by Laura Iding
“I’m sorry,” he repeated. “But I can’t do this Hailey.” Not yet anyway, he thought to himself.
Her gaze narrowed. “You’re breaking up with me? Again? Just like that?”
“Yes.” He forced himself to look her directly in the eye and lie. “This isn’t working for me. I can’t see you any more.” The words felt like they had been wrenched out of him, each one more hurtful than the one before. But he was doing this to protect her. Because none of this was her fault.
“But—”
“Let’s not make this worse than it already is. I made a mistake. I have to go.” While she gaped at him, he quickly left, before she could say anything else.
And before he changed his mind.
Stunned, Hailey stared at the doorway long after Simon had closed it behind him.
Her thoughts swirled, a chaotic mass of confusion. What had she done to push him away? What had caused Simon to swing from one extreme to the other?
He was the one who’d taken her out to dinner. He was the one who’d told her he didn’t want the evening to end.
He was the one who’d packed an overnight bag!
Her heart squeezed in her chest, his words echoing over and over in her mind.
I made a mistake.
None of it made sense, but the loss devastated her. She buried her face in her hands, fighting tears.
She’d fallen in love with Simon. Forgiving herself for the accident had given her the freedom to fall in love. She loved Simon with a depth that she hadn’t felt for Andrew.
But obviously Simon didn’t feel the same way.
The ringing of her cell phone interrupted her pity-party. Sniffling, she reached for the instrument that Simon had tossed on the bed, suddenly hopeful. Was he calling her back to apologise? To explain he hadn’t meant what he’d said?
Unknown number was displayed on her screen. Annoyed, she pushed the button to answer the call. “Hello?”
No response. But she could tell someone was on the other end of the line because she could hear breathing.
“Hello?” she said again. “Who is this?”
Still no response. She was just about to hang up when she finally heard a soft voice say, “Stay away from him.”
“What?” Hailey wasn’t sure she’d heard the female caller correctly. At least, she thought it was a female caller. “Who is this? What do you want?”
“Stay away from him. Or else…”
The softly spoken warning sent a fissure of apprehension down her spine. “Or else what? Are you threatening me?”
She listened intently, but all she could hear was the sound of a dial tone buzzing loudly in her ear.
The caller had hung up.
Hailey flipped her phone shut, feeling more confused than ever. She’d never in her life been threatened. Stay away from him? From who? Simon?
Of course Simon. And suddenly she knew why Simon had left so abruptly. Why he’d broken up with her out of nowhere.
Because he knew who the unknown caller was.
His former girlfriend, Erica. The one who’d cost him his promising career at Children First in Chicago.
Erica must be here in Cedar Bluff. And she clearly wanted Simon back or she wouldn’t have warned Hailey to stay away from him.
But the question remained. What did Simon want? Had he left her because he planned to go back to Erica?
Or because he’d given up on personal relationships for good?
Simon had stewed about the problem of Erica all night. And first thing in the morning, he’d known what he needed to do.
So he’d driven straight to the Cedar Bluff police station. But he hadn’t gone in. Instead, he sat in the parking lot, inwardly debating the best course of action.
He closed his eyes and pressed his fingertips against his pounding temples. He knew his story would sound crazy. Totally nuts. Not to mention he had absolutely no proof, other than his gut instincts telling him that Erica had found him.
What could the police do with an unknown number? Probably not a hell of a lot.
Years ago, when he’d first realized Erica’s attachment had grown to the level of stalking, he’d shied away from involving the authorities. Partially because he felt like an idiot. He’d been stupid enough to go out with her in the first place. And, besides, what guy couldn’t handle a woman who’d become a little too attached? He’d thought he’d had everything under control. His pride had prevented him from asking for help. Instead, he’d kept trying to reason with her, over and over again.
But that approach hadn’t worked.
So he’d simply done his best to avoid her, hoping the situation would resolve on its own. That she’d get tired of harassing him, coming over to confront him. Calling him.
And when that hadn’t worked either, he’d picked up and moved his entire life, breaking off all his friendships, not telling anyone other than his parents where he’d gone. Cedar Bluff had been the perfect place to start over. Small enough and remote enough that Erica would never find him.
Maybe he should have called the police. But even then he’d known that Erica might have been arrested. And considering her fragile state, emotionally and physically, wasn’t that adding insult to injury?
But now, two years later, the situation was well beyond the level of a nuisance.
For Hailey’s sake, he needed to report it.
With renewed resolve he climbed from his car and strode into the police station. The place was buzzing with activity. He asked to speak to one of the detectives, and was taken over to a small office no bigger than a broom closet.
Detective Arnold had listened attentively while he’d explained the entire situation from start to finish. Even to his own ears, the story sounded unbelievable.
At least the detective hadn’t laughed at him.
“So you think this unknown caller is this woman who’s tracked you down over the course of two years?” Arnold said, summarizing his story in one sentence.
“Yeah. I do.”
“Have you seen her in Cedar Bluff?” Detective Arnold asked.
