“You think there’s something wrong with Amy?”
“I’m sure of it, and you have to help me get her to talk about what’s bothering her.”
Gabe glanced away as men and women in scrubs and lab coats passed by. Some had paperwork in their hands, others had stethoscopes draped around their necks. The staff at Mercy Medical was dedicated to healing mind, body and spirit. Rebecca was taking that philosophy very seriously.
Gabe didn’t want to go there. “You’re always preaching Do No Harm. If Amy doesn’t want to talk, there’s probably a good reason. Wouldn’t it be better to leave well enough alone?”
Her eyes narrowed, sharp and assessing. “A doctor’s job is to watch, wait and decide whether a situation will get better on its own or intervention is required. When Amy’s blood pressure shot up I took invasive action, absolutely certain it was the right thing to do. I’m equally as certain that her spirit requires invasive action, too.”
“Doesn’t the hospital have staff for that sort of thing?”
“Of course. As I said, the counselor has been in to see her, but she’s not cooperating.”
“You know I support my sister. I love her,” he said simply. “But maybe she’s not ready—”
“There’s not a lot of time to wait for her to be ready. She’ll be well enough to be discharged soon, and she has a baby depending on her. I can’t in good conscience send her home with that child to care for—not in her current state.” She took a breath and said, “With or without your cooperation I’m going to talk to her and try to get her to open up.”
She turned around and walked back to Amy’s room. He watched her, the determination in her stride, the sway of her hips, the way she tossed her blond hair back as if it were an annoyance and not the lush and beautiful silk that turned him on and made him ache with need when he’d run his fingers through it.
Gabe watched, fully intending to let her go on this quest alone. He’d made it a point not to see the baby. He certainly didn’t want to talk about him. Rebecca could handle this better by herself. But he remembered when Amy had first shown up and how Rebecca had dragged him into the situation against his will. He’d established a relationship with his sister and he was glad about that.
He moved then. Only because he loved Amy, he told himself. As soon as the thought formed he knew it was more than that. It was about Rebecca. He didn’t want it to be and was trying to convince himself family loyalty was responsible. That was partly true, but mostly it was for Rebecca.
He followed her into the room, noting that the TV volume was pretty high. “Hi, kiddo,” he said, raising his voice to be heard.
She briefly glanced at him. “Hi.”
Rebecca looked over her shoulder and gave him a fleeting smile of approval. Her fingers were on Amy’s wrist. Apparently she was satisfied because she nodded. After putting the blood pressure cuff around her upper arm and pumping it up, she placed the circular part of her stethoscope in the bend of his sister’s elbow. After listening for a few moments, she again nodded with satisfaction.
“So,” she said, looking down at her patient. “The nurses tell me you’re getting up and moving around. How’s your pain? Are you able to keep it under control?”
Amy shrugged. “Yeah.”
“Good.” She sat on the bed. “The nurses also tell me you refuse to see your baby.”
Amy’s mouth tightened, but that was her only response. Her attention was riveted to the TV. Gabe reached up and hit the power button to turn it off.
“Hey, I was watching that.” Amy shot him the drop-dead-bastard look.
He hadn’t seen it for a while. Hadn’t missed it either. “You need to listen to the doc.”
“You can’t tell me what to do.”
“No,” he said. “But I care about you. And it’s in your best interest to hear her out.”
He couldn’t necessarily say the same for himself. Something told him he wasn’t going to like what his sister had to say, because there wasn’t a whole lot he could do to fix it.
“We need to talk, Amy,” Rebecca said.
The teen slid down in the bed and folded her arms over her chest, in her classic passive/aggressive pose. “I don’t have anything to say.”
“You can’t play the defiant-teenager game anymore,” Rebecca said firmly. “Ignoring it won’t change the fact that you have a baby now. You’re responsible for a life, and I can’t stand by and let you disregard that any longer.”
“I’m not pregnant any more. You can’t tell me what to do, either.”
