Chapter 26
“Summer?” I call out into the empty room, feeling stupid and ridiculous in the face of my panic.
I rush into the bathroom and slam the door open. “June!” I scream, feeling all my self–control disappear into thin air.
“Miss April!”
I rush back to the room where Lucy is, nervously playing with the end of her apron. “Where is she?” I demand. “What have you people done with my sister?!”
She shakes her head. “Master Nathan heard about her condition and he came and took her away himself.”
Dread settles in my stomach. “He…took her?” Because of me. Because of what I saw. He took her to ensure my silence.
Lucy nods. “Yes, they-”
A knock resounds on the door, and Lucy, who’s the closest to it, opens it. A guard stands there, his face blank when he says, “Master Nathan requires your presence at the infirmary.”
I blink. “What?”
Lucy turns back to me. “That’s what I was trying to tell you–Master Nathan took June to the infirmary.”
I don’t have time to ask questions or try to decipher Nathan’s motives further. I just turn to the stoic guard. “Take me to her.”
He turns away without another word, and I follow him through the hall, down the stairs, and out through an adjacent door. I almost scream at the guard to move faster but force myself to relax, not think the worst, and just move one step at a time.
He leads me out of the mansion and through the manicured lawn. Only when a small jagged piece of stone cuts into my bare foot do I remember that I discarded my shoes somewhere in the hall in my haste and didn’t bother to replace them.
But the pain doesn’t matter now, not when my sister is out of my sight and I don’t know how she is.
The guard leads me to another building a little ways away from the mansion, and the image of Nathan carrying small June in his arms through this path flashes through my mind. The infirmary is a large bungalow sprawled behind the mansion.
He inputs a code on the door, letting me know that not just anyone is allowed in here.
He leads me down a long, winding corridor and finally stops before a door.
“She’s in-
I don’t give him the time to finish his sentence, shouldering the door open with so much force that I stumble through.
I catch myself just in time to take in the large room. It’s like a typical hospital room–and there, on the bed, is June, still unconscious. There’s a blood pressure cuff on her left arm and an IV cannula in her right.
A middle–aged woman in a lab coat stands next to the bed, hanging a drip bag on a stand with a line connected to the cannula in June’s arm. And across the room, leaning against the wall next to a floating bookshelf, casually skimming through a book like he’s in a library, is Nathan Ashford.
The two conscious people in the room turn to me when I burst in, but my attention is solely on my sister. I rush to the bed and drop to my knees next to it.
“Summer?” I call out softly, reaching for her. Her skin is not as pale as earlier, and she doesn’t feel as hot. “Baby, are you okay?”
“She’s asleep,” the woman says, drawing my attention to her.
“What-” I scramble for something to say. “Who-”
“Doctor Penny Carter,” she introduces, her hand stretched out with a calm smile. I shake her hand, a little dazed that there’s a doctor in the Ashford estate who isn’t a complete asshole.
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12:41 PM p p.
Chapter 26
“Is she going to be okay?” I ask.
Doctor Penny nods. Underneath her lab coat, she’s wearing cotton shorts and a faded baggy T–shirt. Her auburn hair is in a messy braid down her back. Her outfit suggests that she was pulled out of bed to be here.
“Her blood sugar skyrocketed after the reaction, but I’ve given her the necessary dose of insulin to bring it down and I’ll continue to monitor her levels over the next twenty–four hours. I was also able to bring her fever down.” She points to the IV bag. “She just needs to finish these fluids and she’ll be fine.”
I sag with relief and almost collapse to the floor, but Doctor Penny catches me, steadying me.
“Thank you,” I breathe, feeling my throat close up with emotions. “Thank you so much.”
She glances over my shoulder at Nathan behind me before returning her gaze to me. She smiles reassuringly. “It’s my pleasure.”
She releases my arm and reaches into her coat pocket. She retrieves a white business card. “I’m Master Nathan’s personal doctor,” she tells me, handing me the card. “Feel free to reach out to me if anything changes before I return in the morning. But I’ll still be back tonight.”
I take the card from her, feeling a little weak and dizzy now that adrenaline isn’t coursing through my veins.
She glances down at my bare foot and winces. “Do you need me to look at that?”
I follow her gaze and blush. “No, that’s okay. It’s only a couple of scrapes; I’ll be fine. Thank you, doctor.”
She smiles. “Call me Penny.”
“Penny,” I whisper, my vision blurring slightly with tears. “Thank you.”
Her smile widens. “I’ll be back in a bit to take out the cannula and then she can go back to her room.” She squeezes my arm. “Your sister will be fine, you can quit worrying.”
She nods to Nathan, and then she’s gone.
As soon as the door closes, that irrational instinct that never lets me relax anytime I’m in close proximity to Nathan Ashford kicks in.
The room is suddenly too quiet, and the beeping sound of the blood pressure monitor echoes throughout.
Despite the overwhelming urge to hide from him, I force myself to turn. Nathan is still standing by the wall but no longer skimming through the book. I notice then that he’s no longer wearing his jacket and tie, and the sleeves of his white shirt are rolled up, exposing his muscular forearm.
He’s also no longer casually leaning. He’s standing straight–looking at me.
And those green eyes threaten to drown me in their intensity.
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