A male nurse comes out, and Dorothy’s cries pull me in. I slip inside before the doors close and follow her sobs.
I come to the first room. Windows fill the top part of the wall, but the curtains are drawn, so I can’t see in. I peek around the entrance and find Dorothy bent over Jamison.
She moves his hair to the side as she caresses his face. Ipull back and lean against the wall, staring at the ceiling as she speaks to him.
“Jamison Stone, you have to fight. Do you understand me?” She sniffles. “The doctor said you might be able to hear me, so let this sink in.
“You told me at the sushi restaurant you would fight for me. You promised me not even a month ago that you would. Don’t think this is any way to get out of it because it won’t release your promise.”
My chest caves in and I almost lose my breath. I close my eyes as one of my worst fears comes alive.
A cry slips through her words. “You told me at my apartment you wished you had made love to me in the cabin. You said if you had, our souls would’ve become one. We didn’t need that night to make that true. It’s always been true.”
I press my palms against the wall to hold myself up. My heart tumbles as her gentle words continue to spill from her lips.
“Since you kissed me when I was ten, our souls have been connected. We talked about it on our drive up to Mount Sopris. You admitted we were magnetically attached. Making love doesn’t solidify it when it’s always been there between us.”
There’s a pause and my blood thrums through my veins. The agony in her voice haunts me. It’s not what she’s saying. It’s how she’s saying it that guts me to my core. This is her truth.
She weeps for a second. “You don’t think we made love that night, but we did. We made a baby to prove it. I might have ruined that for you, but we shared something pure and beautiful for a moment in time.
“Jami, I love you, and I’m so sorry I lost our baby. You deserved to have one more than anyone I know. You wanted our baby from the second you suspected I was pregnant. Butmy body won’t give that to anyone. I’m sorry, Jami. I wanted our baby just as much as you did.”
She cries louder and longer. My heart breaks, but not for the reasons I think it would. It breaks for her.
She’s not over that loss. Not in the least bit. And here I am with a woman I can’t stand carrying a child she’s claiming is mine, all while Dorothy is trying to stand by my side.
Nausea grips me. I kick off the wall and leave before anyone notices me. I’m shaken, but I try to pull myself together. I have to believe our love is strong enough to get through this. With everything in me, I pray it is.
No matter what, she needs me even if she leaves me down the road. She needs me to lean on.
As soon as I get beyond the double doors, I lean over and rest my hands on my knees, trying to center myself. I can’t believe what I’ve overheard.
She loves him with such an unbearable intensity that the pain of facing that reality is almost too much to bear. The sheer magnitude of it all is overwhelming to the point where it feels like too much to process.
“Hunter? Are you alright?” Jonah’s voice causes me to raise my head.
I stand, nearly unable to feel my legs. “The day caught up to me. I need a second before I see her.”
He walks toward me with concern dripping off him. “She’s not in the waiting room, so you can go in there to catch your breath.”
I nod, but don’t say a word. I can’t tell Jonah what I heard. It makes it too real, and I can’t handle that right now.
He digs into his pocket and hands me a new phone. “It should be good to go. The IT department set it up. I didn’t check it out, but I trust them.”
He leads me down the hall in silence. I stop before the room’s entrance, knowing a group of people are waiting to hear about Jamison.
“Thanks for your help in getting me a new phone. Now, catch me up to speed.”
“Jamison’s in critical condition. The bullet barely missed his lung, but it was a clean exit, so they didn’t need to remove it. They repaired what they could and stopped the bleeding, but they’re saying it’s a miracle he’s alive.”
“Is he out of the woods?”
Jonah pats my shoulder. “Not yet. They say they’ll know more as the days go on.”
“Any word on who’s responsible?” I catch his fleeting gaze.
“Not that I know of, but I have a guess.”