“No. But I haven’t seriously looked for her either,” he admitted. Erica was pretty enough, with her shoulder-length dark brown hair and hazel eyes. She was rather tiny in stature, only five feet two inches tall and as thin as a rail. She wouldn’t stand out as noticeable in the crowd unless you were looking for her.
The detective scratched his chin. “I guess we’ll have to assume she’s here somewhere. Unfortunately, women change their hair color on a whim, so your description of her isn’t likely to do us any good. Maybe you’ve seen her but you just didn’t recognize her?”
“Maybe.” Simon had racked his brain all night, trying to think of anyone he’d seen around his neighborhood who looked even remotely like Erica. There hadn’t been anyone who’d even come close to fitting her description.
He’d wondered if Erica was working at Cedar Bluff, and had called the human resource office, asking about her, but he’d confirmed there were no nurses working at the hospital with that name. It wasn’t likely Erica could fake a nursing license.
But maybe she was working in a nearby nursing home?
“We can put a trace on your home phone number,” Arnold said, interrupting his thoughts. “But other than that, there isn’t much we can do. You might want to consider changing your phone numbers.”
Simon stared at the detective, his worst fears coming to fruition. “You need to understand, this woman is emotionally unbalanced. And she’s calling Hailey Rogers, the woman I’m—er—was dating.”
Arnold spread his hands helplessly. “Until you can give me something more to go on—a car, a place where you think she’s staying, something concrete—there’s nothing more I can do.”
“What about searching all the hospitals, clinics and nursing homes in the area to see if she’s working there as a nurse?”
The detective tapped his pencil on the table, looking thoughtful. Then he jotted down a few notes and slowly
nodded. “Yeah, I can make a few phone calls. But in the meantime I suggest you pay attention to your surroundings. My guess is that she’s somewhere close by, watching you.”
Yeah. That’s exactly what he was afraid of. Simon let his breath out in a heavy sigh. “Okay, thanks. If I do see her, I’ll be sure to let you know.”
“You do that,” Arnold said as Simon stood and walked toward the door. “And you might want to warn your lady-friend, too.”
Simon paused, swinging back to face the detective as the implication of that statement took a moment to sink into his brain.
Arnold was right. He shouldn’t have left Hailey without explaining what was going on. If Erica had gone so far as to call Hailey, there was no telling what else she’d do. He’d been so panicked by the thought of Hailey being affected by this mess that he hadn’t been thinking clearly.
“I will. Please let me know if you find anything out about Erica, too.”
“I’ll be in touch.”
Satisfied he’d done what he could, Simon left the police station and walked outside into the bright sunlight. He paused and slid his sunglasses on, sweeping a gaze around to see if he saw anyone. Of course there was no one in sight. Shaking his head at his stupidity, he slid into the driver’s seat of his car and headed back to the other side of town, toward Hailey’s apartment building.
He needed to take the detective’s advice to warn Hailey.
Simon pulled into the parking lot of Hailey’s apartment building, once again glancing around curiously as he walked up to the door.
Being on edge like this was already driving him nuts. He pushed the buzzer for Hailey’s apartment and waited for her to respond.
He hit the buzzer again and again, still with no response. The manager of the apartment building came out to get his newspaper, saw Simon standing there and opened the door. “Can I help you?”
“Have you seen Hailey Rogers in apartment 211?” Simon asked.
“She left about twenty minutes ago, wearing scrubs, so I think she was planning to go to work,” the elder man informed him.
“Okay, thanks.” Simon headed back out to his car, glancing at his watch. Ten in the morning. How long would it take her to walk to the bus stop? Would she still be there?
He drove the couple of blocks to the bus stop, disappointed to find that Hailey wasn’t sitting there, waiting. Maybe she was already at the hospital. For all he knew, she’d gone in early.
He relaxed, the tension easing out of his shoulders. The hospital was probably the safest place for Hailey right now. At least at work she was surrounded by plenty of people.
Besides, he sincerely doubted Erica would go as far as to attempt to harm Hailey. More likely she’d just continue to call her, doing nothing more than being a general pain in the ass. Erica was obsessed with him, not with Hailey.
He pulled over to the curb and called the hospital, asking to speak with Theresa. When the emergency department manager answered the phone, he quickly identified himself. “I hate to bother you, but would you mind telling me what time Hailey came in this morning?” he asked. “I want to come in to work on some paperwork, but wanted to wait until Hailey was finished with my office.”
“Ah, sure, let me see what time she swiped in.” He could hear the click of the keyboard as Theresa worked on the computer. “I’m sorry, Simon, but Hailey hasn’t punched in for her shift yet.”
“Oh, okay.” Now he really felt like an idiot. “I must have just missed her. Sorry to bother you.”
“No problem. Bye, Simon.”
He snapped his phone shut and drove home. He had a few hours yet before he needed to pick up Hailey from work. In the meantime, he planned to make a few phone calls himself.
Maybe he’d find Erica before Detective Arnold did.
After a restless night of broken sleep, Hailey had decided to go into work early, so that she could get her four hours of light-duty work out of the way before she confronted Simon.
