Young Revelations (Young Series)

by Kimble, W. R.

  I feel momentary triumph when annoyance flashes through her eyes. “You’re so clueless, Samantha,” she says quietly. “All those times I went to see him in his office. All the times I was on my knees for him while he was on the phone with you…” I feel the color draining from my face. “He begged me over and over again to do the things to him that you wouldn’t. He’s only marrying you because of that baby of yours; why would he want you otherwise? You’re nothing.”

  That’s it… “Get the fuck out!” I scream at the top of my lungs, unable to control my reaction or pay attention to my blood pressure shooting up or the monitors I’m hooked up to as the alarms go off. “I swear to God, if you come near my family again, I will fucking kill you!”

  She opens her mouth to retort, looking pleased at my reaction, and the door to my room bursts open revealing Dr. Reilly and a couple of nurses. They take in the situation, glancing between Natalie and me, and for the first time since meeting him, I see Dr. Reilly’s expression harden in anger. “Get out,” he barks at Natalie before turning to the nurses. “Call security. She is to be removed and if she returns, she will be arrested for trespassing.”

  Natalie rolls her eyes, smirks at me one last time, and turns to walk away. She brushes up against my doctor who steps away from her, watching her leave.

  “I’ll be back in a moment,” he tells me softly before following the procession from my room.

  As they disappear, I feel the tears return, though now they’re angry tears. How the fuck did she even get in here? Why was she here other than to torment me? I roll my eyes at myself; of course that’s the reason she was here. All throughout my life, I’ve been taught not to use the word hate towards somebody unless I truly meant it. Well, I’ve never felt such hatred towards another person until right this moment, and it disgusts me. She disgusts me. And so do the images she’s left in my head. How long has this been going on? I honestly don’t know how much more of this I can take without completely losing it.

  I have to keep myself calm. Somehow, I manage it, rubbing my belly and breathing deeply, and by the time Dr. Reilly returns, I think I’ve gotten myself under control.

  “Are you okay?” he asks me, coming to stand right beside me. He reaches out to check my temperature and his touch to my forehead has an incredibly calming effect on me.

  I manage to nod, suddenly feeling embarrassed over the situation. “I’m sorry about that,” I mumble.

  “Don’t be,” he says kindly, sitting down in the chair beside me and smiling. “It definitely was not your fault. I’m just glad we heard the commotion when we did or that woman might have been in physical danger.”

  I snort a derisive laugh, rolling my eyes. “There’s no might have; I was about to jump out of this bed,” I tell him.

  He nods as though he understands the situation completely. “I’m glad you didn’t; you might have gotten yourself hurt and we can’t let that happen. At least, not while you’re under my care,” he says smoothly, winking a big blue eye at me.

  Chuckling, I manage a smile.

  “I’m just going to assume she is not a friend of yours, not an approved guest and detrimental to your health.” He doesn’t wait for my nod of confirmation. “She’s banned from the hospital. It doesn’t matter if she’s on death’s door; she won’t be readmitted into this building while you’re here.”

  I wonder whether he’s exaggerating; I wasn’t aware hospitals could refuse any patients, but I have no intention of questioning it.

  Dr. Reilly hesitates. “Would you like me to call Claire for you?” he asks gently.

  I shake my head. “No. Thank you. I can wait until morning to tell her about this. She’d show up looking for someone to blame and none of the other patients would get any rest tonight.”

  He laughs. “Fair enough,” he says, his eyes crinkling in amusement. Sighing, he glances at his wristwatch and looks back to me reluctantly. “I have to finish my rounds before my shift ends.” He stands up, looking between me and the door as though he’s debating something. “If you’d like, I can come back at the end of my shift and keep you company…”

  My eyes widen in surprise at his very tentative offer. “You don’t have to do that,” I insist quickly without even thinking. “Really, I’m okay.”

  He smiles slightly. “It’d be no trouble, truly,” he says. “I’m on call tonight anyway and experience tells me if I were to go home, I’d just end up returning within the hour, so I was considering just sleeping in the on-call room. It wouldn’t be a bother to spend it with you instead, if you wanted someone to talk to.”

