I step out of the patient’s room and close the door behind me, giving a thumbs up to Trent, who is completing paperwork behind the nurse’s station.
“She said she’ll stay,” I tell him. “Better send someone in before she changes her mind.”
“Ever the miracle worker you are,” Shaffer says with a grin. “Thanks, Jami.”
“Anytime. I have some paperwork to finish up. I’ll be in the lounge if anyone needs me.” I grab my briefcase from behind the desk and sling it over my shoulder, then head in the direction of the staff room. I’ve just sat down to catch up on work files when Renee pokes her head into the room, spots me, and then slides into the chair across from me, a sly smile on her face. I groan inwardly.
“Soooo,” she says, leaning over the table to face me. “How’s Ely?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, sweet girl, you know exactly what I’m talking about,” says Renee with a grin. “Did you really think your best friend wouldn’t notice a difference?”
“What difference? I haven’t even said anything. I was just with a patient.”
“Your naivety is cute.” Renee leans back in the chair and folds her arms over her chest, scoping me out. “You have a glow to you,” she says. “A new glow, anyway. I can just tell.”
Knowing that I can’t hide the secret for long, I allow the smile that’s been playing on my lips to expand, and Renee’s jaw drops as her eyes go wide with excitement.
“How was he?” she asks, dropping her voice to a mere whisper. “He seems like he’d be good. Is he good?”
“Better than good,” I say with a small smile, and Renee smacks the palm of her hands down on the table.
“My little girl is growing up,” she says, placing a hand over her heart. “Who would have ever thought?”
“Oh, shush.” I close the binder in front of me, abandoning paperwork for the time being, but just as I’m about to meet Renee in the middle and tell her about my night with Ely, Trent comes into the room with a heavy sigh.
“Tara Hill is back,” he says. “And she wants to talk to you, Jami.”
Renee and I exchange a glance, and Renee shrugs. “Good luck. Let me know if you need me.”
I take a breath and follow Trent out of the lounge and towards another ER patient room. I dread what I’m about to find, so much so that I almost turn around and bail. How badly has he hurt her this time? Is it Madison? Is it both of them?
Trent leads me to the closed door, knocks lightly, then opens it, and we step into the room. Tara is sitting on a patient bed, hands clasped anxiously in her lap, lip pulled between her teeth to chew on it. Maddy is asleep on the bed, her head in her mother’s lap, that ragged stuffed bear I’ve seen once before clutched to the little girl’s face, a comfort of sorts.
“Hi, Tara,” I say softly, and before I can say anything else, Tara begins to cry.
“I’ll be close if you need me,” Shaffer says, backing out of the room with a nod in my direction. Once the door is safely closed behind him, I pull up a plastic visitor’s chair and sit down across from Tara.
“Tell me what happened.”
For a second, I think that she’s not going to tell me anything at all, just like last time. I keep expecting Kasper to plow through the door, demanding they leave, that superior smirk he likes to flaunt glued to his face. But he’s not here, not this time.
“I’m done,” Tara says, and there’s something about the way she meets my eyes that tells me she’s not screwing around anymore. One of her hands goes to the vivid purple bruise on her cheek, and the other stays securely on a sleeping Madison’s back.
“What happened?” I ask. “Did he hurt you again?”
Tara scoffs like it’s a stupid question. I guess it is, really, but it’s one I have to ask nonetheless. “It’s more than that this time,” she says finally. She looks down at her sleeping daughter, and tears flow freely down her cheeks. If I didn’t see the wet tears, I would have never known she was crying.
“Tara, tell me what’s going on so I can help you.”
She looks back up at me, wiping away the moisture from her cheeks. “He threatened Maddy. Or, he threatened me using my daughter.” The tears that flowed only moments ago are now replaced with an expression of rage. Her lip trembles and her hands curl automatically into fists as if she wants to beat Kasper Hill to a pulp.
I can’t blame her. All of us want to kill this man, including me.
“What did he say?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Tara says, shaking her head. “I just know that I’m done. I’m done with him. I want out. And I want him to pay for everything he’s done to rip this family apart.” Her teeth press together hard, and a muscle in her jaw twitches. In her lap, Maddy stirs but doesn’t wake. I can’t even begin to imagine the kind of trauma this poor girl has been through, and it makes me want to weep right alongside her mother.
