by Alexis Gold
Chapter Five
Cami was laying on her bed, holding Emma in her arms, watching her daughter as she slept peacefully. She touched the soft dark curls at the top of her baby's head and ran her fingertip over her cheek, tracing the curve of her tiny face to the soft round bottom of her chin. She was such a beautiful baby.
Her phone rang and she reached for it, a little surprised. She wasn't expecting a call at all. She looked at the number and saw that it was Janine. She furrowed her brow and answered the call.
"Hello?" she asked.
"Cami? It's Janine." She heard something strange in the woman's voice and sat up in bed.
"What is it? Is something wrong?" Cami felt a little knot begin to form in her stomach.
Janine was quiet a moment, muffling a sniff and a little cry. Then she spoke softly.
"Roman was in a boat accident," she said through tears. "His boat sank, but there was another boat that was able to rescue him. They just brought him in and he's in the emergency room right now. There isn't any news. We don't know if he's going to make it. I can send a car for you right away if you want to come."
Cami leaped from the bed, reached for her shoes, and then picked up her daughter. "Yes, I'll be waiting downstairs by the door. Please send it right away!"
She hung up and put Emma in her car seat, packed her diaper bag, and rushed to the front door to wait for the car. It came in record time and she buckled her daughter in and looked at the city flying past her window, as the car zipped through the streets toward the hospital.
Her heart was in her chest and her whole body was tensed with anxiety as she tried to keep visions of what must have happened, or what could have happened, out of her mind. She chewed silently on the end of her finger and crossed her arms tightly over her chest. Emma was still sound asleep when they reached the hospital.
Janine was in the waiting room looking haggard and rough as if she had been through the ringer. Cami went right to her and embraced her tightly. She didn't know Janine that well, but tragedy has a way of tearing away inhibitors, and there was nothing between them but grief and worry, and in their hug, the comfort of a familiar person who cared.
The nurse came out to them and told them that the doctor had taken Roman to a private room. She led them down the hall and into an elevator that glided slowly up to the third floor.
She took them to a room at the end of the hall, just past a waiting room and refreshment corner. They entered Roman's room and saw him lying still, with his eyes closed, in the bed. He was pale and almost lifeless, and both women gasped and reached for each other when they saw him.
The doctor turned toward them and lowered the chart in his hand. "Hello, I'm Doctor Andrews." He looked at Cami. "Are you his wife?" he asked.
The question jolted her heart and she shook her head. "No, I'm a..."
Janine answered quickly for her. "She's family. I'm his private secretary."
The doctor looked at them both and nodded. "We're only allowing family in at this time," he said apologetically, but Janine stood her ground.
"I'm the only other family you're going to find in this city." She frowned at him slightly.
He looked at Cami. "Do you give her permission to be here?" he asked, sure of the answer.
Cami nodded. "Yes, of course. What's going on with him? How is he doing?" She looked at the doctor with pleading eyes.
The doctor looked back at Roman lying there and placed his hand on the foot of the bed. "He's in an induced coma. The water he was in was about fifty-seven degrees, and he was in it long enough that he went into hypothermia and sustained some serious damage from the cold. We were able to revive him when he came in, but we didn't think we were going to be able to bring him back.
“He was also in shock and his blood pressure skyrocketed. We're running tests to determine the extent of the damage he suffered internally. He has three broken ribs and a sprained ankle, but otherwise his injuries are the result of suffering a trauma, and he will heal. It's just going to take some time. We want him kept in the coma to relax him and allow his body to heal, but I expect we will be able to revive him in a few days." He looked at each of the ladies.
"I'm so sorry. I hope as you do, that he will be alright. Please let me know if you have any questions." He walked out of the room with the nurse and Cami and Janine both went to Roman's side and held his hands, looking down at him and weeping. They stood there beside him for a while, silently hoping and wishing for him to be alright, when Emma woke up and began to fuss.
Janine turned and looked at Cami. "May I?" she asked.
Cami nodded, and Janine picked Emma up, looked at her soft brown eyes and was somewhere between crying and smiling. "There, there, little Pip. You're Auntie Janine has got you now. You're going to be alright. Your daddy is going to be alright too. See him there? He's getting better even as we speak, and in no time at all you'll be playing with him again and things will be alright."
A voice sounded from the corner of the room and both ladies looked up to see the tall, curvy red head walking toward them with a dangerous expression on her face.
"Her daddy?" she asked, looking from Janine to Emma to Cami.
Janine drew her breath in and Cami looked at the woman curiously. She was stunning, though scantily dressed, whoever she was, and she didn't look well at all. Suddenly it dawned on Cami who this woman might be and she felt panic rising up from deep within her stomach.
The woman looked hard at Cami and Janine moved to stand in the way of Denise getting around the bed.
"Denise, this is no time for drama. Roman is in critical condition and he needs to be our main focus right now. We'll explain later, but this is Cami, and this," she said, holding the baby close to her, "is Emma, Cami and Roman's daughter."
