Alicia didn’t fight the paramedics who took her to the hospital for further observation. She was too tired, too weary, and too full of paranoia to insist otherwise.
Fuck. The paranoia.
Something wasn’t right. She had no further information about the fire, but her gut told her that it started too close to home.I saw the fire. Alicia lived on the fifth floor. Aside from what spread to other apartments, hers was the only one truly affected.
She supposed it could’ve been an accident. Wouldn’t be the first time the toaster sparked, after all. That was why they always unplugged it after use. Alicia unplugged it after her morning toast, right?
Nobody was forthcoming with more information. They were more concerned that she was comfortable in her cheery private room and that she was happy with the staff assigned to her, the most competent team of nurses with the kindest bedside manners.Danica. Did she own this hospital? How about the wing? It would probably be named after her soon.
Where is she?Alicia’s phone was gone. Had someone texted her? If she had anything to do with Alicia’s current accommodation, then she must have known. So where was she?Would she tear herself away from her precious meetings and corporate takeovers for a whole hour to come check in on her very public girlfriend?
Shit.That’s probably why everyone was so nice to her. They recognized her, and nothing more.“Don’t let Ms. Moreau find out that we were anything less than hospitable to her girlfriend,”Alicia swore she heard one nurse say.“Her father is a gracious donor.”
Aside from Dee, who had been released the same night she was admitted, Alicia had no visitors the first day she was in the hospital. Not until the early evening, when she argued with a nurse about whether to leave the curtains open to watch the sunset. Couldn’t a girl get some form of entertainment? The TV was stuck on freakin’ baseball 24/7. Was it a ploy to make her sleep?
“Baby!” Was that… well! “Alicia, honey!” Linda Colbert barreled over a nurse in pink scrubs the moment she saw her daughter lying in a hospital bed. “Are you okay?” Short, brown, curly hair bounced through the air as the stout woman in cheap jeans and a thin T-shirt rushed to Alicia’s bedside. “What happened?”
“I’m fine.” Alicia fought back tears at the sight of her mother. While she had spent most of her adult life living fine without Linda hovering over her at all hours of the day, Alicia had to admit that there was no better face to look at right now.Tell me it’s going to be all right, Mom.Alicia hadn’t felt like this since she broke up with Matt an eon ago. “I promise, Mom. I’m fine.”
Still, Linda wouldn’t listen to the nurses who begged her not to squeeze her daughter so tightly. Alicia folded into the maternal embrace that smelled of Avon perfume and school nurse sterilization practices. It was a weekday. Had Linda taken time off to drive down from Long Island? Who had called her? The police? Were Dad and Terrence okay?
They were all fine, as Linda tearfully told her daughter when she finally sat down in a folding chair. Terrence hadn’t heard about the fire yet. He hadn’t been feeling well recently, so Linda didn’t want to throw him into a fit over his sister’s well-being. Alicia’s father was his usual stoic self. He went to work that day on both of their behalf. Students would’ve worried if both the nurse and her schoolteacher husband were gone without warning.
“I came as soon as I heard.”
“It’s such a long drive, Mom.”
“What happened? Is your roommate all right?”
“Candice is fine. She was in Las Vegas this weekend.” Alicia motioned for a drink of water. “Pete is in protection until she can come claim him.”
“Pete?”
“The parrot.”
“Right, right.” Linda squeezed her daughter’s hand. “Thank God you got out of there.”
“I hear nobody was hurt too badly.” Mrs. Jenkins was in another room down the hall. Not one half as nice as Alicia’s. The old woman wasn’t happy that her apartment was burned down, too, but she and her cats were alive. “It was a freak accident.”
“You come home with me if you need a place to stay.”
For the millionth time that day, Alicia thought of Danica.Would she let me stay with…Russell Moreau appeared in her head, shaking his head. No. Alicia didn’t want to stay in a place where the man who tried to have her killed lurked.
Alicia was convinced. The longer she had to think about it, the more she realized that Russell’s threats had finally manifested into something beyond idle. He had said it himself.“The third warning won’t be so cordial.”This was the man who paid someone to walk up to his ex-wife and set her on fire. What made Alicia so special that she didn’t deserve the sametreatment? She was beyond a nuisance now. She was a threat. A threat to the Moreau legacy. How many times had Russell told her to get the fuck out of Danica’s life?
Alicia had always heard of the monster mother-in-law. No one warned her about a psychoticfather-in-law.
“You okay?” Linda smoothed her daughter’s sweaty bangs. “Baby?”
“I’ll be fine, Mo…” Before Alicia could finish addressing her mother, a voice screamed down the hospital hallway.
“You will let me see her!” It was the kind of voice that struck fear into Alicia’s heart. Not because she feared the woman herself, but because it instantly reminded her of the one who put her in this place to begin with.Why do they have to sound so alike?“I don’t care if she already has a visitor! Do you know who I fucking am?”
A nurse dropped something in front of Alicia’s door. She didn’t bother to pick anything up. How could she, when a haggard woman in a suit mowed her over and launched herself into Alicia’s room? Even Danica’s bodyguard struggled to keep up with her!
“Alicia!” Linda didn’t exist anymore. She and the chair were thrown back, almost comically so, as Danica barged between her and Alicia. “What happened! Who did this to you!”
Danica Moreau did not ask questions. She barked. She shouted. She wormed her way into every conversation and didn’t care who got in her way. For as much as Alicia missed her girlfriend ever since this bullshit started, she only wanted to cry now. There were too many emotions overcoming her.
