“Right, first things first, we need to get you packed, I’ll help you with the packing and your dad can find you a flight.” Alex’s mom took her arm. “Come on Alex, you have got to be strong for Gary.”
Alex looked at her mom, she never called her Alex unless it was something serious. Alex nodded and followed her to the bedroom and started to put things in her shoulder bag first, the box and the contract, her phone and passport, and make-up things. Her mom was packing her clothes into her suitcase.
“It will be ok Ally, he will be fine, so don’t go blaming yourself,” said her mom finishing the last of the packing. Alex looked at her and smiled gratefully.
“Thank you Mom, I don’t know what I would’ve done these last few days without you and Dad.”
“It’s ok honey; all you need to do is concentrate on getting Gary better.”
Her dad came into the bedroom, “I have pulled a few strings and called in a favour from one of my friends, they have a flight planned to England anywa, for a business trip, and said you can go on their plane.”
Alex looked at her dad. “Their plane?” she asked.
“Yes, one of my old contacts is over here at the moment, we met up last night and I remembered him saying he had to go back today. He has a private jet so you will be back in no time, I need to take you to airport now as they are leaving in an hour,” said her dad. She looked from her mom to her dad.
“Go on love it’s ok, you can always come back when Gary is better, now hurry, go!” Her mom said and hustled her off out the room, Alex grabbed her bag and her dad picked up her suitcase. As Alex went to get in the car she turned and held her mom tight.
“Thank you again, I will call as soon I know more,” said Alex.
“Don’t worry, everything will be fine, I’ll see you soon,” said her mom giving her a kiss.
Dad started the car, and Alex watched her mom waving in the wing mirror, and soon she was out of sight. Her dad was quiet on the journey to the airport, understanding that Alex was too preoccupied to make small talk. When they arrived his friend was waiting for them, and Dad introduced her.
“Alex, this is my old friend Dan.”
Alex shook his hand.
“Your dad told me about your husband, it must be very worrying. I’m happy to help in any way I can, anything for your Dad. Come, our flight is ready to go.”
Alex turned to her dad and gave him a hug and a kiss, “Thank you Dad, I won’t leave it so long before we visit again.”
“Go on Alex, stop making a fuss, we’ll speak to you later,” he said and Alex turned and followed Dan towards where his plane was waiting for them.
When they were in the air Dan came and sat with Alex, offering her a cup of tea. “Here, have this, it will help calm you down a bit.”
“Thank you Dan.” He was younger than her dad, but not by much.
“So you’re married to Gary Sterling, I knew his dad, great man.”
Alex looked up at him, Gary had never talked much about his family. “I’m sorry I never met his father.”
“Oh, right. Well it must have knocked Gary hard, when he passed, they were very close.”
Again Alex looked at Dan. “I met Gary after his father died, and Gary never really said much about it. He’s a very private person, and I never questioned him.”
“I’m sorry Alex I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable.”
“No I’m sorry Dan, you haven’t. I’m just worried about Gary that’s all, did you work with his dad?” She didn’t want Dan to feel like he’d offended her as he was doing her a real favour.
“I worked with him at his company, he taught me everything I know, I’m surprised Gary’s never mentioned me,” said Dan.
Alex shook her head, “Sorry, Gary never talks about his job, I bet you think I’m awful, not knowing things about him.”
“No Alex, I know Gary keeps a lot of things close to his chest, I didn’t know he was married. It wasn’t until I was speaking to your Dad last night about you, and he mentioned who you were married to, that I realized.”
Alex swallowed hard. “It’s ok, as I say, I know Gary like things kept private.”
“What business was his father in?” asked Alex.
“You’re not into sport, are you?” Dan laughed.
Alex looked at him and shook her head, not getting why he found this so funny.
“Gary’s dad created ‘Sterling International Sports’, we represent most of the top sporting names out there. When his father passed away, Gary asked me to take over the running of day to day things. Gary became more of a silent partner after that; he just comes in now and again to see how things are going.”