  I can’t deny his offer is incredibly tempting. A very small part of me is reminds myself that I’m engaged, carrying my fiancé’s baby, and that said fiancé is in another country. The rest of me is quick to beat that part of me into submission with the memories of what my fiancé has done, and how his mistress was just in here giving me even more images that I’ll never get out of my head. Then of course, there is the doctor/patient relationship line that might be blurred if I were to accept the offer. But if his shift is over and he’s not on-duty while he’s here… The draw of having company wins out over everything else, and I hear myself agreeing. Dr. Reilly grins widely and promises a timely return, then tells me to sleep if I need to and he’ll leave me be.

  Alone again, I calmly think over the recent events of my evening. I should get a message to Claire about Natalie being here. Or perhaps even contact Matthew and inform him he needs to keep his girlfriend away from me, but I do neither. At least for tonight, I’ve got a friend in Dr. Reilly, and I can relax with that knowledge.

  True to his word, within an hour, Dr. Reilly returns and I’m suddenly wide-awake. He’s freshly showered, his hair still wet, and dressed casually in a dark t-shirt with the faded name of a band I don’t know and jeans. I think I forget how to breathe momentarily when he smiles at me.

  “You’re still awake,” he says brightly.

  I can only nod in response.

  “Hope you don’t mind, but I didn’t get dinner tonight…” He gestures slightly at a paper bag in his hand.

  “No,” I say quickly. “Not at all.”

  He sits at the small table beside my bed and unpacks his dinner, and I notice the tray of drinks he pulls out first. “I thought after the excitement this evening, you might like a bit of comfort food,” he says, looking shy. “I hope you like chocolate shakes. They’re the best in the county…”

  “I love chocolate shakes,” I assure him, accepting the large styrofoam cup and a straw. “Thank you.”

  He winks again, and starts to eat his meal. Before his arrival, I wasn’t sure how awkward this would be, considering we really know nothing about each other aside from he’s a doctor and I’m a patient who needs to have visitors forcibly removed from her hospital room, but the conversation seems to flow easily. Nothing life altering, just general chitchat. He reveals his only housemate at home is a black lab named Finn. Like any proud parent, he of course has photos on hand.

  “He’s gorgeous, Dr. Reilly,” I gush, handing back the photo.

  The doctor frowns slightly at me. “I’m off-duty, Samantha,” he reminds me gently. “You can call me Mark if you like.”

  Oh, I do like… I’m inwardly rolling my eyes at myself and blushing. “Then you can call me Sam,” I reply. “If you like.”

  He chuckles and nods, returning his attention to finishing his meal. “How old is your son?” he asks, sometime later, leaning back in his chair comfortably.

  “He just turned six,” I say. “Though there are moments he acts much older than that.”

  Mark grins. “He’s very small,” he comments, his voice on the edge of concern. I suppose as a doctor, he’s accustomed to looking at a person and noting anything that might be off about them.

  “He is,” I confirm. “He was a preemie.”

  “Ah,” Mark says in understanding. “How early, if you don’t mind my asking?”

  I probably should mind, but I
really don’t. “Three months,” I say simply. “And he’s been impatient every second since.”

  He chuckles at my words, but his concern returns. “So I suppose this hospital visit has you very concerned about this pregnancy,” he says as though he’s speaking his thoughts out loud. I nod slightly. “I did see in your chart that Tyler was early, but three months isn’t something to let slide. How’s his health?”

  I smile wryly. I think this just turned into a doctor’s visit. “Perfectly healthy. He had some lung development issues as a baby, but once that passed, he hasn’t had any trouble. He’s my little miracle.”

  “I can see that. He’s a very handsome little boy. Looks just like you.”

  And there’s the blushing again… “He looks more like his father, actually,” I amend, “but thank you.”

  Mark sits up slightly in his chair, cocking his head to the side. “I hadn’t wanted to ask, and please tell me if it’s none of my business, but I’ve noticed your husband hasn’t come to visit…”

  I’m sure a lot of people have noticed that. I know I have. “I’m not married,” I tell him.

