Petal nodded, clasped her hands and placed them on the wooden desk. “I was so disappointed when we received the letter declining the scholarship package that I put together specifically for you.”
Temple’s head whipped away from the painting and her gaze latched on to Petal. “What letter?”
Petal blinked several times, pursed her lips, then left the desk and went to the bottom drawer of a metal filing cabinet. She took several moments, then retrieved a slim manila folder that was a little worse for wear, and slid the contents across the desk. Temple scanned an unfamiliar document with a very familiar signature. Though the art school had given her a full ride in combination with a private school and a host parent, her mother had sent in a letter stating that Temple had decided not to accept and would continue with a normal course of study.
Further notes on the file showed that Petal had attempted to reach out several more times over the years and … all calls were not returned. Sharon had told Temple that they had retracted the offer because they wanted to give the scholarship to someone who had more promising talent as they were mistaken about Temple and her prospects. Donny and Ebbie, with the help of Ms. Crenshaw, had managed to send several of Temple’s paintings to the school, believing that her talent would be the way to get her out from under Sharon Liscell and her latest husband. Every time they tried, someone had blocked their efforts.
Once again, her mother had lied. And that, too, had changed the trajectory of Temple’s life and served a vicious blow to her thoughts of following in her father’s footsteps. That lie had kept Temple tethered to that house, instead of being moved to a safer space as her siblings intended.
Tendrils of fear overcame her the moment Curtis stepped closer to her bed. His scent made her lightheaded and ready to lose that scrumptious breakfast she’d consumed.
“Do not come near me again,” she warned them once more.
Sharon’s face darkened with anger. “You’re going to need me long before I’ll ever need you,” she threatened.
“I certainly hope life doesn’t work that way,” Temple replied, tipping over to the chair. “With everything else you did to me, correction—let them do to me, if you were on fire, I’d pour some gasoline to keep the party going.”
Curtis gave her a lingering look and swept out behind Sharon, who had stormed from the room.
Temple addressed the nurse, who stood against one wall. “Jennifer, I know with all this drama, you all are ready for me to go.”
“Honey, we are not trying to see you get up out of here,” Nurse Jennifer said, glaring at Curtis’s retreating form.
“Why?” Temple asked, mystified.
“We’re getting spoiled,” Jennifer said with a grin. “Mr. Maharaj sends each one of us thank you notes, flowers, and the entire wing and staff gets breakfast from Batter & Berries, lunch from Dixie Kitchen, and dinner from Miss Mabel’s Jamaican Joint every day. We had to bring in a nutritionist to approve your meals. Kind of helps that she slides through every day for a plate along with everyone else. We have to fight off co-workers from the other floors.” Jennifer assisted Temple to the chair closest to the window overlooking the gardens. “Not that we’re looking at it as a bribe or anything, but we’ve never experienced this level of appreciation from anyone. Ever. Found out that he has a standing order for the food and gifts to continue for months after you check out. We don’t take that lightly. Some of us are even considering coming to work for him when all of his affairs get sorted out.”
“Affairs?” Temple said, trying to remember if she’d seen a ring on his finger. “What affairs?”
“Oh, not those kind of affairs,” Jennifer said with a laugh. “I’m talking about the situation that landed you in this hospital in the first place. He’s been hard at work about finding out who did this to you.”
Temple mulled that over, along with some of the information she’d been able to glean on the iPad that Jaidev had bought for her to use. “It has to be one of the male employees, right?”
“So that’s why he paraded those guys in here a few days ago?”
“Yes, I asked him to do that,” Temple replied. And all but two of them had complied, against her doctor’s wishes and their lawyer’s advice. Temple had asked to be blindfolded. None of them smelled remotely like the man whose scent she would never forget as long as she lived.
“You are his top priority right now. And the baby,” Nurse Jennifer said, snapping Temple back to the present. “You know, he’s here every second he can, in the nursery. Holding her, singing to her, and talking to her.” Her smile widened. “He’s going to make some woman an excellent husband and be an awesome father to any child.”
Yes, a lot better father than Temple would ever be a mother. No way in hell did she want a reminder of what had been done to her.
No way. No how.
CHAPTER 9
Jai leaned back in his chair, fixing his attention on Big Red. “At least she has a point of view that’s based in reality and not revenge.”
Big Red’s ivory face turned a shade that lived up to her nickname. “You know what?” she spat, getting to her feet. “I’m going to let you two hash things out.” She gave a dismissive wave of her hand before she gathered her things. “We can at least put in the report that he voiced his dissent. It won’t change anything. Make sure he understands that.”
Jai waited until Big Red and Amos cleared the room before focusing on Marilyn Spears. Honestly, he liked the woman’s perspective, but he couldn’t work with her agenda, especially since she was on the other side of the fence from him.