Alex didn’t know what to say, Gary owned his own business, he hid so much from her, didn’t he trust her at all?
“We will be landing soon at Birmingham airport; I have called ahead and arranged for a company car to take you straight to the hospital.”
“Oh thank you, I’ll be sure to let Gary know how much of a help you have been,” said Alex. Yes once he’s better we will have a talk about everything from the beginning, she thought.
Chapter Fourteen
Alex said her goodbyes and thanked Dan for his help again. As she walked towards the car she noticed it was a black limo, it looked like the one that had taken her to the club. The driver got out to take her bags from her, it was Mr Briggs.
He smiled at her as he took the bags. “Good afternoon Mrs Sterling. How was your flight?”
Alex blushed. “The flight was fine thanks, do you know what happened with Gary, I mean Mr Sterling.”
“He is resting at the moment. I will take you straight to the hospital. Sorry I don’t know any more than that,” he waited for Alex to sit in the car and closed the door. Mr Briggs got in the driver’s seat, this time he left the partition down.
Alex felt strange recalling the last time she’d sat in this car.
“He didn’t mean to keep things from you,” said Mr Briggs.
Alex looked at Mr Briggs reflection in the rear view mirror.
“He’s just not very good at opening up. . .”
“I’m beginning to notice,” replied Alex, “so you work for ‘Sterling International’ as well?”
“Mr Briggs smiled back at her. “Look he will explain everything to you. He knows he messed up on this, it’s best you hear it from him.”
Alex gave him another smile. She understood he knew more but didn’t feel comfortable talking about it. She looked at him he drove, there was a rugged look about him, and he was quite nice looking, looked like he’d been a soldier or something.
“What’s your first name, if you don’t mind me asking?” asked Alex.
“John.”
“Well that’s better than me calling you Mr Briggs.”
He laughed. “Well people normally just call me Briggs, but if you feel better calling me John that’s fine with me.”
They pulled up outside the hospital and Alex got out.
“Here is my number, call me when you’re ready to come out and I will come back for you, you can leave your bags with me if you like,” Briggs said.
“Thank you, I’ll just take my handbag, I need to call my parents to let them know what’s happening,” Alex touched his hand as she took her bag from him, his hands were rough, this man had done manual labour.
John smiled back and then got back in the car and drove away. Alex entered the hospital and after speaking to the receptionist she was on her way to Gary’s room. He had a private room. Nothing but the best for Gary, thought Alex.
The door to his room was open. Gary was asleep and a nurse was checking one of the machines that he was hooked up to. The nurse looked up.
“I’m Alex, Gary’s wife,” Alex said.
The nurse finished what she was doing and came over.
“Hello Alex, it’s nice to meet you, I feel I already know you, you’re all Mr Sterling talks about. Please take a seat, you must be tired,” the pretty nurse said,
with a faint blush coming to her cheeks.
“How is he, what happened?” asked Alex as she sat down.
“The doctor will be in on his rounds soon, he’ll be able to tell you much more, but rest assured, your husband is in the best place he can be.”
“Do you want a drink fetching?” asked the nurse.
Alex shook her head and looked at Gary. He looked so pale, and like he’d lost weight, there was a bandage on his head and heart monitor pads on his chest. She ran her fingers over the places where the pads were.
Gary started to open his eyes. He gave a weak smile and whispered, “Alex.”
Alex felt tears come into her eyes and leant down to give him a hug. “God I don’t know what I thought or expected to find, you have scared the hell out of me,” she sobbed.
“I’m ok, I’m better than I was, and I’m sorry for scaring you,” he wiped her tears with his hand.
“What happened?”
“I’m not all that sure, I remember finishing our phone call,” Gary looked at her and saw she was embarrassed. He smiled. “I got up, and the next thing I know Ray was standing over me with medics everywhere, and then I was rushed here.”
“What happened to your head?”
