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“He loves you, Liz.” Dr Graviss gave her a beseeching look. “He’s been going through his own inner hell. Cut him some slack.”
“Loves me? Ha. If so, he has a funny way of showing it.”
“You have to put yourself in his shoes, Liz. In his warped way, Adam thought he was doing what was best for you.”
“You’re just saying that because you’re his friend,” she accused, frustrated by the way she was being pushed into a corner. “Well, he was wrong. All he did was hurt me over and over when he should have been honest with me, told me what was going on so we could face it together.”
“He knows that.” But it wasn’t Dr Graviss who spoke. Adam stood in the doorway, a bouquet of brightly colored flowers in his hands.
“Adam.” Dr Graviss glanced at the flowers and shook his head with a wry grin. “I’m going to check on something in the ER. I’ll be back by later to see what the plan is so I can write discharge orders.” He gave Liz a pointed look. “Or not.”
Liz and Adam watched Dr Graviss leave the room.
“He can’t do that, you know,” Liz said the moment the door closed. “I’m going to complain to the hospital board. He can’t blackmail me into letting you take me home. That just isn’t right.”
Adam’s mouth twisted, but he didn’t comment, just walked on into Liz’s hospital room. He set the flowers down on the tray next to her bed and Liz fought looking at them. She didn’t want his flowers. Not now.
“I’m off work the rest of the week, Liz. Next week, too. You may as well let me bring you home and help you. Considering the circumstances, it’s the least I can do.”
“I don’t want your help. Or your pity.”
“I thought that was my line,” he said softly, startling Liz.
She closed her eyes. She didn’t want to fight with Adam. Well, maybe a small part of her did. After weeks of nothing but his avoidance she had so much pent-up emotions that she wanted to lash out at him. He’d deceived her, not trusted her, wanted her to destroy their baby. Any emotions she vented would be filled with anger, hurt, and hatred.
“You should go.”
“I’m not going anywhere. Not unless you’re with me.”
“This is ridiculous, Adam. You avoid me for weeks and now you plan to camp out on my doorstep? Get a life.”
“That’s what I’m trying to do, but you’re not cooperating.”
Stunned, she glared at him. “This isn’t going to work, you know.”
“What?”
“Whatever this is that you’re doing.”
“I want you back, Liz. I want you to forgive me for not telling you about my MS. I want your love back.”
Liz wanted to scream, to throw something at him. Her gaze fell on her bouquet. No, the flowers wouldn’t make enough impact on his thick skull to be worth throwing them at him.
“You can’t just take back what you’ve done over the past month, Adam. You can’t change the way you’ve treated me, can’t take back the wall you threw between us. It’s there and it won’t go away.”
“I know I can’t take back the past month, Liz. Maybe I don’t even want to, because the past month has made me realize a lot of things.”
Tha
t got her attention. “What kind of things?”
“Things like when I was hurting I should have turned to you instead of turning inside out.”
She didn’t speak. Yes, what he was saying made her heart sing, but words were cheap. Actions spoke much louder and his actions over the past month had screamed that he hadn’t trusted her with his heart, with knowledge of his pain, that he had wanted to abort their baby.
“That what everything boils down to,” he continued. “You’re what matters most to me, Liz. I need you in my life. Otherwise I’m only existing, not living. Not really.”
Words. Just cheap words, she reminded herself, even as she felt her heart melting.
