Page 60 of At His Beck & Call

“Is she alright?” I bite out.

“Oh, yes, I imagine so,” he says with a little inappropriate chuckle. “Quite the day you’ve had, Mrs. Heath.”

My mother says nothing. She’s dismissed him as quickly as I have, but the doctor doesn’t seem to be able to read the room.

“Could I have a quick word with you, Mr. Heath?” he says to me, pushing his glasses up his nose with one stubby finger.

I nod, squeezing my mother’s hand briefly, before heading out of the room with him and coming to stand in front of a huge painting in the hallway of what looks like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Interesting choice for a hospital.

“Has your mother been having any trouble remembering what pills to take?” he asks.

“Not as far as I know. Why?”

“Well, it looks as if she’s fairly confused. Has she ever had a fall like this before? We may need to consider getting her an emergency bracelet, so that she can ring an alarm in case it happens again.”

“She has a walker, but she tripped.”

“Mm, and you haven’t seen a decline in her cognition or decision-making skills at all?”

“She’s not senile,” I grit out.

“No, of course, but her lab work suggests she may not be taking her medications as prescribed.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it looks like her evening medication has been taken already, which might have caused a dizzy spell, which is why she fell. Does she often get confused with her pills?”

“No,” I say. “She’s totally with it.”

“I see. Well, I’ll be back shortly with more details, but I think it would be best if we keep her in overnight, or even for a day or two. Her blood pressure is higher than we’d like it to be, and she may benefit from being monitored to see if there are any underlying causes.”

My heart skips as he glances back at my mother with a look of pity that sets my teeth on edge.

“I see, thank you, doctor,” I manage, as he turns away. Even his walk is irritating, with a little skip in it like he’s having the best day of his life.

I go back to her room, where she smiles at me. She looks exhausted. In the ambulance, she confessed that she was on the floor for four hours before I arrived. I’ve never felt so guilty in my life. I should have been there much earlier.

“Is Natalia still moving your pills around, Mom?” I say as I sit down. “They think you took the wrong ones this morning, and that might have caused you to lose your balance.”

She places her hand on her forehead. “Oh. Goodness. I’m causing such a fuss.”

My fingers clench. She always used to say that on the rare occasion she ended up in the hospital when I was little. She would sit in the ER covered in blood, making all kinds of excuses for my father.

“You’re not causing a fuss, Mom. You’re here because you need them to take care of you. It’s alright. You should just focus on getting better.”

Her hand comes up to my chin, touching me gently. This contact is rare. We aren’t all that affectionate with one another. But I like the feel of her skin against mine.

“I’m going to get better, Ollie. I just had a silly tumble.”

I nod, unable to speak, and pull out my phone. “I need to make some calls, okay? You try to get some rest. Is there anything you need?”

“Just some water.”

I pour her a glass and help her take a drink. We get the bed at a good angle for her, and I stroke her cheek for a moment before I leave the room. I don’t want to fire Natalia; she’s fantastic with my mother and has cared for her brilliantly since I hired her, but this thing with the pills is serious, and I need to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

I go into the hallway intending to make the call just outside Mom’s room, but there’s a man on a gurney nearby screaming sporadically, and I can’t hear myself think.