“I’m still your doctor and you’re almost ready to leave the hospital. But I can’t discharge you with a baby you won’t care for. You have some decisions to make.”
“No way—”
He moved to the foot of her bed. “Rebecca’s right. You have to talk about this, Amy.”
She glared at him. “Why can’t you leave me alone?”
“Why can’t you look at your baby?” Rebecca demanded.
Without answering, Amy turned her head away and stared out the window.
Gabe wanted to pull her into his lap, make her pain go away and tell her everything was going to be okay. She was still a little girl who’d somehow been thrust into a grown-up situation. Suddenly he knew Rebecca’s suspicions were right.
“Your baby is—” Rebecca sighed. “He’s beautiful, Amy. A perfect little boy. So tiny but strong. I could be wrong, but I think he has your chin. When he’s mad he sticks that stubborn chin out and—” She laughed. “Well, suffice it to say he has a healthy set of lungs. He’s so full of life.”
Amy darted a quick glance at Rebecca, then turned away. “I don’t care.”
“Tell me about the father. Do you love him?” Rebecca put her hand on Amy’s arm when her shoulders stiffened and her lips compressed. “How did you meet? Isn’t it getting harder and harder, keeping everything locked up inside you?”
Amy didn’t respond so Rebecca continued in her calm, soothing voice. “It’s a heavy burden to carry around. Isn’t it time you shared what happened to you?”
Gabe braced himself. He knew what was coming.
“Aren’t you tired of keeping it to yourself? I know I am.”
Slowly, Amy turned her head and stared. “What?”
“I think we share the same secret, Amy.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
Gabe’s chest felt tight. He understood all too well even though he hadn’t known that was coming. But the puzzle pieces fell into place, and the picture wasn’t pretty.
Rebecca folded her hands together and rested them on her thigh. “I was sexually assaulted by a man I trusted.”
“You were raped, too?” Amy whispered.
“Yes. In medical school. He was a football player and I was completely blinded by the fact that he was paying attention to me, the brainer geek. No boy had ever paid attention to me before.” Her tone stayed low-key, but there was an edge of anger and betrayal clinging to the words.
Gabe felt every muscle in his body tighten. He wasn’t shocked. Not really. Somewhere in the back of his mind he’d known. But hearing her say it made his blood run cold. Why hadn’t she confided in him?
“It happened to me, too.” Tears filled Amy’s eyes and trickled down her cheeks. “I was so ashamed—”
“I know,” Rebecca said. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
On some level Gabe was thankful she was there because he didn’t know what to say. What he wanted was five minutes alone with the sick creep who’d hurt his sister. It wouldn’t change anything, but he’d feel a hell of a lot better. After that he wanted a piece of the guy who’d hurt Rebecca.
“He pushed and pushed. I told him no,” Amy said, her voice breaking. “But he wouldn’t listen. H-he hurt me.”
“I’m so sorry this happened to you, sweetie,” Rebecca said. She took Amy’s hand between her own.
“It was just one time,” Amy continued. “I didn’t think anything could—you know. I�
��I tried to forget. To pretend it didn’t happen. Then I missed my period. I didn’t know what to do. I kept getting bigger. I felt it—him—move inside me.” She turned bleak eyes on Gabe, then looked at Rebecca. “I didn’t want the baby. I don’t know if I can love him. The way he was conceived, how can I?”
She held Amy’s hand in both of her own. “Don’t make your baby a victim. He’s as innocent as you are. And you have the option of giving him up for adoption. But before making that decision, you have to face the situation. If you bury your head in the sand, you leave your backside exposed.”
Amy giggled through her tears. “There’s a visual.”
“It’s true. I don’t think you’re giving yourself enough credit. You’re capable of a whole lot of love.”
“I don’t know—”
“Remember, you’re not alone. Your dad is there for you.” Rebecca looked at Gabe and smiled reassuringly. “And your brother. I’m going to have the nurse bring in the baby so you can hold him—”
Gabe heard what she said and backed away. He couldn’t face this. He wanted to be there for his sister. He had been there for her from the moment she showed up at his door. But watching her hold a baby in her arms was more than he could handle.