He checked the phone and saw a note from Nurse Jennifer giving an update on Baby M. Every moment he wasn’t at Chetan, the new center site or at the Castle, he’d been at the hospital with Temple, and in the nursery holding the baby as Temple had not laid eyes on her since delivery.
He, along with everyone else, kept thinking she would come around. Unfortunately, she was adamant about having nothing to do with the child. Seeing how she was struggling to put her life together was inspirational. The only fly in the ointment was her aversion to the baby. Understandable, but still painful.
“I get it,” he said to Marilyn. “You’re not trying to provoke, simply providing food for thought. And what was your background again?”
“I was a pharmacist many years and a researcher-liaison before I put in for a position with the Bureau.” She tilted her head, peering at him. “But I truly appreciate what you’ve accomplished here. It’s admirable on so many levels.”
“Then you’ll understand when I tell you that the only pills our patients receive are ones that are absolutely necessary,” Jai said. “We monitor their vitals and blood work—everything. Test them for allergies so we know what works for them and against them. Our focus is on healing, preventative care—not on how much we can rake in before we put patients in the poor house or the grave.”
Eyes narrowed, she said, “That was a low blow.”
“Well, since you feel that I’m going so low, I might as well hit a little higher up on the below the belt scale.” He gestured to the bracelet. “Riddle me this, Bat Woman.”
“There was never a Bat Woman,” she said, with a wide smile as she lovingly fingered the charm she didn’t realize had identified something she probably would have preferred to keep secret.
“Yes. I always wondered about that, too.” Jai leaned against the wall near the window. “And my earlier assertion wasn’t a low blow, it’s the truth,” he shot back. “People are dying because they can’t afford insulin, or even allergy medicine.”
“On that, we can agree,” she said.
“So, yes, we’ve been a problem for the industry for a hot minute. But that isn’t what any of this is about. He’s pulling your strings, and you’re letting him, too. I can tell you have a problem with it. You need to work on your poker face.”
Marilyn flinched, but a small smile played about her lips. “I’ve been with the Bureau for nearly twenty years, I can
retire in a few more. This is the job, whether I like it or not.”
Jai assessed her for a moment. “Politics aside, let me ask you this.” He left the window to perch on the edge of the desk, so he was a few inches from her. “Of all the places you’ve investigated over the years, if anything happened to you or one of your loved ones … where would you—or them—want to be?”
Marilyn snatched up her belongings, and made her way toward the door. Then she paused as though giving his words some thought. She looked at him over her shoulder. “On a personal level, I mean it when I say that I admire what you’re doing, Mr. Maharaj,” she said. “I’ll give you that. But we have laws in place—and regulations for a reason. Everyone can’t just go off and do their own thing. We’d have chaos.”
Jai moved from the edge of the desk. “I do follow each and every protocol that is in place. I’m not trying to get around any of that. I simply want something better for my patients. This society disregards the elderly and children, the disabled rates up there, too. No one considers that they, themselves, could be disabled.” He snapped his fingers. “In a split second.”
Jai pulled up the remote and flicked it so that the screen on the back wall projected his latest numbers related to the success rate at Chetan. “Somebody has to do things a little different, otherwise the health and well-being of America as a whole will decrease to the point that only pills and potions will be considered the norm for everything.”
Marilyn scanned the screen taking in the text and images, before releasing a resigned sigh. “I will help you as much as I can, but you have to know this goes above my pay grade. When those results come back and one of your men has been found liable—you can forget all of those plans. Doing something different is admirable but not when you’re under fire from the very establishment who licensed and still regulates you.”
“I don’t say anything or speak out on their methods,” Jai protested, miffed that she would take that stance.
“You don’t have to.” She gestured toward the screen. “Your actions say it for you. And you don’t even publish papers or hold any kind of symposium to share your findings so that others could be included.”
Jai closed the distance between them, taking in the emblem on her bracelet, trying to recall where he had seen a similar one recently. “Does that mean I shouldn’t do it at all? Or that no one should try? I’m trying to perfect a method and make sure it actually works before I put it in the public domain. And it’s hard for me to do anything where every success is seen as suspect.”
Jai took a calming breath and lowered his tone. “The bigger question is why would the industry want to ply us with one drug after another, rather than finding ways for people to live healthy, wonderful lives without costing them an arm, a leg and a couple of toes.” Jai stroked the bracelet she wore, as a memory clicked into place. “And maybe you can answer one other question.”
She stepped back, suspicion clouding her eyes. “And that is?”
“How long have you been sleeping with Hiram Fosten?”
CHAPTER 10
The room in which Temple lay was overcrowded with bodies, and Jai hoped the place would empty out sooner, rather than later.