“When I passed out, I fell and caught my head on the way down. I had to have a few stitches, and some tests to find out why I passed out. Please don’t worry I’m fine. I am tough as an ox!” he tried to make light of his situation.
“Who’s Ray?” Alex looked into his eyes.
Gary looked at her seriously now. “You’ve already met him,” he paused, “the other night,” and before Alex could say anything, he continued, “Alex I promise you I will tell you everything, just not here.”
Alex just held his hand and nodded. She knew it could wait, getting him better and out of here was more important.
The doctor entered the room “Mrs Sterling,” he shook her hand and then looked at Gary. “Well the tests have come back, your accident was caused by your blood sugar levels, they were very low Mr Sterling. You have diabetes, have you been eating healthily? By the looks of you, you are normally a fit healthy man so perhaps you didn’t realise you had this problem.”
Gary just looked at the doctor.
Alex said, “Gary has always looked after himself. He exercises near enough every day and has always eaten the right foods.”
“He will need tablets to keep it under control, have you been unwell over the last week or so, or under stress?” asked the doctor.
Alex looked at Gary, who said, “My wife was away for a few days, so I just relaxed on the eating habits a bit.”
“You need to eat well and regularly. If you skip meals you may feel weak or dizzy, and this could have been why you passed out and banged your head. You were lucky with the fall, the blow to the head could have caused complications.”
“He will be ok now, won’t he?” asked Alex.
“Yes Mrs Sterling he will, if he keeps on top of his health and manages his condition, people can live normal lives with diabetes, but we did find something else, an irregularity with his heart, which would also explain the blackout. Have you had many blackouts?” the doctor asked and Alex squeezed Gary’s hand.
“No, look I’ve never had any health problems, I just maybe missed a few meals these past few days, and I’m fine. I feel better.”
“I see, PVCs are among the most common arrhythmias and can occur in those without heart disease. They are that skipped heartbeat we all occasionally experience. In some cases it can be related to stress, too much caffeine or smoking, or over exercise. But sometimes, PVCs can be caused by heart disease or electrolyte imbalance. I believe yours may be due to stress or too much exercise, this again will have to be monitored.”
“So will he have to stay in?” asked Alex.
“We have been monitoring him while he’s been in and the last few times we checked his heart, it seemed to have settled down. I would like to keep him in overnight just because of his heart and the blow to the head and I will reassess his condition in the morning,” answered the doctor.
“Thank you for your help Doctor, Gary will stay tonight. He won’t argue with that.” Alex looked at Gary and smiled.
The doctor nodded and left, leaving Alex and Gary alone.
She leant down and held Gary and cried, “Gary I thought I’d lost you, don’t ever do that to me again.”
Gary put his arms around her and held her till she stopped crying. She sat up and looked at him.
“I think you need to go home Alex, I will be ok here, there’s enough people to look after me, go home and unpack and rest, we don’t want you ending up in here as well,” he said. Alex kissed him again softly on the lips.
“Should I phone John to pick me up?”
“John?” said Gary.
“Mr Briggs, he picked me up from the airport, I will explain when you’re home,” she smiled, teasing him.
“Oh so you’re on first name terms now?” Gary joked back.
“Yes, and don’t go getting jealous either, he has too much respect for you to ever cross that line, more’s the pity,” she giggled.
“I do believe I’m going to have to keep my eye on you Mrs Sterling.”
Chapter Fifteen
Alex waited till Gary had fallen back to sleep, then John, or Briggs, or whatever he wanted to be called, picked her up from the hospital and drove her home.
She dropped her bags by the doorway and went over to the phone and called her mom and dad to let them know about Gary. Then she went into the kitchen to make herself a drink, there were two half eaten pizza boxes and some crisps’ packets on the counter. She binned them.
This isn’t like Gary, he likes things to be clean and tidy, and pizza he only has on the odd occasion, she thought. It looked like he couldn’t be bothered while she had been away.
She was the one that had made him ill. Instead of stopping and talking things through she had caused him to end up in hospital. I will not let him down again, she thought as she carried on cleaning up.