For reasons he couldn’t define even if he wanted to, he felt as if he was losing his future all over again within the four walls of a hospital. All he could think about was getting out. He left the room and walked toward the elevator.
He was going to hell for sure. But the truth was that he’d already been living there for a very long time.
Two days later Rebecca peeked into Amy’s hospital room and smiled. Sitting up in the chair, the teen was just handing her son off to her father who smiled lovingly as he snuggled the tiny baby to his chest for several moments before settling him in the clear plastic isolette.
“On his back, Dad,” Amy cautioned.
“Since when?” He glanced over his shoulder at her. “It’s not the way we used to do it.”
“I’ve been reading. It’s safer. There’s a significant drop in SIDS—sudden infant death syndrome—since people aren’t putting babies on their tummies.”
“Okay,” Carleton said, smiling at his daughter. “You’re the boss.”
The scene tugged at her heart. A balloon bouquet took up a corner of the room. There was a flower arrangement in a ceramic booties vase. Stuffed animals, rattles, a diaper bag and tiny clothes were scattered around. The hospital bed looked more like a display in Babies R Us with denim overalls from a name-brand company, some terry-cloth sleepers and the biggest box of newborn disposable diapers Rebecca had ever seen. Baby boy Thorne would outgrow them before he could use them all up. This picture finally looked the way it should.
She rapped her knuckles on the door frame. “Knock, knock.”
Amy tore her gaze from the baby, then smiled with genuine pleasure. “Hi, Rebecca.”
“Hey, you. Carleton,” she said to the older man.
“If it isn’t the Thorne family’s favorite doctor.”
Maybe these two Thornes’, but not Gabe’s. She hadn’t seen or heard from him since coaxing Amy to confess by opening up about her own past. Rebecca wasn’t prepared for the wave of pain that rolled through her when the truth hit. Gabe was gone—at least as far as she was concerned. She shouldn’t have told him like that, but there wasn’t time to consider his reaction when she’d realized what she had to do. And she didn’t want to lose momentum or opportunity.
Her patient’s welfare had been the first priority, and it looked as if her gamble had paid off. This concerned young mother was the complete opposite of the hostile-teen-in-denial she’d first met. Maybe confession really was good for the soul. Although, in her case, not so much.
She hid her sadness behind the best smile she could produce and looked around the room. “If you’d like, I can reserve a U-Haul truck and several burly men to cart this stuff out of here for you.”
Carleton laughed. “Is that your diplomatic way of saying that I’m spoiling my grandson?”
“It is if you bought all this stuff.”
“Guilty as charged,” he admitted, not looking the least bit repentant.
Amy sat forward in the chair and lovingly smoothed her fingers over her son’s cheek. “I tried to tell him, but he won’t listen to me.”
“Excuse me. Did I not put that child on his back?”
“Okay, Dad. One point for you.” She looked at Rebecca. “See what I’m up against?”
The warm feeling Rebecca got almost pushed away the coldness in her heart from Gabe’s rejection. “All new mothers should be so lucky.”
“I know. And to think I was afraid to tell him I was pregnant.” She glanced at her father. “I thought he didn’t want me around. I was afraid if I told him what happened, he would be even more disappointed in me than he was before.”
“And you were wrong,” Rebecca pointed out.
“I don’t think I would have had the courage to talk about it if you hadn’t told me what happened to you.” She hesitated, then said, “I talked to my father about it. I hope you don’t mind.”
Rebecca shook her head. “If there’s any lesson to be learned, it’s that keeping secrets hurts the ones we love, but mostly we harm ourselves.”
“I get it now,” Amy said. “And when I think about what this secret could have done to my baby. If not for you—”
“Don’t go there.” Rebecca held up her hands. “And don’t beat yourself up. What happened to you wasn’t your fault and you were dealing with the consequences the best way you knew how. Believe me, I didn’t handle my own consequences very well.”
