by Parker, Ali
“Good night, baby Gray,” I whispered into the darkness, my hands protectively covering my belly that was still flat.
Chapter 53
Grayson
We were finally given a brief recap of what had happened to my mother and were now waiting to see her. She had taken a tumble down the stairs at the mansion and broken her hip. Jack and I were standing in the hallway of the ninth floor of the hospital, waiting for the nurses to give us the all clear to enter the room where my mother was being settled into. They had brought her upstairs after a round of x-rays and a lot of pain meds, we were informed.
“You can go in, but you can only stay for a few minutes. She and her roommate are sleeping,” the nurse informed us as she walked through the door of the hospital room.
“Her roommate?” I said with a raised brow.
The older woman nodded. “Yes, this is a hospital and we are full. She has a roommate.”
“We want a private room,” Jack blurted out.
The woman was not impressed by our demands. “Then you can talk to the hospital administrator. There aren’t any available. Your mother will have to deal with what we have. She doesn’t know any different at this point.”
“Excuse me? My mother doesn’t deal with anything,” I snapped.
The nurse walked away. Jack and I exchanged a look before walking into the room. I wasn’t sure what I expected, but seeing my mother lying in the bed, a bruise on her arm and another on her face, gave me actual pain.
“How do you think it happened?” Jack whispered, gently picking up Mom’s hand.
I shook my head. “I don’t know. She’s lived in that place for almost thirty years. This is the first time she has fallen. Why wasn’t she using the handrail?” I asked, not expecting an answer.
Jack smiled as he watched our mom sleeping. “She was probably in a hurry and carrying something. You know her. She never slows down.”
“A broken hip is no joke. She is going to be laid up for weeks or longer. She’s lucky she didn’t break her neck or back,” I hissed, wishing I could scold her and so glad she was alive and in relatively one piece.
He nodded, not speaking. I felt like a voyeur standing over her bed and watching her sleep. I couldn’t stop looking at her. For nearly two hours I had been terrified we were going to be told they tried everything but couldn’t save her. The information coming from the medical team had been vague and sporadic, leaving us to think the worst.
We both spoke softly to her before leaving the room, promising to see her in the morning and that she was in good hands. The last thing I wanted to do was wake her up and cause her more pain. She was scheduled for surgery in the morning and needed all the rest she could get.
Together, we walked toward the nurses’ station. “I’d like to talk to the doctor in charge of my mother’s care,” Jack stated firmly.
“Who is your mother?” a nurse sitting at the desk asked.
“Mrs. Bancroft,” I said.
The woman nodded. “Go ahead and have a seat in the waiting room at the end of the hall. The doctor is still on the floor making his rounds. I’ll tell him you’d like to talk to him.”
“Thank you,” Jack said with a friendly smile.
We walked down the hall to the waiting room, which was thankfully empty. The moment we stepped inside, Jack turned to me. “We can’t leave her in here. She will be pissed to find out she is sharing a room with someone. Not to mention, she is not going to like people coming and going all the time. She’s never liked hospitals.”
I nodded. “I agree. I’ll check into private options or we can have someone take care of her at home. We’ll ask the doctor how long she has to stay in here following the surgery. Hopefully, it’s not long and we can get her out of here.”
“I think she would prefer home care,” Jack replied.
“I’ll call first thing in the morning,” I said.
The conversation ended, and we sat in stilted silence as we waited for the doctor to come in. There was still tension between us. We had come together for my mother’s sake, but I wasn’t ready to kiss and make up quite yet. There was a lot of water under the bridge between us and I still didn’t trust him. I had a feeling he wasn’t exactly ready to call a truce either.
“How’s it going? I heard you hired a new CEO. Has Hannah decided to stay at home?” he asked, looking at me.
I stared at him, feeling all the old anger bubbling to the surface. “Um, it’s going as good as can be expected, considering my wife walked out on me the morning after our wedding and I haven’t seen or heard from her since.”
Jack’s jaw dropped. “What? I had no idea,” he said with genuine shock.
I shrugged. “It’s not exactly public knowledge. I’d prefer to keep it that way.”
“I didn’t know. I’m sorry. What happened?”
I rolled my eyes. “It doesn’t matter. You won. You got the company, which is what you wanted, despite you saying otherwise. Take it. It’s yours. I don’t want it.”
Jack sighed, rubbing a hand over his face and the stubble coming in on his jawline. “I never wanted the company. I still don’t want it.”
I pretended nonchalance. I was saying the words and I was trying like hell to believe them, but there was a part of me that couldn’t let go. I had poured my life into that company and to walk away was difficult, but I was tired of the game. I lost. I gambled and lost a lot more than I cared to admit.
I shrugged a shoulder. “It doesn’t matter now. It’s yours. I don’t give a damn about it anymore.”
The doctor came into the room. “You must be Mrs. Bancroft’s sons.”
“Jack, and I’m Grayson. We want to take her home,” I said abruptly.
The doctor raised his eyebrows. “Your mother needs surgery.”
