Cedar Bluff's Most Eligible Bachelor (Cedar Bluff Hospital) (14 page)

“Ah, sure, let me see what time she swiped in.” He could hear the click of the keyboard as Theresa worked on the computer. “I’m sorry, Simon, but Hailey hasn’t punched in for her shift yet.”

“Oh, okay.” Now he really felt like an idiot. “I must have just missed her. Sorry to bother you.”

“No problem. Bye, Simon.”

He snapped his phone shut and drove home. He had a few hours yet before he needed to pick up Hailey from work. In the meantime, he planned to make a few phone calls himself.

Maybe he’d find Erica before Detective Arnold did.

After a restless night of broken sleep, Hailey had decided to go into work early, so that she could get her four hours of light-duty work out of the way before she confronted Simon.

It wasn’t until she’d arrived at the hospital that she’d realized she wasn’t sure what to work on as she’d been doing his quality review project.

She walked over to Theresa’s office, poking her head in just as she hung up the phone. “Theresa? Do you have the list of chart audits you wanted for the joint commission?”

“Hailey, you startled me.” Theresa put a hand over her heart. “That was Simon on the phone, asking if you were here. I told him you hadn’t punched in yet.”

Was Simon checking up on her? Because he was concerned about her? Hope lightened her heavy heart. “Really? Did he ask to talk to me?”

“No, he just wanted to know what hours you were working so he’d know when he could get into his office.” Theresa rummaged around on the messy piles of paper scattered across her desk. “Here’s the list. Do you have a key to Simon’s office?”

“No, I don’t.” She took the list of charts, stung by the knowledge that Simon wasn’t concerned. Rather, he was trying to avoid her. “But it’s no big deal, I’ll find somewhere else to work.”

“Okay. Good work on the quality reviews, by the way,” Theresa said as she turned to leave. “Simon showed me your results and I think you’re right on. We’re going to discuss the signs and symptoms of sepsis at the next staff meeting. And Simon has already sent the same message out to all the physicians.”

“Great, I’m glad I could help.” Despite her sorrow over her break-up with Simon, Hailey was pleased that she’d been able to contribute to the unit, even in a small way.

“You have. And if you get all those audits done too, I’ll be grateful. We expect the joint commission to show up in the next few weeks. If there are gaps in our documentation, I’d like to know about it now.”

Hailey smiled. “I’ll get them done,” she promised.

When she walked out to the arena, the activity level was as high as usual. Remembering the last time she’d tried to work in the midst of the chaos, she decided to find the quietest work station she could.

She settled on the tiny computer workstation that was usually used by the ED educator. Since Joanne wasn’t around, she figured no one would care if she used it. She could always move if Joanne needed her computer.

The chart audits were painstakingly slow, much worse than the quality reviews she’d completed for Simon. Her mind kept wandering, replaying those moments when Simon had broken things off. The more she thought about it, the more she became determined to confront him about his actions.

She realized, she hadn’t really confronted Andrew about his actions until that fateful night. And, really, his drinking had been bothering her for weeks before that.

She needed to learn from her past mistakes once and for all. Why wait? The sooner she could talk to Simon, the sooner she could get to the bottom of what was going on. Besides, she was exhausted. Her lack of sleep was already causing her eyes to burn with gritty fatigue, the words on the computer screen reduced to a senseless blur.

She rubbed her eyes and pushed away the keyboard. There was no point in trying to work today. Not until she’d ironed out this issue with Simon. She could make up the hours tomorrow, as long as she didn’t go over the amount that Theresa had approved.

Satisfied, she felt energised by her course of action. She would find Simon, and she would confront him about Erica. It couldn’t be a coincidence that the moment her phone had rung, he’d suddenly changed his mind about being with her.

He must have broken things off because he was avoiding relationships altogether. But it was too late. They were already in a relationship.

She just needed to make him see that as well.

She walked into the female staff locker room to get her purse. Leaning on her crutches, she quickly opened her locker, took out her purse and shut the door.

When she turned, Mary, the unit clerk with the bleach blonde spiky hair and the freaky green eyes, was standing in front of the door. Hailey was surprised as she hadn’t heard her come in. “Hi, Mary. What’s up?”

The clerk stared at her across the room, without smiling. “I tried to warn you. You should have stayed away from him.”

Dear heaven. A sick feeling curled in her stomach as realisation dawned. “Erica?”

