Page 35 of The Billionaire's Virgin

“I’ll go right over.”

“Thank you,” I whispered, unsure if she had even heard me before I cut the line.

The flight attendant had disappeared, and I was thankful. I hadn’t meant to be rude, but my nerves were already frayed, and I couldn’t find it in me to be polite or pleasant. I had a five-hour flight back to New York, and I knew that it would take me another hour to get to the hospital from the airport. I wasn’t planning on making any stops once I landed in New York.

The flight was nothing short of torture. I sat there, braced in an upright position that only increased my sense of profound tension. I couldn’t eat or drink a thing, and the whole time my mind kept going over all the things that could go wrong on the operating table. The doctor I had spoken to had seemed confident and competent, but it had been a five-minute conversation and doctors were fallible too.

Since Taylor hadn’t answered her phone, I had no way of knowing what was happening. I felt blind and helpless, and my mind was creating new prisms of torture that I couldn’t seem to break from. When we finally landed, I all but pushed myself to the front of the line in order to be the first one out of the plane. I sprinted through the airport and didn’t even bother to check out my luggage.

I headed straight for the exit and ran towards the taxi stand. The line looked three miles long, and I ended up having to bribe myself to the front of the queue. It was all worth it when I jumped into the next taxi cab and barked out the name of the hospital I needed to get to. Despite the rush hour traffic, I managed to get to the hospital in thirty–eight minutes, which I considered a win.

I overpaid the driver because I couldn’t be bothered waiting for him to give me change and then I sprinted into the hospital and rushed to the information counter. I was given Jenna’s room number and told that she had been wheeled into a private room a few hours ago. Her surgery had gone well; and she just needed to be monitored for a few days till her scars healed a little.

With that in mind, I allowed myself to take a small breath, and then I headed up to Jenna’s room. I rushed into the room and took one look at Jenna lying on the hospital bed. She was sleeping soundly, but she was hooked up to several different wires and tubes. She looked so small and fragile that my heart broke at the sight. I went straight to her bedside and put my hand on hers. I was aware that there were other people in the room, but for the moment it was just Jenna and I and everything else faded away.

After a few minutes, I took a deep breath and turned around. Jennifer and Taylor were both standing there, watching me. Jennifer looked subdued and melancholy and Taylor looked terrified. I noticed her face was streaked with tears and the pity that gripped me initially was quickly overrun by other, less gracious emotions.

“Reed, have you spoken with the doctor—”

“I spoke to one of Jenna’s nurses,” I said, speaking directly to Jennifer. “I know Jenna’s going to be all right.”

“Oh, that’s good.” Jennifer nodded. “Then you’ll know that Jenna’s expected to make a full recovery. She was really strong during surgery. The doctor said she was a champ.”

I was about to say something when Taylor took a step forward. “Reed—”

“Don’t!” I said, surprising even myself with the ferocity of that one singular word.

Taylor froze in place, and even Jennifer jerked back at the venom in my voice. I looked towards Jenna and kept my tone low so as not to disturb her. Then I turned back to Taylor, and I could tell she saw the frigidity in my expression.

“You are very, very lucky that I’m not going to press criminal charges,” I said, even though the thought had not even crossed my mind until that very moment.

Taylor stopped short and looked at me in shock. I saw her breath come heavily and I knew she hadn’t expected that.

“Reed, please,” she said. “Please let me explain—”

“Explain what?” I demanded angrily. Despite my anger, I kept my voice down, but there was no mistaking the threat in my voice. “The fact that you landed my daughter in the emergency unit? I left her in your care because I trusted you. I thought you were competent enough to be able to keep her safe; obviously, I completely misjudged you. You’re not competent at all.”

“That’s not fair,” Taylor sobbed. “I did everything I could—”

“Everything you could?” I repeated harshly. “Obviously if you had done everything you could, Jenna wouldn’t be in this position in the first place.”

“Reed, hold on,” Jennifer said, stepping in. “You need to take a minute.”

“No, I don’t—”

“You need to hear the whole story—”

“I don’t need to hear the whole damn story,” I said. “All I see is my daughter hooked up to a hundred different tubes and machines, and that paints quite a picture.”

I turned back to Taylor, and I realized that fresh tears were sliding down her cheeks. They were silent tears and somehow that made them more painful to see, but I turned my heart to stone and dropped my eyes.

“As of this moment, you are fired,” I said. “I never want to see you again. I want you to stay away from Jenna, and if I ever see you anywhere near her again, I will press criminal charges… understood? Now go.”

Those beautiful blue-grey eyes that I loved so much were filled with sadness and hurt, but she turned away from me, grabbed her bag, and walked out of the hospital room. Just before the door closed on her, I saw Taylor glance back. But she wasn’t trying to get a parting glance at me. She was looking at Jenna, with all the grief-stricken agony of a mother’s love.

The door clicked shut, and silence descended suddenly. I suddenly became aware of my fast beating heart and the sound of Jennifer’s judgment.

“What?” I demanded, turning on her.