Denise's mouth fell full open and she gawked at them for a long minute, blinking in surprise and trying to get a grasp on it.
"That can't be!" she finally whispered.
"Well it is," Janine said quietly. "Now, the most important thing you need to worry about is Roman, Denise."
Denise narrowed her eyes and glared daggers at Cami. "You? You screwed my husband and had a kid with him?" She moved to walk around the bed and Janine stopped her in her tracks. "Not in here, Denise!" she whispered sharply. "You either focus on Roman or get out!”
Denise looked at Cami with sheer hatred. "He had a child and he never told me? He had an affair with you?" She raised her voice sharply and Janine turned and handed Emma to Cami, and then looked back at Denise.
"I warned you,” she said in a low tight voice through thin lips. She grabbed Denise's arm and dragged her out of the room. Cami could hear them arguing in the hall and she looked down at Emma and Roman, wishing it had happened differently. Roman's wife was a gorgeous woman, although obviously medically enhanced, she looked as if she could have stepped out of a magazine. She wondered that such a woman could have such a cold relationship with someone like Roman. She couldn't understand why any woman wouldn't give everything to be with a man like Roman.
Their arguing grew louder for a moment and then there were other voices, nurses, from the sound of it, and then it was quiet again. Denise and Janine came back into the room and Denise was pouting ferociously. Janine reached for Emma and looked at Cami.
"She wants to talk with you, and I've told her that if you want to talk with her, you're welcome to do it out in the waiting room. No negative talk in here, and no fighting. Whatever you two feel like you need to say to each other can be said out there. The only thing anyone is talking about in here is Roman."
She leaned her head closer to Cami. "If you don't want to talk with her, you don't have to."
Cami looked from Janine to Denise and drew a long deep breath, and then sighed. She felt as if she owed it to the woman. After all, she'd just had a double impact; her husband had nearly perished in a boating accident and she found out that he had a child out of wedlock at the same time. It would be enough to shake anyone up.
She was surprised that Denise wasn't more concerned with Roman, after all, she hadn't even looked at him since she had walked into the room, but Cami supposed that was because of the shock of learning that he had a child out of wedlock.
Cami looked at Denise. "I'll talk with you," she said softly. She walked around the bed and turned to look at Janine and Emma. "She's okay with you?" She checked to be sure.
Janine nodded and smiled at the baby girl. "Of course. Auntie Janine will take good care of her little Pip while mommy is gone."
Cami nodded and Denise narrowed her eyes at Janine, and then turned and walked out of the door with Cami following along behind her. They headed toward the small waiting room area and when they got there, Denise headed to a quiet corner and then turned and glared at Cami.
"Who the hell are you and what are you doing with my husband?" she demanded angrily.
Cami took a deep breath. "I'm really just a friend of his. We met through his work."
"A friend? A friend? You have a kid with him! It takes a lot more than friends to make a kid! You tell me right now what's going on!" Denise looked as if she was ready to strangle Cami.
Cami looked around them. "We should sit down," she said quietly.
"I don't want to sit, I want you to tell me what the hell is happening between you and my husband!" Denise demanded.
Cami sat and looked up at her. "We met on a business trip over a year ago, and we became friends. One night things got... um... a little heated, and we wound up with a baby nine months later, but it was a one time thing. It never happened again after that. We aren't having an affair. It was just once, and ironically, that one time was all it took. Now we have a daughter. I moved up here from Los Angeles so he could help me raise her and be a part of her life."
Denise was fuming. "He never bothered to even let me know? You two were going to keep this a secret from me? I'm his wife!"
Cami shook her head. "Don't be mad at him for that; he didn't even know about her until just recently. He had no idea. We never talked after that business trip. He didn't know about her until I came to him and told him when we moved up here."
Denise's voice grew louder. "You came up here to steal him away from me! You came up here to get rid of me and move in on my marriage with your bastard kid!"
In a flash, Cami was up out of her seat and standing nose to nose with Denise. "Don't you dare use that word when you're talking about my daughter! She has her dad's last name. He is in her life and he wants her. Furthermore, I didn't come up here to steal him from you, I came here so that he could have a chance at raising his own child and watching her grow!
“I'm not trying to break the two of you up. If he wants to be with you, he can stay with you, if he wants to leave you, then that's his business."
Denise's jaw fell open. "Is that what he told you? That he wants to leave me? After everything I have done for him, I make one little mistake, and I have one little affair and all of a sudden he's out having kids with other women and now he wants to leave me? Well it's not going to happen! He's mine and I'm not letting him go!"
Cami was shocked. "You had an affair?" she asked.
Denise realized that Cami hadn't already known that. She drew back from her a half a step and eyed her warily. "He didn't tell you that?"
Cami shook her head. "No, but somehow I'm not surprised."
