Tawny had tried to tell me while I was loading Christine into my car, but I hadn’t been prepared to listen. She’d been forced to remain at the school, but no one was going to keep me from Christine.
However, I’d gathered the gist of what was happening.
Christine was dying.
And there was nothing I could fucking do to save her. I was angry. Enraged.
But I was no God.
You bet I continued the lie that I was her fiancé. I wouldn’t be able to learn what was wrong with her if I hadn’t.
And I’d do it all over again.
I lifted my head, studying the nurse’s station. There hadn’t been an update in a couple of hours and I was angry and worried, furious that I might have caused this. Whatever this was. Maybe a miracle could happen.
Sighing, I closed my eyes, rubbing my hands together until I heard a commotion.
“Where is she? Where is my daughter?” The man’s voice was booming, filling the space full of his anger.
And I recognized the damn voice.
Her father.
I stood, rubbing my hands on my jeans. The entire family had arrived, Mr. Carrington acting as if he owned the hospital. I told myself to calm the fuck down.
Even if I wanted to put my fist through his mouth.
“Sir, you’ll need to calm down,” the nurse told him.
“I’m not going to calm down. The bullshit you told me is not good enough,” he snarled. The poor nurse was just trying to do her job and didn’t need some rich blubbering idiot trying to tell her what to do. “Do you know who I am?”
“Sir, I’m asking you to calm down.”
Curtailing my fury, I moved closer, finally catching Edward’s eye. “Stop harassing her, Mr. Carrington.”
I’d expected him to be angry, but what I hadn’t anticipated was for him to turn around, snarl, and throw a punch directly into my jaw.
Blinding pain hit me hard, the force shocking and driving me backwards.
“Edward. Stop that,” Sheila was saying.
I was doing my best not to shift, but my wolf was so close I wasn’t certain I could curtail him any longer.
“What did you do to my daughter?”
When he lunged toward me again, I couldn’t hold back.
Yet before I could throw a punch, two men were grabbing me.
“Hey. Steve. Stop. Just stop.”
Panting, I tried to jerk away, but two more guys were there right in front of me, preventing me from doing a damn thing.
“Step back, son. Go on.” Both coaches had arrived, Coach Wagner the one keeping me from doing something stupid.
I took a step backwards but continued to snarl at the man, rubbing my aching jaw and wanting nothing more than to bash his head in. The ache for her was only growing.
“You did this to my little girl. You did!” Edward screamed again.