I nodded. “I understand that, but after surgery, how soon before she can be released? We will have in-home care set up. It will be no different from what she has here, except she will be the only patient.”
The doctor nodded. “It’s a fairly simple surgery, but the recovery is lengthy, and it does require extensive care. I’d prefer she were in a facility that specializes in that type of care.”
Jack and I were both shaking our heads. “No,” I said.
“We can give her everything she would get in a facility with the bonus of privacy and the comfort of being in her own home,” Jack said.
“She’ll need to remain in the hospital for most of the day tomorrow, but as long as there are no complications, I can release her into the care of a professional,” he said, clearly not happy with the idea.
“Great. We’ll make the arrangements and be back tomorrow to take her home,” I said.
“She’ll need an ambulance,” the doctor grumbled.
“That’s fine. We’ll take care of it,” Jack chimed in.
The doctor gave us a curt nod and left.
“I don’t think he likes the idea,” I said with a small grin.
Jack smiled in return. “Nope, but I think he’d change his mind once the six of us darkened his door on a regular basis.”
“And Mom is not going to be an easy patient. We’ll need a tranquilizer gun to keep her in that bed,” I said, smiling at the thought of my feisty mom being tied down to a bed.
Jack was still smiling as we walked out of the waiting room. I felt marginally better after arranging her release. Now, to secure everything else we would need for her to be cared for at the mansion. I was about to wake up some people.
The ride in the elevator was quiet. I wasn’t in the mood to talk. I was already thinking of who I needed to call to get a bed and all the machines she needed to recover. In the lobby, I called my driver for a ride home. I had already canceled my vacation, knowing I needed to stick around the city and be there for my mother.
“I can give you a ride,” Jack offered.
“I have my car coming,” I told him.
“Suit yourself.”
He didn’t make a move to leave.
I walked away, finding a place to sit down and wait for my car. He followed me, taking the seat next to me. I looked at him, questioning him without saying a word.
“I’m sorry about Hannah,” he murmured.
I shrugged a shoulder. “Nothing to be sorry for. Oh wait, yes, I guess there is. It’s too late now.”
I heard him sigh. “Grayson, I hope you will one day be able to believe the truth.”
“I know the truth.”
He sat beside me for several minutes. The tension between us was palpable. I wanted to ask him again about the Hannah situation, but didn’t. I had asked several times. It was unlikely his story would change. I wasn’t going to get into another fight with him—not with my mother laid up and hurting.
“I’m going by the house to check on things,” he said and walked out.
I watched him through the big windows as he walked into the dark night, illuminated by numerous streetlights as he headed for the parking garage. I didn’t see us ever being best friends, but I hoped one day we could at least be friendly. I knew a lot of the problems between us were of my own making, but I couldn’t get past the several times he had screwed me over when we were kids. It was in the past, but I had never learned to trust him.
I waited for my driver before I began making calls to various medical equipment companies. It was well after midnight before I was finally done waking people up and offering to pay double their normal fees for an emergency situation. I was assured my mom would have the best care possible. I planned on following up on that promise and knew my brothers would as well.
James would be cutting his trip short. He’d be around to make sure no one mistreated our mother. If anyone did, I pitied them. The Bancroft boys may not be tight, but mess with our mother and there would be hell to pay.
By the time I headed for bed, I was exhausted. My suitcase sat by the front door and served as a reminder of my planned getaway. I couldn’t leave. I couldn’t escape. That meant I was stuck in the city and with Hannah haunting me. When I closed my eyes, it was her face I saw. It was the same thing every night. I saw her smiling and laughing, then in the throes of an orgasm before it shifted to the look on her face that morning when she walked out on me. That was the image burned into my brain. It was the hurt and regret on her face I couldn’t escape from. The guilt was heavy on my shoulders and there was nothing I could do to make it go away.
Chapter 54
Hannah
The moment my eyes opened, I knew it was going to be another rough day. Last night’s elation over being able to eat a meal that didn’t make me ill had evaporated. I should have known it wasn’t meant to last. I lay in bed, inhaling through my nose and slowly exhaling, hoping I could breathe through the nausea I could feel moving over my body. It always started out as kind of a tickle of ick and then came on much stronger.
The breathing exercises the doctor had told me to try weren’t working. I didn’t even know why I tried. I jumped out of bed and raced for the bathroom, barely making it to the toilet in time to go through my usual routine of vomiting. Morning sickness was no joke. I couldn’t deal with a full nine months of this, I told myself as I hugged the porcelain seat. I was seriously considering moving my bed into the bathroom or moving the toilet to the bedroom. Something had to give.
I stayed on the cold tile floor for a good twenty minutes, knowing it was pointless to get up and move. It was never over that quickly. Thankfully, I didn’t have a job to get up and go to. I would have never made it. I was so grateful to have an excellent cleaning lady who knew of my situation and always gave the bathroom extra attention. I couldn’t have dealt with a dirty bathroom floor on top of the nausea. Once I felt the wave of nausea pass, I reached in and turned on the shower, hoping it would rejuvenate me. I climbed in once the water was warm and let it wash over me. I looked down at my bare stomach, like I did every morning when I showered and checked for any visible signs of a baby bump. I didn’t see anything obvious, but I guess I did appear full.
