably surprised to see me.”
He shrugged. “I wouldn’t have expected you to show your face around here right about now. It’s a good thing David had to meet Courtney and Janie downtown or you wouldn’t have made it this far.”
She laughed bitterly. “Ella threatened to yank my hair out down in the lobby.”
“What did you expect?”
The hard edge to his expression made her want to flee but she hardened her resolve and clasped her hands together in her lap.
“I didn’t know about the memo, Peter. I swear I didn’t. I know you have no reason to believe me, but it’s the truth. I found it just minutes before Richard arrived. It was top secret and on a private server I shouldn’t have had access to, but my boss gave me his password to upload some documents regarding the merger and it was just…there. I made a backup copy of it for my files and printed it out and was trying to figure out what to do when Richard showed up and saw it.”
He was quiet for a long moment, studying her features intently. “And what did you decide to do?” he finally asked, his voice so controlled she couldn’t begin to guess whether he believed her or not.
She lifted her chin. “I’m a Wilder. Of course I’m going to do the right thing!”
He smiled with such sudden brilliance she felt a little lightheaded. “Of course you’re going to do the right thing.”
His certainty washed through her, warm and soothing. He believed her. The rest of the world might think she was a sleazy, sneaky corporate mole but Peter believed her.
To her chagrin, her eyes burned with emotion and a single tear escaped to trickle down her face.
“I’m sorry. I just…I thought you would be as convinced as everyone else that I intended all this from the start.”
Peter stepped forward and pulled her into a quick hug. “Richard put forward a convincing argument. But some part of me still couldn’t quite believe it.”
She leaned against him for only a moment while she struggled to regain her composure.
“I’ve been a fool. There were other warning signs of NHC’s more questionable business practices among the top level of brass but I ignored them. My other boss is a good decent man, so I convinced myself I was imagining things. I was on the fast track there and I convinced myself they were harmless and that I could make a difference when I moved up in management. I never expected these sorts of underhanded tactics, especially not against my own brother. I should have, though. If they make good on any of the strategies outlined in the memo, I’ll never forgive myself.”
“We’re not going to let them get away with it, Anna.”
“Neither am I,” she said grimly. “It’s going to take me some time, though. For a few days, it may seem as if things are continuing normally with the merger negotiations and the board vote Thursday. I kno
w I’ve given you absolutely no reason, but I have to ask you to trust me, just for a few days.”
“Okay.”
Just like that.
His faith made her want to weep again but she drew herself together. “In the meantime, listen to Richard. He can help you protect yourself against whatever Alfred Daly and his cohorts might have up their sleeves.”
“He wants me to take this week off before the wedding.”
“Not a bad idea.”
“I won’t run. Dad wouldn’t have.”
She smiled, sensing a ray of light for the first time since she opened that file on Daly’s server earlier that day. “No, he wouldn’t have.”
“You’re more like him than you’ve ever given yourself credit for,” Peter said.
“Not yet,” she answered with a shaky smile. “But I’m getting there.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“Hurry up or we’re going to be late, Ethan. Where’s your baseball glove?”
“Don’t know.” His son remained remarkably unconcerned that his last T-ball game was supposed to start in forty-five minutes as he continued playing with his Matchbox cars.
Richard drew in a deep breath. Trying for patience was just about the toughest task he faced as a father—especially since Ethan was easily distracted and usually bubbled over with energy.
The process of encouraging him to stay on task was tougher than facing a whole courtroom full of high-powered attorneys.
“Think. Where did you have it last?”
Ethan zoomed one of his trucks along the edge of the carpet where it met the hardwood flooring. “Outside, I guess. Me and Grandma played catch earlier today. I think maybe I left it there.”
“So go look for it, or we’re not going to make it to your game.”
His snappish tone finally captured Ethan’s attention. He dropped his car and gave his father a wounded look. “We have to go! It’s my last game!”
“Then go find your glove.”
Ethan glared at him but headed for the backyard in search of the missing equipment, leaving Richard with only his guilt for company.
He needed to practice a little more patience with his son. His bad mood wasn’t Ethan’s fault. Richard knew exactly why he had been irritable and out of sorts for the past four days.
Reunited in Walnut River Page 14