“Promise?”
“I promise. I’m not going anywhere,” I assured her, but I was pretty sure she was already asleep before I finished speaking. Tugging the chair across the room, I settled myself beside her bed and drifted off.
27
CHARLOTTE
I thought walkingin on your fiancé’s skank dancing around in your wedding dress a week before your wedding was hard.
It was nothing.
This, what I was going through now was.
Being so close, yet so far was fucking excruciating.
After a week off nursing a broken heart and trying to get in touch with Luke, I did what I had to do. I got up, dusted myself off, and went back to work. Maybe being around people again would help me pull my head out of my ass and realize it wasn’t the end of the world. I fucked up. It was that simple. Now I’d had time to think about it, I got it, but I had to get on with life. I’d become that girl I hated long enough. I’d left enough sad, pathetic messages on his phone, sent enough pleading texts, all had gone unanswered.
Focusing on my patients wasn’t easy. Knowing Isla was fighting the same fight meant it wasn’t proving to be the distraction I’d hoped it would be, but these kids needed me. They deserved my best and I refused to shortchange them. They’d had enough to deal with in their short lives, my dating life disasters didn’t even register.
“Welcome back,” Doctor Williams greeted as we met in the halls, clipboard in hand.
“Thanks.”
“How are you feeling?”
“I’m doing okay. It was sore for a little bit, but that’s to be expected.”
“Yes it is. I’m glad to hear it. What you did, Charlotte … it was …”
“What anyone else in my position would’ve done,” I finished for her. I didn’t want to be the martyr of this story. I did what I did because it needed to be done. I didn’t want, I didn’t need a certificate for my wall or a gold star. I just wanted to help someone who needed me. The fact that the person was Isla, a little girl I adored and thought of as my own was irrelevant. At least that’s the lie I kept telling myself.
“We’d like to think that, but I’m not so sure everyone would.”
“How’s she doing?” I choked out the question.
“Really good actually. She’s gone home …”
“Home?”
“Yes. She was discharged yesterday.”
“What?” I screeched.
“She’s doing extremely well, and her father is an EMT.”
It made sense, but I’d been hoping to sneak in and check on her, but I guess that idea had gone bust.
“Oh.”
“She was asking about you, you know.”
I didn't know it was possible for my heart to soar and sink at the same time. To know she hadn’t forgotten about me but at the same time, the last thing I wanted her to think was that I’d abandoned her.
“She was?” I squeaked.
“Her father told her you were busy with patients.”
“Oh.” At least he didn’t tell her I was the wicked witch. Something to be grateful for I guess.
