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With my mind focused on Isabella, I ignore the pain and head back into the hospital. Ernesto strides after me down an empty hallway. When we round the corner, I find a tall doctor with salt and pepper in his hair talking to Anita. Next to him is a young blonde woman who has a clipboard clutched to her chest and a wide-eyed look on her face. My heart is pounding again as I make my way over to Anita and offer the doctor a curt nod.
“This is her fiancé, doctor,” Anita interrupts with a quick gesture in my direction. “I’m sorry, but can you please repeat what you said?”
“Isabella was in distress. Her blood pressure was dangerously low, so we had to deliver the baby. Isabella should be out of surgery soon, but the doctors are still working on the baby.”
It feels like the breath has been knocked out of me.
“But she’s too small,” I protest loudly. “And it’s early.”
“A lot of preemies survive even if they’ve been born at seven months—”
“Preemie?”
“Premature baby,” the young blonde answers after a quick look at her clipboard. “She’s in the NICU right now, and our pediatrician is working on her.”
“Who are you?”
“This is Dr. Stevens. She’s part of the group of medical students who just graduated. She’s assisting me today, and in some cases, she’s the one performing the procedures—”
I take a step forward and curl my hands into fists at my side. “You let this child operate on my fiancée?”
“This is a teaching hospital,” Dr. Mullins continues in the same even voice. “Your fiancée was never in any danger, and I was monitoring Dr. Stevens the whole time. Even as she took your daughter out and put her into an incubator—”
“You let her operate on my fiancée and on my daughter?”
Dr. Mullins stops talking and draws himself up to his full height. “Mr. Blackthorne, I can assure you—”
I close the distance between us, and Dr. Mullins takes an involuntary step back. “Assure me what? That you were fucking there to make sure she learned on my fiancée? Like she’s some kind of goddamn guinea pig? And if that’s not bad enough, you let her touch my newborn daughter?”
Dr. Mullins frowns. “Mr. Blackthorne, I can assure you they’re receiving the best care possible. There’s no need to get all worked up.”
“I’ll get as worked up as I want,” I snap, pausing to give the younger doctor a warning look, which she shrinks back from. “She barely looks like she’s out of high school, and you let her operate on the two most important people in my life. How the fuck do you think I’m supposed to feel?”
Because right now, I feel like I’m dangerously close to being hauled out of the hospital, kicking and screaming. I’m too close to slamming someone against the nearest well. All because of the incompetent idiot standing before me, who decided that using Isabella as a teaching tool was far more important than treating her.
I’m bristling and shaking with fury when Daniel and Tristan come in and immediately head over to where I’m standing. Dr. Stevens’ lower lip is trembling, and she looks close to tears when Daniel places a hand on my arm and drags me away. I hear Anita and Sam make apologies and excuses for me, but I can barely make out what they’re saying.
Other than the dull ringing in my ears, nothing else seems to make sense. Not the fact that Isabella and our daughter are in the hospital. Or the fact that I survived Remy Donahue trying to beat me to a pulp. And not the fact that I’m the one walking around while Isabella is in a hospital bed.
Why does this keep happening to me?
Daniel keeps dragging me until we push our way through the double doors and into the half-empty parking lot outside. Underneath a flickering streetlamp, he stops and takes his hand off my arm. Through narrowed eyes, I stare at him and debate whether or not it would feel good to punch him.
To wipe that smug, self-assured smirk off his face. It has to be better than taking my anger out on the medical staff in charge of Isabella’s well-being.
I take a step in Daniel’s direction, but he doesn’t flinch. “What are you even doing here?”
“Anita called me. We’re still family, Carter. No matter our disagreements and differences. I wanted to be here for you, Isabella, and the baby.”
“And your idea of being here is dragging me away?”
“You were seconds away from punching her doctor, and you made his intern cry,” Daniel points out in the same calm voice. “I did you a favor.”
“I’m not rolling out the fucking welcome parade,” I snap, pausing to run a hand over my face. “He’s a fucking idiot who thinks Isabella is some kind of guinea pig. He needs to be taught a lesson.”
Daniel blows out a breath. “And what’s your solution here, Carter? Are you going to storm into the hospital and pummel him? Or go after his medical staff?”
I give Daniel my most withering stare, but he doesn’t budge an inch. “It’s better than standing out here and talking. What good is that going to do?”
