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But showing up at St. Bart’s and pretending to by my twin sister is further than I’ve ever gone before. Something tells me that my father won’t be so quick to bail me out of my mess this time.
As soon as my actual identity is discovered, this is over. Everything I’ve done will have been for nothing.
I already have to hope that none of the hospital staff on this floor were around when the real Olivia came through here eight months ago. It would be hard to explain to medical professionals how all the damage she sustained has healed so quickly.
I set the clipboard aside and settle back into the scratchy pillows. If the nurse comes back in to get the paperwork, I’ll just claim that the medication left my mind too fuzzy to focus on them.
I won’t let myself think actively about Drake, even if an awareness of him seems to be constantly just on the edge of my thoughts. All it takes is a split second of weakness for an image of his face to swim across my vision.
Not thinking about him takes more work than ignoring the pain.
As I close my eyes, a surprising wave of fatigue passes over me. I can’t tell if I’m actually tired or if the medication is hitting me a little harder than I thought. The lack of control has always made me avoid the more illicit drugs in the past. This is the first time I’ve taken anything stronger than ibuprofen for pain.
Maybe I just want the temporary escape.
Blackness floats at the edge of my vision as I let sleep overtake me.
When I wake up, things probably won’t be any better, but I can at least hope that they won’t be any worse.
* * *
I snap awake quicker than I normally do. Probably because I was sedated, instead of actually asleep.
My eyes haven’t even cracked all the way open when I realize that I’m not alone.
The room is dark and quiet, or at least as quiet as hospital rooms ever get. Even though it’s still the middle of the night, I hear the footsteps of someone walking down the hallway outside my door and the slamming shut of a cabinet in the next room.
But it isn’t the noise that sets my nerves on edge.
Even when we’d barely met, Drake’s presence always felt like a physical thing. His aura or energy, whatever you want to call it, displaces the very air around him so you feel it press against your skin.
Drake is like a boulder falling with a splash into a still lake. The force of it sends crashing waves across the surface as it displaces all the water.
If Drake is the boulder, and this room is a lake, then I’m the weak swimmer just trying not to drown.
I don’t need to see him to know that he’s here.
I keep my breathing slow as I try to decide what to do and how to respond. Bringing the nurse into this won’t make it any better. If Drake is willing to sneak into my hospital room in the middle of the night, then this conversation is going to happen no matter what I do.
When I finally open my eyes, there isn’t any surprise in my gaze. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
His body shifts in the chair, the only indication that he heard me. A shaft of light from the window illuminates the hands he has clenched into fists.
It’s too dark for me to see his expression.
Seconds tick by as I squint at him in the darkness. I can feel his attention skate over me as he takes in the tubes and wires connected to my body.
“I could ask you the same thing. Evangeline.”
For a flashing second, I almost feel bad about how things have gone down. I’ve been lying to him from the first day that we met.
Then I remember what he did to me, and it’s easier to only focus on the anger.
My back aches with the tension in my body. “I’m on pretty good pain meds, but you’re the one who sounds looped.”
The menace in his posture is unmistakable, even though he doesn’t move from the chair. “I wonder what the penalties are for committing identity theft and fraud. Considering the circumstances, I doubt you can count on daddy to post any cash for your bail. It won’t be baby jail they send you to this time.”
A thrill runs through me. My juvenile record is sealed. Even if he knows my real name, Drake shouldn’t know anything about that.