  His eyebrows shoot up and his gaze darts almost reflexively towards my left hand. “Oh,” he says in surprise. “My apologies, I just assumed…”

  “Don’t worry about it,” I say dismissively. “We’re engaged, and no, he hasn’t been around. He’s in Germany on business right now.”

  “Well, I still apologize. Claire refers to you as her sister-in-law,” he explains.

  I smile and nod. “It’s a bit complicated,” I say. Though, he doesn’t seem to expect me to expand on that, I hear myself explaining anyway. “Matt and I met years ago and fell in love. We got married, had Tyler. Circumstances intervened, and we divorced. Five years later, circumstances intervened again. We’re back together, engaged, and expecting our second child.”

  Putting it like that, the situation seems unbelievable and almost ridiculous. But it’s the best way to describe it without getting into all the grim details.

  “Wow,” Mark says, his eyebrows rising again. “He must be something special if you’re giving him a second chance.”

  “Yeah,” I agree. “He is.” And now I’m sad again, recalling everything else that’s happened so recently. “We’re not really speaking at the moment. The woman you evicted earlier is an ex-girlfriend and I recently found out they’ve been seeing each other again.”

  He frowns deeply at that. “I see,” he murmurs, shaking his head. “I’m sorry to hear that. Anyone who does that to the woman they love is a fool. And anyone who does that to someone like you doesn’t realize what he has.”

  I look at him in surprise at the empathy behind his words. This isn’t a doctor speaking to his patient; this is one person talking to another and I’m only now realizing how much I needed an impartial party to confide in. I love Claire and I wouldn’t trade her for the world, but at the end of the day, she is Matthew’s baby sister, and she’s going to take his side, despite how much of a dick she thinks he’s being. Though I’m not sure what Mark might mean by someone like me, I have the impression I should be flattered, especially with the way he’s looking at me. That’s how Matthew looked at me when we first met, before we’d ever gone out for coffee that night. It’s an expression I couldn’t identify at the time, but one that told me he was immediately infatuated with me. I never forgot about that expression, and I don’t remember the last time he looked at me in that way. Months? Years? Has he looked at me like that since we’ve been back together? I’d thought so, but now, seeing it on another man’s face, I’m second-guessing myself.

  In the next moment, Mark blinks and breaks our gaze, changing the subject to inconsequential things, and eventually I begin to drift off. The last thing I see before falling asleep is the fond, sweet smile on Mark’s face, and the last thing I feel is his hand gently resting on mine. I don’t know when that happened. I should probably shake his hand off, but I don’t think I have the strength or desire to do so.

  This might be a problem.

  12

  When I open my eyes, the room is full of light, and I realize it’s morning. I glance over to my right where I last remember seeing Mark, and notice his chair is empty. For a moment, I think I might have imagined last night altogether, until I see the empty cup from the chocolate shake he brought me. At once, I’m disappointed he’s gone and that I didn’t get to see him again when I woke up, and guilty for spending the night with another man. I know it’s not the same as what happened between Matthew and Natalie, and that it probably only happened because Natalie was here last night and I was upset and he felt sorry for me. The problem is I can try and convince myself of that all day long, but deep down, I know that some kind of connection has been forged between us.

  A clearing of a throat snaps me out of my thoughts, and I turn my head to find Claire sitting on my other side, her arms and legs crossed, her expression rather grim. “Morning, sunshine,” she says quietly and without her usual smile. “Sleep well?”

  Knowing Claire as well as I do, I know this is a trick question. “Morning,” I repeat. “How long have you been here?”

  “About an hour or so,” she tells me. “Saw your doctor.”

  “Oh?”

  She nods. “The two of you seemed nice and cozy,” she says evenly. “Fast asleep, him holding your hand… It was a very Kodak moment, and I almost took a picture because it was so cute. Then I realized what was wrong.”

  I sigh heavily. “Claire, it’s not what you think.”