She finished cleaning up the kitchen, and then took her suitcase upstairs to unpack. The bed didn’t look like it had been slept in; just his jogging bottoms were thrown on the floor. She put them in the laundry basket, and then put her clothes away.
Alex got into her cotton pyjamas and went back downstairs, she didn’t want to sleep in the bed alone, she missed Gary too much. She went to the living room and turned on the television. Nothing was really on. She flicked through channels and then just turned it off.
She lay down on the sofa and closed her eyes. She dreamt of that night at the club, but she couldn’t see the faces of the people in the room, she tried to take off their masks, but she couldn’t touch them. She woke up from the dream looking around trying to work out where she was. Then there was a knock at the door. She looked at the clock: 11 pm. Who would be calling around at this time?
She opened the door cautiously, there was a tall dark man standing there. Alex didn’t recognize him at first, but there was something very familiar about him.
“Hello can I help?” asked Alex. She looked at him and then in his eyes, they were the colour of milk chocolate.
“Alex, sorry to come round at such a late hour but I was just wondering how Gary was, I phoned the hospital, but they wouldn’t tell me anything.”
Suddenly Alex realized who he was, the man from the other night, the man in the mask.
“You’re Ray, aren’t you?” asked Alex.
“Sorry Alex, yes I’m Ray.”
Alex let him in and led him to the living room.
“Sorry I didn’t introduce myself, my mind has been all over the place since I found Gary.”
“I understand. He’s ok, they’re just keeping him in overnight to monitor him.” Alex didn’t want to say too much because she wasn’t sure how much Gary would want people to know.
“Yes Briggs told me, that’s why I came over. He said he’d dropped you home, how are you? It must have been
such a shock.”
He looked at her again, his eyes fixed on hers. She remembered the last time she’d looked in those eyes, and a flush came to her cheeks, and she looked away in case he could read her mind.
“I’m fine,” she answered.
“Good. It was just finding him like that, well it knocked me, I can tell you.”
He seemed so different from the other night.
“I came over because I hadn’t heard from him since the other night,” Ray paused, “well he normally phones if he’s got things on, or just to say when he will be back in, anyway I came over, I knocked on the door and there was no answer. Then I looked through the living room window and that’s when I saw him lying on the floor, so I let myself in.”
“Let yourself in?” asked Alex.
“Yes, sorry, Gary gave me a spare set of keys, not sure the reason why, to be honest, but you know Gary, he has his reasons for everything. Anyway it’s a good job he did, I couldn’t bring him round at first, so I called for an ambulance, and the rest you know.”
Alex saw that his hands were shaking. “Would you like a drink? You look like you need one.”
Ray nodded and Alex poured him a double measure of Gary’s whisky.
“Me and Gary go way back you know, it’s like I didn’t know what to do, he’s like a brother to me you know?” Alex realized then that she was not the only one that was scared about what might have happened to Gary.
She sat down next to him and held his hand, he looked at her trying to read her expression.
“It was my fault. I got angry that night when he told me he was in the room at the club. I didn’t understand and didn’t give him a chance to explain. I made him leave, then I ran to my parents, I put him through hell making him think I’d left him, I made him ill just because I wouldn’t give him a chance to explain, but I have promised him I will give him a chance to tell me everything, in his own time,” she said, hardly drawing breath.
She looked at Ray waiting for him to say something.
“He loves you, I have never seen Gary get like this for a girl, from the minute he met you he talked about you non-stop, he took a step back from the club, you know, to spend time with you. He wanted to shield you from it all, from his desires. He was frightened you wouldn’t understand and would leave him, so I suppose in a way he thought that was what had happened. But I want you to know he didn’t want to go ahead the other night. I was the one who talked him into it, I told him it would be ok. I knew he hadn’t told you about his club, I have already more than likely dropped him in it again, but I want you to understand how much he cares for you and why he kept everything from you.”
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