"Well, why does he want to leave me then?" she whined angrily. "What did he tell you?" she demanded.
Cami sighed and let out a long breath. "He didn't tell me anything about you having an affair; you told me that just now. He didn't tell me that he was thinking of leaving you, you also told me that just now. I've already told you everything on my side of it. We met, we were together one night, we have a child. That's all I know. If your marriage has bigger problems than that, then it's news to me and it's not really my business.
“My business is that my baby's father is lying in that room in a medically induced coma because he was almost killed in a boating accident. That's my priority right now. If you have any other problems, they're going to have to wait. There are more important things going on right now."
She pushed past Denise who turned and stared at her, stunned. Cami walked back down the hall and into Roman's room where Janine was sitting in a chair with Emma.
She looked up at Cami when Cami came in the door. "Are you alright?" she asked curiously.
"I'm fine. Everything is fine. Let's focus on Roman." She walked over to the bed and took his hand in hers, just as Denise came rushing through the door.
She looked over at Roman lying there and her face distorted into disgust. "He looks terrible!" Then she saw that Cami was holding Roman's hand in hers.
"Let go of my husband!" she demanded in a loud angry whisper.
Cami didn't even look up at Denise. "I'm not letting go of him. I'm going to stay right here with him. He needs me, and that's all there is to it. He needs me, so I'm here and I'm staying. If you have a problem with it, you will have to work that out for yourself."
Denise gasped in a huff, looked at Janine, who just smiled back at her and shook her head. She started to scream but Cami flipped around and took a step toward her, startling her. "Be quiet and be supportive or leave. He doesn't need any ugliness in here right now."
Denise stared at Cami for a long moment, and Cami never blinked or even flinched.
After a few tense moments, Denise looked from Cami to Janine again and then turned on her heel and stalked out of the room.
Janine just chuckled to herself and played with Emma, and Cami turned back to Roman and took his hand in hers. She stayed there with him all through the night, and into the next day, before Janine insisted that she go home and try to get some sleep.
She finally relented and she and Janine took turns in shifts with him, staying beside him as he healed until the doctor decided it was time to wake him from his coma.
Chapter Six
Cami sat with Roman the day that his doctors were talking about waking him up. It was still early in the morning. She reached for her phone and saw a message from Cicely, so she called and her Mama picked up right away.
"How are you doing baby girl?" Mama asked.
Cami hadn't had a chance to talk to her mother, so she hadn't told her anything at that point because she didn't want to text it. As soon as her mother asked how she was doing, she felt her throat tighten and her stomach clench. She had held in so much emotion over the time she had been there with Roman in the hospital, and only when she heard her mother's voice did she feel as if she could let it all out and allow herself to release.
"Mama," she said quietly, "Roman's in the hospital. He was in a boat accident; his boat sank and he almost drowned, but he was rescued, and he's been at the hospital recovering ever since. The doctors have him in an induced coma so he can heal. It's been so hard. I've been here almost the whole time. His secretary Janine and I take turns being here with him so he's not alone."
Her Mama gasped and cooed to her. "Oh my Lord, honey, I'm so sorry to hear that. It's tragic news. What do the doctor's say about him recovering?"
Cami took a deep breath and let the stress out. "They say he is getting better. They're going to let him come out of his coma today. I'm so anxious for that. I can't wait for it to happen! It's been so hard sitting here watching him go through this."
Mama agreed with her. "I bet honey; that's the baby's father, and no matter how you two are getting on, it's always hard to deal with bad things that happen to the other parent of your child."
Cami decided to tell her Mama everything. "Well, that's not all, Mama. His wife came by the day he was brought in. Janine and I got here first and we were so worried about him, but she came in and she didn't even look at him at first. She found out about Emma and me and after that, all she wanted to do was yell at me and argue with me. She didn't even say anything about Roman. She admitted to me that she has been cheating on him and having an affair, and I guess she's worried that he's going to leave he
r.
"I'm only worried about him making it through this ordeal. She hasn't been back to see him, not even once since she left the first day he was here. I just can't believe her, Mama."
Her Mama made a disgusted sound on the other end of the phone. "What kind of woman is she?" Cicely wasn't asking, she was pondering it. "What have you been doing with the baby while you've been at the hospital? Has she been with you the whole time?"
"Yeah, she's been here with me and we've been looking after her daddy," Cami said softly. Emma was sleeping just then, nestled in her car seat. Cami smiled at her.
She heard her Mama hum thoughtfully. "I think you need some help, baby. I think I'll come down and give you a hand for a while. I can work from there for a couple of weeks. Are you moved into your condo yet or are you in the hotel still?"
Cami smiled wide. She was always glad to see her mother. "Oh Mama, really? I'd love that! I am still in the hotel. The condo is ready, but because we've been here at the hospital, I haven't had a chance to move in yet. That sort of got moved to the back burner. We're just focusing on Roman right now."