  “Funny,” she says coldly. “That’s what Matt said to me after he saw that video.”

  I flinch, immediately understanding her anger at the scene she walked in on this morning. “It really wasn’t like that,” I insist. “He dropped by after his shift because I was really upset and he offered to call you, but I didn’t want to bother you in the middle of the night. So he offered to sit with me for a while. We were talking. I honestly have no recollection of him grabbing my hand, and I know it looked bad, but…” I trail off, uncertain how to continue.

  “Why were you upset?” she asks, her tone softening considerably.

  Regardless of knowing I need to tell her what happened, I’m hesitant to do it while she’s so irritated. But if I know her at all, there’s no chance of her dropping the subject until she gets the truth. “I woke up a few hours after you and Ty left, and Natalie was here.”

  “What?” she shouts, jumping up from her chair. “What do you mean, Natalie was here? What the fuck was she doing here?”

  I shake my head, shrugging. I’m still trying to figure that out. “Other than to torment me about her relationship with Matt, I honestly don’t know,” I tell her. “We had words. She said things I really don’t feel like discussing. I shouted, Dr. Reilly and several nurses rushed in, and she was not so gently escorted out. I was informed that she wouldn’t get back in here even if she’s breathing her last breath, and that was it.”

  “Fucking bitch,” Claire spits. I nod my agreement. “It’s not enough you’re in here, and you nearly lost your baby because of what she and Matt did; now she’s got to pull this shit? She’d better fucking hope I don’t run into her again.”

  I hide a smile as Claire switches from annoyed at what she saw this morning to protective mama bear in a flash of a second. And I’m glad she wasn’t here last night when Natalie showed up; she’d probably be in jail right now. “I don’t think she’ll be back,” I assure Claire. “And believe me, I’m first in line to beat the shit out of her if I ever see her again.”

  “I bet you are,” she says, finally grinning and sitting down again. It takes a few moments, but I see the teasing glint return to her eyes. “So… You and Dr. Hottie.”

  I glare at her, which only makes her laugh. “Stop it,” I say sternly.

  This only antagonizes her further. “I mean, I can certainly understand the draw,” she says fairly. “And I know my brother is attractive, but the good doctor… He’s an incredibly b
eautiful specimen. I think I’m a little jealous.”

  “I hate you so much right now,” I tell her, grinning.

  “No you don’t,” she says confidently. “You fucking adore me, and you know it.” She sighs then hesitates for a moment. “Look, the only thing I’m going to say about it is I’m glad he was here for you last night, and I know you’re in a very vulnerable position right now, whether you admit it or not,” she adds as I open my mouth to protest. “But I also know you still love Matthew desperately, and you still want to see if there is a way to work this mess out. Don’t do something you’re going to regret, Samantha. Eye for an eye might sound like a good idea, but I know you. You’ll feel guilty every second until the day you die.”

  “I’m not going to do anything,” I promise her. “If anything, I’ve made a friend.” I feel a jolt of guilt that tells me I’m not admitting the entire truth. It doesn’t matter. Until I figure out what’s going on between Matthew and me, I still consider myself engaged-to-be married to the man I love.

  “Good,” she replies firmly, patting my hand. “I’d hate to have to disown you.” I snort a laugh. “How about some breakfast before Dr. Hot—oh, sorry, Dr. Reilly—comes to do his rounds?”

  I let my head fall back onto my pillow as she laughs proudly at herself. She’s never going to let me live this down.

  ––––-o––––-

  Since the discovery Marcus made about the couch in the video, I’ve been in a much better mood. Though I’m aware I still need to convince Samantha of the truth, at least now it seems possible that she’ll believe me rather than thinking the very worst of me. At this point, I’m desperately hoping I can fix our relationship; I don’t know what I’ll do otherwise. It’s only been a few days since I’ve seen her, and I can’t remember ever missing her so much. Granted, those few days have been among the longest of my life what with the video, her admittance to the hospital, and this investigation and hearing that is keeping me away from her, but all I want right now is to be home with her and my son.