“Do you want to talk about it?” Carleton asked, sympathy and a new wisdom in his eyes.
“Not really.” She laughed. “But then I’d be a do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do kind of person, wouldn’t I?”
“If the shoe fits…” he said.
“I was engaged a couple years ago,” she began. “It had been a long time since the assault and I thought I was past the point where he could hurt me anymore. The problem was I’d never told anyone.”
“No one?” Amy asked.
Rebecca shook her head. She wasn’t sure why she was sharing this with them, except maybe it would help Amy to deal with things better than she had. Lead by example.
“I didn’t want my parents to know. Just like you,” she added. “I didn’t want to hurt them. And I didn’t want them to know how stupid I’d been.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” Carleton interjected. “Amy and I have been talking to the counselor together and if there’s one recurring message, that’s it. You just said it to her yourself.”
“I know. It’s something we need to keep repeating to ourselves.” She smiled sadly. “The thing is, I didn’t think my fiancé needed to know what happened. After all, I was over it. But then I started having nightmares and I finally told him why.”
“And what did he do?” Amy asked.
“He became distant. Soon after that he broke things off. His excuse was that he wasn’t prepared to handle something like that, but reading between the lines, I knew that it was just too much trouble to deal with me, what happened to me. He was ashamed of me. The message, little grasshopper,” she said, trying to add levity to her words, “is that keeping secrets can cost you.”
Rebecca thought she’d learned the lesson, but clearly she’d been wrong. What happened with Gabe just confirmed what she already knew—she was book smart, not street smart. But she’d believed sharing her past was on a need-to-know basis, and she’d never intended to let things with Gabe escalate to the point where he needed to know. Everything between them happened so fast. Now everything hurt so much. She’d botched it badly, and that had cost her any chance with Gabe.
Carleton put his arm around her shoulders. “The man you were going to marry is an idiot. Obviously you dodged a bullet.”
The words brought tears to her eyes and she was afraid she would embarrass herself. Blinking hard
she said, “I appreciate that. But I also need to take responsibility for my part. I gave what happened to me a lot of power by waiting too long to tell him.”
Amy’s eyebrows drew together as a troubled expression settled in her eyes. “I think I waited too long to tell Gabe.”
“Why do you say that, sweetheart?” her father asked.
“Because I haven’t seen him since he found out.”
That was a surprise to Rebecca. “He hasn’t been back to visit?”
Amy shook her head. “No.”
“Probably because he knows I’ve been here,” Carleton offered. “I know he’s busy with the hospital construction project. In fact, I haven’t seen him at the house, either. He’s probably got an accumulation of loose ends at the office.”
“You are aware that he basically works here at Mercy Medical Center?” Rebecca asked.
“Yes, but—” Carleton didn’t finish that statement.
He knew as well as Rebecca did that no matter how busy Gabe was at the office, the office was close enough for him to drop in and see how his sister was doing. The thing was, it didn’t make sense. The Gabe she’d come to know didn’t walk out on the people he loved.
The Gabe she’d come to love had been nothing but supportive. Rebecca had shared her suspicions so Amy’s tearful admission of what happened to her hadn’t come as a complete shock to him. The shock would have been her own confirmation of sharing a similar experience.
She replayed that scene in her head and realized he hadn’t said anything after Amy’s confession. She’d asked the nurse to bring in the baby, and when she turned around he was gone. She’d figured he needed time to process the information. Then she hadn’t heard from him and the realization had sunk in that she was too much trouble for him to deal with. But that was about him and her. It never crossed her mind that he hadn’t been back to see his sister.
“Rebecca, speaking of that U-Haul truck,” Carleton said, changing the subject, “when can I take my daughter and grandson back to Texas?”
She met his gaze. “They’re both doing well. I wanted to keep her a couple more days to help her deal with being a mom, and a little more time with the counselor.”
The Millionaire and the M.D. Page 16