Wendy stammered on for a bit but finally relented and left when everyone in the room ignored her. After she left, I turned back to my brother-in-law and father-in-law. Legally, they no longer held those titles, but they always would in my heart and hopefully again in the eyes of the law one day, too.
“I have people looking for Fiona. She’s been off the radar for a few months now. The time Moreland saw her on St. Patrick’s Day and then when she attacked you yesterday were the only times she’s been seen. My lawyer has already gotten in touch with the police. Charges are being filed for the,” I hesitated to say it. “The incident on my birthday. Also, from what my lawyer sent to me when I was on the way here, it looks like they have enough proof from different cameras that were running to prove that she was the one who caused the accident. She was also wielding a knife next to the vehicle on the driver’s side, which is why Drake was loaded into an ambulance before his sister.”
“What the hell?” Why hasn’t she been caught?
“No clue, but I won’t rest until she is.”
Dr. Carson came into the room a few minutes later to talk to the Duponts about Violet. The minute he saw me, the man clammed right up. I figured they would all tell me to leave, but Mark surprised me when he asked Dr. Carson to continue with the full update.
“Okay, the team had to drill a small hole in Violet’s cranium on her left side just up and back a little from her temple to relieve some of the pressure that was caused by a bleed. There shouldn’t be any complications. Violet will be out of it for a bit longer.”
“What about the baby?” I asked. Dr. Carson looked to Mark for an answer about whether he should provide that information and Vi’s father gave him a nod.
“I monitored the baby throughout the procedure. Everything looks great. I’ll be honest, though, I don’t think this pregnancy will go to full term at this point. We’re almost there, and close enough that if the baby was born today there should be relatively few health concerns. Naturally, we want the baby to continue to grow inside its mother for as long as possible, but she was already dilated to two centimeters before the accident. That number was bumped to three before the bleed was detected. I am going to check on her once again after she wakes up. Be prepared.”
“She just had surgery and you drilled into her skull, how dangerous would it be for her to give birth after that? I imagine there’s a lot of pressure with the pushing and…”
“You’re not wrong Ridge. If she goes into labor, we may have to make a very quick decision about whether to perform a c-section.”
“Do whatever you have to, to make sure they are both safe,” I told him.
Dr. Carson eyed me thoughtfully but refused to agree until Mark spoke up. “You heard the man. That’s his baby and his wife.”
“Ex-wife?” Doc framed it as a question, but I had no doubt it was meant to correct Mark.
“Semantics. They had a rough patch. As Violet’s father and her medical proxy, I’m telling you that any decision Ridge would make for her and their child is fine by me as well.”
“That will be noted in the file until Violet can speak for herself.”
After Dr. Carson left, I turned to the two men who were most important to my woman in this world. “I need to go to my office and grab a change of clothes. I didn’t bring anything with me, and I don’t want to see Violet and potentially hold our baby while wearing shit that I’ve been stewing in on a flight for nearly a full day. Please, call me if anything changes and I will come right back.”
“I promise you that I will. You might want to hurry, though. Dr. Carson seemed fairly concerned about her going into labor early.”
“I will.”
Chapter 23
Ridge
It only took me thirty minutes to get to my office, which was a damned miracle in itself. It helped that Violet and Drake were taken to the bigger hospital on the outskirts of Atlanta rather than the smaller one in our town of Clear Lake. Despite all the people who tried to welcome me back as I made my way through the building, I brushed past everyone and didn’t say a single word to anyone as I went.
There was a time when I only kept one outfit in the office, but after the house sold, I transferred a few things to a closet in my office in case I needed to change for any given event, the gym, a meeting, or whatever. It was about to serve me well, since I no longer had a home to run to for a change of clothes and shower.
Without thinking, I picked an outfit, turned the shower on, and started to strip down when a noise in the corner, where the linens and cleaning supplies were housed, made me turn. I threw a towel around my waist and yanked the door open to find a very unkempt Fiona there with a stash of food and drinks. Immediately, I closed the door and rushed out to my office to pick up the phone. She didn’t even look up at me. It was as if she didn’t even register another person was in the room and caught her. Her hair was a mess of knots, her clothes looked as though she hadn’t changed them in days, and the stench from the closet led me to believe that she might have been going to the bathroom in there despite there being a toilet to use only a few feet away.
“Security, call the police. Tell them Fiona Iverson was hiding in the private bathroom in my office. They need to come get her before I take care of business for them.”
A second later, the phone rang back to me in the office, and I picked it up. “Ridge Westover,”
“Mr. Westover, this is Officer James Daughtry, security for your building informed us that you have an intruder in your office.”
“That’s correct. Fiona Iverson is hiding in a closet in my bathroom. I came here to shower and change before heading back to the hospital to be with my pregnant wife. My lawyer sent proof to you that Fiona drugged and raped me previously, and I believe you have video evidence that she also caused my wife’s accident yesterday.”
“We do have that information and are on our way to you as we speak.”
“I am not letting her out of this office, no matter what it takes to keep her here. I will not give her the opportunity to hurt my wife or our baby again.”
“I understand. Do what you need to do within reason. I have it on good authority from your lawyer that there are cameras in your office recording all the time.”
