“Oh, Donna,” Bella breathed. “You can’t blame yourself for—”
She was interrupted when her mother entered the room with the doctor in tow. The doctor slid her stethoscope from around her neck and hurried over to Bella. Donna slipped out of the room during the doctor’s examination. Once in the hall, she fell back against the wall and slid to the floor. She tucked her head to her knees and wept. Even though Bella tried to tell her that she wasn’t at fault, she knew she was culpable. After running into Vera at the courthouse, she should have taken some sort precaution to protect herself and her family. It was irresponsible of her not to know that Vera finding out that she was a cop was dangerous. She was naïve for not seeing her as a threat. Because of failure to act, her father was in surgery, and her sister was suffering from a severe head injury.
“Are you okay?” Donna felt a hand on her shoulder. She wiped her face and looked up in search of the soft, feminine voice. It was Dr. Camorra, the surgeon that had operated on her dad. She hurried to her feet. Ignoring the doctor’s inquiry, she asked. “How’s my dad?”
“It was work. We had to remove his spleen and a small portion of one of his lungs, but I’m pretty confident he’ll make a full recovery.”
Donna exhaled a sigh of relief. Had her father died because of her, she didn’t know how she would go on. For certain, she would never be able to face her family again. Even with him being on his way to a full recovery, she found it difficult to look them in the eye.
“Thank you, Doctor,” she said with sincerity.
“You’re welcome. Will you join me in telling your family?”
Donna shook her head. “No. You go. I gotta make some calls.”
When the doctor nodded and entered Bella’s hospital room, Donna dug her phone out of her pocket and dialed Lucas. The least she could do was make sure Bella recovered with as much support as possible. When he didn’t answer, she left a message letting him know that Bella was in the hospital, sure to tell him that she was okay. Just in case he didn’t already know, she left the address for Christ Hospital before hanging up.
Donna stuffed the phone back into her pocket and walked toward the elevators.