“Yes. My real name is Erica. Mary is my sister. She let me borrow her identity so I could get this job. Wasn’t that nice of her?”

Hailey stared at the woman blocking the doorway, all the seemingly insignificant details suddenly falling into place. “You bumped Bonnie, causing her to spill water in my lap on purpose,” she accused. “Did you take the report from Simon’s desk? And leave water on the floor? That last stunt was risky—you’re lucky I didn’t seriously hurt myself.”

“I tried to warn you.” Mary’s expression didn’t show one iota of remorse. “You were supposed to stay away from Simon.”

Hailey sucked in a harsh breath when Mary, or rather Erica, reached behind to lock the door.

H
AILEY
swallowed nervously and watched Erica warily, trying to assess her options. The woman was blocking the doorway, but surely there was no reason to panic. Someone would come into the locker room sooner or later. Erica couldn’t possibly keep her locked in here indefinitely.

Could she?

Obviously, this woman had seen her and Simon together. All the way back to that day he’d hit her bicycle and had then had stayed by her side, holding her hand.

She almost winced, realizing how much that would have bothered Erica.

But she wasn’t going to apologise. Not for being with Simon. Or for loving him.

“What do you want, Erica?” Hailey finally asked, leaning heavily on her crutches. Maybe she could bluff her way out of this mess. “You want me to stay away from Simon? Okay, fine. He broke up with me anyway, so you have nothing to worry about.”

Erica’s blank, emotionless expression was eerie, to say the least. She just kept staring, acting as if she hadn’t heard a word Hailey said. The weirdness of the entire situation was starting to get to her.

“Did you hear me?” Hailey said impatiently, in an attempt to break through the other woman’s iron mask of indifference. “Simon is all yours! Take him with my blessing.”

Another long pause. “We had a baby together. Did you know that? Did Simon tell you about our son?”

A son? Hailey couldn’t prevent her jaw from dropping in shock. A baby? Simon hadn’t said a word about a baby. “No, I’m afraid he didn’t.”

Erica reached into her scrub pocket, pulling out a small photograph. She smoothed the crumpled edges with her fingertips in a slow, overly deliberate way that suggested she performed the task often. “I have a picture. Do you want to see him?”

Hailey almost started to shake her head as she was still struggling with the idea of Simon and this woman having a baby together, but she sensed that making Erica more upset wasn’t going to help. She’d already pretended she didn’t care one bit about Simon. Maybe she needed to play along with this, too.

The sooner this poor woman got everything out of her system, the sooner they’d get out of the claustrophobic locker room. “Sure.”

Erica held up the photograph. It was a grainy picture of a sonogram with the barest outline of a fetus. “See? Isn’t he beautiful?”

“Ah, yes. He is. Beautiful,” Hailey murmured, glancing briefly down at Erica’s non-pregnant stomach. Was it remotely possible Erica was pregnant now? No, more likely she’d been pregnant in the past while she’d gone out with Simon.

Nothing in the world would make her believe Simon had been with Erica three months ago.

“His name is Joshua, just like Simon’s father.” Erica turned the photograph around and stared at it again for several long minutes. “Joshua Simon Carter,” she murmured.

The way Erica was talking about the fetus, as if it were still alive, gave her the creeps. “That’s a wonderful name. I’m sure Simon was very proud.”

“Yes.” She carefully tucked the photo in the pocket of her scrubs.

“Does Simon know you’re here?” Hailey asked cautiously. “Have you spoken to him?”

“Not yet.” A scowl crossed her features but then disappeared so quickly Hailey wondered if she’d imagined it. “He didn’t recognize me because I’ve changed my hair color, eye color and padded my underwear. But I know he’ll be glad to see me once he realizes it’s me.”

Hailey wasn’t sure what to say about that. Her only option at this point was to agree with Erica, no matter how much she wanted to stake a claim in Simon for herself. “I’m sure he will.”

“I’m glad you understand. Because Simon and I are going to have another baby together. To make up for the son we lost.”

“I’m sorry for your loss, Erica.” Hailey couldn’t imagine how awful it must have been for Erica to lose the baby she’d obviously wanted very much. No wonder the woman had gone a little crazy. Could she really blame her?

“Oh, yes.” Surprisingly, Erica nodded, and pulled out a syringe filled with a clear substance topped with a needle. “I do believe you will be sorry, Hailey. Very sorry that you had the audacity to come between me and Simon.”