Terri Ann Rayford the social worker who reached out to him the moment Temple decided she wasn’t leaving the hospital with Baby M, turned an expectant gaze on him. The nurses had christened the sweet infant Baby M for the first letter in his last name.
Jai threaded one hand through his hair as his chest expanded with a deep breath. He had weighed all the options and the best scenario he could come up with was . . .
“I will take her,” he said to the nurse whose forlorn expression also signaled long-held frustration with Temple Devaughn.
He repeated his words and a lengthy silence followed, along with shared looks of surprise from Ms. Rayford, Nurse Jennifer, and Nurse Donisha.
They had called him to talk some sense into Temple, but he already knew and understood her stance. He didn’t have to agree. Her position on this mattered a great deal. To force her to take the child was equally as damning as the action taken to impregnate her in the first place.
“This happened because …” He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. I will care for the little one.”
Since he had been the one in the nursery several times a day, crooning to her, promising her that everything would be all right, he had to follow through on that part of his promise. He couldn’t do any of the above if she went into an already overwhelmed foster care system. Jai didn’t have the best relationship with his father, and he definitely wanted to be certain this little one did. Given the violent way she’d been brought into this world, he could at least ensure that the rest of her existence wouldn’t impact her in a negative way. Healing for both mother and child was paramount, and that meant they might live apart.
“There are channels that we have to go through,” Ms. Rayford said, adjusting her documents so they were stacked in a neat, orderly pile on a table in one corner of the room. “And personally, I think you’re too close to this situation to be a good placement.”
“Is the place you’re aiming to take her planning on caring for her for the rest of her life?”
She grimaced as though trying not to see the logic and simplicity of what he offered. “Mr. Maharaj, I can’t make any guarantees about that.”
“Go through whatever paperwork you have to in order to make this happen,” he said, rocking the baby gently in his arms. “My background check and fingerprints are already on file with the Illinois Department of Health and Human Services.” He stroked the baby’s back, then patted her back gently three times. She answered with a hearty burp.
“Oooooh. All right judges, what’s your call?”
Nurse Jennifer held up eight fingers. Nurse Donisha held up six. Temple’s hands slowly snaked upward for five, and Ms. Raye shook her head and put up six fingers and smiled.
“Well, that’s a solid seven,” he teased and nearly everyone in the room laughed. Even Temple who graced him with a smile as she looked on. He smiled back and he could swear she blushed.
“I don’t want her to end up in the system—even for a short period of time,” he said to Ms. Rayford and two of the nurses sighed with relief. “When things are clear, we’ll arrange a private adoption.”
“This is highly irregular.” Ms. Rayford glanced at Temple, who was struggling to keep a neutral expression.
“He has my consent,” Temple said folding her hands and dropping them on her stomach. “I’ll sign whatever you need so he can have the baby.”
Ms. Rayford snatched up a yellow legal pad and scribbled a few notes. “The father needs to consent as well.”
Jai’s head whipped up. “The father is a rapist,” he countered, barely able to keep a civil tone. “He doesn’t get a say.”
Temple adjusted to a sitting position and nodded as Jai held out his free hand and she quickly grasped it. “The moment they find out who that monster is, he’ll be going to prison. He’ll never get his hands on her. I trust Mr. Maharaj with her.”
“But isn’t he also under …?” The social worker peered at their conjoined hands, then flickered a gaze between Temple and Jai as though working out details in her mind. “I’ll look into it. For now, I need to tear up this paperwork,” she said, holding up a set of documents that would have committed Baby M to an uncertain future.
Jai had heard enough stories over the course of his short career to know Baby M already had a rough start and placing her with family after family would not be a good thing. One of the reasons he started Chetan straight out of the medical rotation was to give a better placement for patients that fit a narrow criteria.
“Sounds good to me.” Temple glanced at Jai, who reluctantly allowed the nurse to lift the sleeping baby from his arms. “We’ll do something private.”
“I’m still going to run another background check just in case,” Ms. Rayford said and her tone was far from happy, more like resigned to a situa
tion that was out of her control.
“That’s fine,” Jai said.
“Whatever,” Temple offered in a dismissive tone that had become her norm.
Nurse Ashley tipped in, slid the baby from her fellow nurse’s arms, frowned and moved toward the bed. “Don’t you at least want to … at least once?”
“No, I don’t want to see her,” Temple replied, turning her head, but there was a break in her voice. “Just … just please take her and go.”
Jai gave the nurse a warning look—and not for the first time. This one, more than the others, was having a hard time with Temple’s stance when it came to Baby M. Nurse Jennifer had schooled the others on the situation, but he’d have to insist that Nurse Ashley be kept away from Temple because the warnings had gone in one ear and slid out the other.
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