Gabrielle was quiet. She had no plan to convince Marvin that he should stay. He was nothing like his brother, but seeing that face in the same room with her was still unnerving.
Marvin lingered as if he wanted to say more but wasn’t sure he should. He seemed broader and more prominent, consuming too much space in the room. She wanted him to leave. He’d said what he came to say. There was no reason for him to stick around, yet she couldn’t get the words out to ask him to leave.
“Gabrielle, I was wondering if—”
“We are only allowing family members to visit Ms. King now. You need to leave.” Dr. Ebony Carey glared at Marvin as she entered the room, followed by two other doctors. “Now, Dr. Hester.”
Marvin nodded, then turned to gaze at her one last time. A longing in his eyes for something she couldn’t quite understand but instinctively understood was guilt for everything his brother had put her through. He finally saw Damian for the obsessed and depraved man he was and could no longer defend his brother or his actions.
Gabrielle exhaled a shaky breath. Would Marvin feel guilty if he knew the truth? The truth she’d take to her grave.
As Marvin exited, Dr. Carey approached the bed and sat on a stool next to Gabrielle. “Are you okay? Did he do anything to—”
“No, it’s fine,” Gabrielle paused. “He came to apologize for his brother and what I’m going through now.”
“Still, we made it clear that you were to have no visitors, and he misused his position at the hospital to break those rules. I’ll see that this gets reported.”
“Please don’t. I want to forget everything that happened over the past twenty-four hours.”
“You were fortunate,” Dr. Carey said. “The officer guarding you is still in surgery. It’s been touch and go to repair the damage from the stab wounds—”
“Stab wounds?” Gabrielle bolted up, the covers falling from her shoulders. “What are you talking about? The stalker stabbed him?”
“I’m sorry. I thought you’d been briefed by the nurses when you regained consciousness,” Dr. Carey said, concern in her kind eyes. “We have our best surgeons in the O.R., and we’re optimistic he’ll survive.”
Gabrielle shuddered as a sob caught in her throat. She never wanted anyone harmed because of her, yet that’s what happened. The officer was stabbed while rescuing her from Tony.
Dr. Carey swiped the tablet in her hand, stopping to read the contents every few seconds. “All of your test results are back. The stalker injected you with propofol, a common anesthetic used in the hospital. No other illegal drugs, toxins, or medicines were found in your blood.”
Gabrielle jerked the butterfly charm along the chain. “And the sexual assault examination?”
Looking up from the tablet, Dr. Carey gazed at her with sympathy. “Preliminary results show no signs of forced intercourse. No semen was found, which is a good sign. But we need to wait for the full DNA results to be sure.”
“But you don’t think he raped me?” Gabrielle trembled uncontrollably under the thin bedsheet. When she’d woken up in the hospital, she’d focused on her body, trying to determine if she’d been violated. She wasn’t bruised and had no pain but she couldn’t trust her feelings. Her body was numb from the trauma and the drugs. There was only one way to be sure that bastard hadn’t raped her, so she didn’t hesitate to say yes when the doctors recommended the rape kit.
Dr. Carey reached over and squeezed her hand. “No, I don’t. Other than the slight bruising on your neck, it doesn’t appear he did any otherphysicalharm to you.”
She let out a shaky breath. “Okay, what’s next?”
“I’d like to keep you admitted for another day for observation and a psych evaluation. You’ve gone through a traumatic event, and this isn’t the first time. It might help to talk to someone.”
“What’s the point? It’s clear I’m a fucking magnet for psychos. I barely remember anything from last night. The stalker attacked me in the shower, then stuck a syringe in my arm. The next thing I knew, I woke up in the hospital. I guess the one thing the bastard did was spare me from watching his brutal attack on my security guard.”
“From talking to Detective Shannon, you’ve been living under the shadow of this threat for weeks now. It wasn’t the first time the stalker got past your security to reach you. The impact of all of this on your mental well-being could be more than you realize,” Dr. Carey explained.
“No shit,” Gabrielle said. “But I haven’t had good experience baring my soul to shrinks. It doesn’t work for me.”
“Fine. I won’t make it a requirement of your release. But I will ask one of the psychiatrists on staff to stop by in the morning and speak with you. If you decline her offer, then so be it,” Dr. Carey said, then stood. “But if you don’t want to talk to a doctor, maybe you should talk to someone you trust. Like the man who rescued you from the safe house. He said the two of you are close.”
“I’m confused. The officer didn’t protect me from the stalker? That wasn’t why he was stabbed.”
“I don’t know the full details, but what I heard from the detectives was that after the stalker sedated you, he lured your bodyguard inside and was able to subdue him,” Dr. Carey said, worry clouding her face as if she wasn’t sure she should share the details. “Then he proceeded to read from your journal. Passages that agitated him. He stabbed the officer in the chest repeatedly as he ranted about what you’d written. That’s when the other man came and chased him away, saving both of your lives.”
Passages from her journal.
Stabbing her bodyguard.
Gabrielle couldn’t breathe.