Simon spent a good two hours trying to find out if Erica was working as a nurse somewhere close to Cedar Bluff. But he soon gave up in frustration.

Because the more he spoke to the various human resources departments of the medical facilities he’d pinpointed as possibilities within a thirty-mile radius, the more he believed he was searching in vain.

What if Erica wasn’t working as a nurse, especially since she’d need to go through the hassle of obtaining a Wisconsin nursing license? Erica could just as easily be working in some other capacity.

Hell, she could be a waitress or bartender for all he knew.

He glanced at his phone, wishing the detective would call with some news. And when he found himself glancing at the clock for the tenth time in half as many minutes, he gave up any pretense of working. He headed out to his car, determined to go to Cedar Bluff hospital to find Hailey.

He really needed to tell her the entire story about Erica. Something he should have done a long time ago.

When he arrived at the hospital, he strode quickly through the arena, searching for Hailey amidst the chaos. His office door was closed, and he grimaced as he realized he hadn’t given Hailey his key.

He caught sight of Theresa and hurried over. “Where’s Hailey?”

“I don’t know, Simon. She was here a couple of hours ago. It seems our new unit clerk disappeared too, so if you find Hailey, see if she’s willing to sit and answer phones for a while.”

“Where was she working?” he asked, glancing around again, not seeing her at any of the workstations in the arena.

“Honestly, I have no clue.” Theresa flashed him a harried smile before crossing over to answer a ringing phone. “Emergency Department, may I help you?”

He couldn’t believe he’d missed Hailey. By his estimation, she should have at least another hour and a half of work yet to complete her allotted four hours. Perplexed, he crossed over to the locker room, thinking she was taking a break. When he tried the handle, he discovered the door was locked. “Hailey? Are you in there?”

“Simon?” He thought he heard Hailey cry out his name, but then there was the sound of a scuffle followed by a loud thud.

“Hailey!” Extremely worried now, he pounded on the door and tried the door handle again. “Open up!”

“I’m sorry, Simon.” A sing-song voice that definitely wasn’t Hailey. “I’m afraid Hailey is indisposed at the moment. You’ll have to settle for me.”

In that second he remembered what Theresa had said about the unit clerk disappearing. The new one? What was her name? Mary? With the bleached blonde short spiky hair? And the colored contact lenses?

No, not Mary. Erica. Dammit, he should have figured it out, despite the drastic differences. He’d never looked twice at the unit clerk, honestly hadn’t paid the woman the least bit of attention.

He never should have assumed, even for a moment, that Erica would take a job somewhere else rather than here at the hospital.

He pulled out his cell phone and called Detective Arnold. Thankfully, the detective answered on the first ring. “Erica’s here at Cedar Bluff hospital and she has Hailey locked in the woman’s locker room.”

“I’ll send a team right away.”

Simon snapped his phone shut and tried to think of what to do next. He wasn’t going to attempt to reason with Erica, since that had never worked in the past. Better to find Theresa and someone from Security.

He had to get a key for the locker room.

“Simon? Are you still out there?” Erica called.

He’d managed to flag down Theresa, without going too far away. “Get Security up here with a master key, stat,” he whispered urgently. In a louder voice he responded to Erica. “Yes, Erica, I’m here. Why don’t you open the door so we can talk?”

“I told Hailey all about our son, Simon. She understands why you can’t stay with her now.”

This was nothing he hadn’t heard before, but somehow knowing Hailey was locked inside made the entire situation much worse. Erica’s miscarriage had been awful. He’d mourned the loss of their baby, too. He never should have left the birth-control responsibility to Erica alone. And then the miscarriage had sent Erica over the edge.

In the past, whenever Erica had talked crazily like this, he’d gently tried to ground her in reality.

But right now it seemed better to play along. No matter how much it pained him. “I broke up with Hailey,” he told Erica. “I’m ready to get back together with you. Open the door, Erica. Please?”

“You are?” The cautious hopefulness in Erica’s tone made him feel lower than sludge for raising her hopes, even for a moment. “Really?”

He closed his eyes and rested his forehead on the cold wooden door. “Yes. Open up, Erica. You don’t need Hailey. Let’s go away and talk, just the two of us. Alone.”

Erica didn’t respond right away, and he was getting more and more worried, especially when he couldn’t hear Hailey. What had happened in there? Where in the hell was Security with that master key?

The seconds ticked by with excruciating slowness until finally a tall, dark-haired security officer came up behind him, waving a key.