“I hope you’re happy in there. You’re giving me hell. I’ll take it, as long as you are healthy,” I told the unborn baby cradled inside my womb.
The shower was helping wash away the lethargy that always followed a round of vomiting. By the time I climbed out and dressed for another day of lounging in my apartment, I felt monumentally better and much more prepared to tackle the world. Well, the world as far as my front door.
I made it to the kitchen and made my caffeine-tea, which was a little difficult to get used to, but it was better than nothing at all. Giving up coffee had been extremely tough, but the thought of my baby being healthy was enough incentive. As I sipped my tea, I made myself some oatmeal and toast. I had learned the hard way eggs were not my thing.
I took my breakfast to the table and grabbed my notebook off the counter. I was going to start fresh. I was going to start all over and this time, I was going to do it right. As I ate, I jotted down notes about what I needed to do. I was going to head into my home office as soon as I was finished and get started on my new life plan.
I quickly put my dishes into the dishwasher, anxious to get started rebuilding my life. I was determined to make a new company that was better than my first. I hated to do it, but I was going to smother the competition, even if it was my own company. My ex-company, just like my soon to be ex-husband. That was assuming I ever filed the paperwork. I knew he wasn’t going to do it. He wouldn’t jeopardize his inheritance by getting a divorce.
I stepped into my home office, turned on the light, and fired up my laptop. It had been six weeks since I had stepped foot in my office. I took a minute to take it all in. it had been too long. I was ready to move forward without Grayson or my company in my life. Out with the old and in with the new.
I sat down and pulled up my contacts. It had been a long time since I’d had to do legwork. I was thankful I had held onto names, phone numbers, and emails of the people I had worked with in the beginning. I hoped they were still around. I shot off a couple emails to some suppliers before grabbing my cell phone and taking a deep breath before I began making actual phone calls.
“Leslie!” I greeted when one of the women I had worked with a long time ago answered her phone.
“Hello?” she asked, obviously not recognizing my voice.
“It’s Hannah Adams,” I said, hoping she remembered.
“Hannah! How are you? I saw you got married!” she cooed.
I inwardly groaned. “I did,” I replied, not going into details.
“What can I do for you?” she asked, getting right to the point.
I took a deep breath. “I’m going to be starting a new company and I was wondering if I could rent your lab to work on a new product.”
“What? A new company? I don’t understand.”
“It’s a long, complicated story,” I said, hoping she would drop it.
She paused. “I understand. Let me see if I can move some things around. Can I call you back?”
“Yes, please do.”
We hung up the phone. I stared at the screen on my laptop. That had not gone as well as I had hoped. I thought back to those first months when I was trying to start my first company. It hadn’t been easy then. I knew it wouldn’t be easy the second time, but I had hoped some doors would open a little easier. I had the capital, but I needed a product and a company name. I’d worry about the name later. I knew what product I wanted, but I needed to get in a lab and figure out the details.
I wanted it to be better than my first line. I was confident I could make it happen. I had learned a lot in my years as the head of my first company. I knew there were certain ingredients I could eliminate and substitute with others to create a makeup line that lasted and was safe. I hadn’t been able to make those changes at the last company. There wasn’t enough money to market a new line and there was worry changing the original could upset customers.
I never put the new formula into the old company and therefore, I didn’t have to worry about there b
eing any rights to it. It was mine and I planned on making it into something amazing—assuming I could get into a lab. I had learned so much and felt like I had so much to offer. I thought about trying to buy a lab, but it would take too long to find one and then get it set up. I didn’t have a lot of time to devote to this idea. Soon I would be the sole parent to a child who deserved every bit of my attention. I had to be his or her mom and dad. I had to give the child twice as much attention to make up for my choice to leave its father.
I called a couple more people, hoping to secure a lab. I couldn’t fail before I even started. I stared at the notes on my screen. There was so much to do. I felt like I was staring at Mount Everest and I had no idea where to start. Maybe I was wrong. I couldn’t do it on my own. I was kidding myself thinking I could. I couldn’t ask Amber to leave the comfort and security of her job to help me. When the idea came to me to start over, I had been dreaming.
I had this brief moment where I remembered the good old days and thought back fondly on them. I hadn’t thought much about the actual hard work. The long nights and the days when I had wanted to give up, because I was so frustrated, had vanished from my memory—until now. I had been young and hungry back then. I wasn’t quite as hungry now and I felt like I had aged thirty years since those early days. I was a married woman, estranged from her husband and pregnant with his child … who he didn’t even know about.
My phone rang, snapping me out of my pity party. When I looked at it I recognized the number. “Leslie!” I answered the phone.
She was my last hope. If she shut me down, I didn’t know what I would do. I couldn’t fail. I’d been knocked down a few times before, but this was different. There was a lot more at stake.