It wasn’t until she’d arrived at the hospital that she’d realized she wasn’t sure what to work on as she’d been doing his quality review project.
She walked over to Theresa’s office, poking her head in just as she hung up the phone. “Theresa? Do you have the list of chart audits you wanted for the joint commission?”
“Hailey, you startled me.” Theresa put a hand over her heart. “That was Simon on the phone, asking if you were here. I told him you hadn’t punched in yet.”
Was Simon checking up on her? Because he was concerned about her? Hope lightened her heavy heart. “Really? Did he ask to talk to me?”
“No, he just wanted to know what hours you were working so he’d know when he could get into his office.” Theresa rummaged around on the messy piles of paper scattered across her desk. “Here’s the list. Do you have a key to Simon’s office?”
“No, I don’t.” She took the list of charts, stung by the knowledge that Simon wasn’t concerned. Rather, he was trying to avoid her. “But it’s no big deal, I’ll find somewhere else to work.”
“Okay. Good work on the quality reviews, by the way,” Theresa said as she turned to leave. “Simon showed me your results and I think you’re right on. We’re going to discuss the signs and symptoms of sepsis at the next staff meeting. And Simon has already sent the same message out to all the physicians.”
“Great, I’m glad I could help.” Despite her sorrow over her break-up with Simon, Hailey was pleased that she’d been able to contribute to the unit, even in a small way.
“You have. And if you get all those audits done too, I’ll be grateful. We expect the joint commission to show up in the next few weeks. If there are gaps in our documentation, I’d like to know about it now.”
Hailey smiled. “I’ll get them done,” she promised.
When she walked out to the arena, the activity level was as high as usual. Remembering the last time she’d tried to work in the midst of the chaos, she decided to find the quietest work station she could.
She settled on the tiny computer workstation that was usually used by the ED educator. Since Joanne wasn’t around, she figured no one would care if she used it. She could always move if Joanne needed her computer.
The chart audits were painstakingly slow, much worse than the quality reviews she’d completed for Simon. Her mind kept wandering, replaying those moments when Simon had broken things off. The more she thought about it, the more she became determined to confront him about his actions.
She realized, she hadn’t really confronted Andrew about his actions until that fateful night. And, really, his drinking had been bothering her for weeks before that.
She needed to learn from her past mistakes once and for all. Why wait? The sooner she could talk to Simon, the sooner she could get to the bottom of what was going on. Besides, she was exhausted. Her lack of sleep was already causing her eyes to burn with gritty fatigue, the words on the computer screen reduced to a senseless blur.
She rubbed her eyes and pushed away the keyboard. There was no point in trying to work today. Not until she’d ironed out this issue with Simon. She could make up the hours tomorrow, as long as she didn’t go over the amount that Theresa had approved.
Satisfied, she felt energised by her course of action. She would find Simon, and she would confront him about Erica. It couldn’t be a coincidence that the moment her phone had rung, he’d suddenly changed his mind about being with her.
He must have broken things off because he was avoiding relationships altogether. But it was too late. They were already in a relationship.
She just needed to make him see that as well.
She walked into the female staff locker room to get her purse. Leaning on her crutches, she quickly opened her locker, took out her purse and shut the door.
When she turned, Mary, the unit clerk with the bleach blonde spiky hair and the freaky green eyes, was standing in front of the door. Hailey was surprised as she hadn’t heard her come in. “Hi, Mary. What’s up?”
Dear heaven. A sick feeling curled in her stomach as realisation dawned. “Erica?”
“Yes. My real name is Erica. Mary is my sister. She let me borrow her identity so I could get this job. Wasn’t that nice of her?”
Hailey stared at the woman blocking the doorway, all the seemingly insignificant details suddenly falling into place. “You bumped Bonnie, causing her to spill water in my lap on purpose,” she accused. “Did you take the report from Simon’s desk? And leave water on the floor? That last stunt was risky—you’re lucky I didn’t seriously hurt myself.”
“I tried to warn you.” Mary’s expression didn’t show one iota of remorse. “You were supposed to stay away from Simon.”
Hailey sucked in a harsh breath when Mary, or rather Erica, reached behind to lock the door.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
HAILEY swallowed nervously and watched Erica warily, trying to assess her options. The woman was blocking the doorway, but surely there was no reason to panic. Someone would come into the locker room sooner or later. Erica couldn’t possibly keep her locked in here indefinitely.
Could she?
Obviously, this woman had seen her and Simon together. All the way back to that day he’d hit her bicycle and had then had stayed by her side, holding her hand.
She almost winced, realizing how much that would have bothered Erica.
But she wasn’t going to apologise. Not for being with Simon. Or for loving him.
“What do you want, Erica?” Hailey finally asked, leaning heavily on her crutches. Maybe she could bluff her way out of this mess. “You want me to stay away from Simon? Okay, fine. He broke up with me anyway, so you have nothing to worry about.”
Erica’s blank, emotionless expression was eerie, to say the least. She just kept staring, acting as if she hadn’t heard a word Hailey said. The weirdness of the entire situation was starting to get to her.