Simon put a finger up to his lips, indicating the security guard should remain silent. The guy nodded to indicate he understood. Slowly, he slid the key into the lock.

The guard met his gaze questioningly, and Simon nodded. “Go!”

The guard twisted the key and threw his weight into the act of opening the door in case Erica had blocked it with something heavy on the other side. The door opened surprisingly easily, but when he came in behind the security guard, he saw Hailey crumpled on the floor, her casted leg stuck out at an awkward angle.

“Simon!” Erica cried as she rushed toward him.

Thankfully the security guard caught her before she reached Simon and quickly grabbed hold of her wrists. “Ma’am, you need to come with me.”

“No!” Erica screamed, struggling against the security guard. “Simon!”

He flicked her a brief glance, feeling nothing but pity for her, before he knelt beside Hailey. “Hailey? Wake up, honey. Are you all right?”

At the sound of his voice, her eyelids fluttered open. She tried to say something, but he couldn’t make it out. Her eyelids drifted back down.

Had she hit her head? He was about to lift her head to examine it for wounds when he spied the needle and syringe on the floor.

Dear God.
Erica had drugged Hailey!

Simon sat beside Hailey’s bedside, his head bowed over their clasped hands, listening to the reassuring sounds of the dialysis machine and the heart monitor beeping over her head. Jadon had told him she’d be fine, but he wouldn’t believe it until she woke up.

Detective Arnold had arrived and arrested Erica. Simon knew he should have gotten the police involved much earlier.

Like two years ago, when she’d vandalised his car.

And had started following him everywhere, calling him day and night. Begging to have another baby with him.

His stupid pride had nearly cost Hailey her life. Erica had given her enough of the drug to stop her breathing. Luckily, they’d caught her before her respiratory rate had fallen too low.

He never should have left her last night. Hailey hadn’t done anything wrong. She didn’t deserve this.

When Hailey stirred, tugging at his hand, his head shot up, his gaze searching her face. “Hailey? Are you all right?”

“Simon?” she frowned and glanced around the room in confusion. “Where am I?”

One side effect of Versed, the drug Erica had used, was an amnesic affect. “You’re in the hospital, getting dialysis. Do you remember being locked in with Erica?”

Instantly her confusion cleared. “Yes.” With her free hand she reached for a cup of water, taking a long sip before resting back against the pillow with a sigh. “She told me about the baby.”

Cautiously, he nodded. “I didn’t know she was pregnant when I broke off our relationship, Hailey. She was so clingy, so needy, constantly going wherever I was, calling me non-stop. But I swear to you I didn’t know she was pregnant. And when she told me she was expecting our child, I agreed to support her and the baby financially. I wanted to be a part of my child’s life. But she would settle for nothing less than marriage.”

He paused as memories of the past clouded his mind. Especially the deep fear that Erica would take off with his child and disappear. “When I told her I wasn’t going to marry her, she went a little crazy. She took a steel-pronged rake to my car, gouging the hell out of it. I should have called the police then, but she was pregnant with my child. I couldn’t do that to her. Not when her pregnancy was as much my responsibility as hers. So instead I kept trying to reason with her, even though she kept insisting that we had to be a family.” He scrubbed a hand over his face in a weak attempt to erase the past.

“What happened then?” Hailey asked.

“I was working when she called me, completely hysterical, crying because she was bleeding.” For several seconds he stared at their clasped hands, before dragging his resigned gaze up to hers. “She lost the baby. I couldn’t believe how much that loss hurt. Yet as bad as I felt about losing the baby, I can’t deny I was also a little bit relieved. For her sake, more than anything. I figured losing the baby was somehow meant to be. I thought she’d be able to move on with her life. Make a fresh start. But unfortunately losing the baby only pushed her further over the edge of sanity.”

“So she started stalking you.”

Even now, after all this time, he shied away from the ugly term. But he couldn’t deny the truth. Lying to himself about the seriousness of Erica’s obsession was how Hailey had ended up on the wrong side of a hospital bed.

“Yeah. She began stalking me. Kept showing up at my house, at work, at the gym, begging me to take her back, to make another baby.” He sighed. “It was awful. After the big scene in the middle of the emergency department, when she literally attacked me physically, I took the easy way out. I packed my gear, quit my job and moved out of Chicago.” At the time he’d thought he was doing the right thing. “But what I should have done was reported her to the police. I’m sorry, Hailey. I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”