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“Me falling for you is a hundred percent real,” I say. I want to beg her to believe me. I want to tell her that the money didn’t matter the second I met her at that hotel. I want to tell her I’d give it all back in a heartbeat. But I can’t. Instead I stand there, soaking up her anger, because I know nothing I say is going to make her forgive me.
“I can’t be around you right now,” she mutters.
Pushing past me, she heads back to our room, leaving me standing there. She turns around. Her eyes are cold and filled with anger.
“Oh, and Cade? Don’t bother coming back up.”
I lean my head against the door of the inside of our hotel suite, wishing I could wake up from this nightmare. She told me not to come up, but how could I not? The moment she’s ready to listen, I want to be here. But it’s been nearly two hours and she’s been in the bedroom, door closed, since I got here.
I’m still in shock that she found out like she did. I called Calli to warn her, but she’d already spoken to her and it sounded like I got off easy in comparison. Calli was distraught, and on the verge of getting on a plane to sort this out face to face, but I convinced her that right now that would do more harm than good.
“Give her space,” I told her. “Let her talk to you when she’s ready.”
Yet here I am, parked outside the bedroom, refusing to move until I speak to her.
Maybe I should be listening to my own advice. She doesn’t want to see me, let alone speak to me. Sitting here isn’t going to change that. If anything, it’s only going to feed her anger.
I stand up and stretch out, my legs aching from being crouched over for so long. I stretch again and give one final lingering glance at the bedroom before turning away. I’m almost at the door when I hear her cry out. I pause, my heart racing, because I know this isn’t about us. There is a fear in her voice I’ve never heard before. Racing over to the bedroom, I yank open the door, my heart pounding out of my chest. My whole world stops when I see her curled up on the bed in the foetal position with her hands covering her head. A rush of energy hits me and I fly over to her side.
“Erin?” I yell.
Her soft sobs are her only response.
“Are you okay?” I gasp, racing to her side.
She sobs uncontrollably, rocking softly back and forth, her eyes squeezed shut. I touch her back, not sure what to do. This is all my fault. I pushed her over the edge. If anything happens to her, I’ll never forgive myself.
“It hurts so bad,” she whispers. Her words are jumbled and she’s shaking like crazy.
“I’ll call an ambulance,” I say, grabbing my phone out of my pocket.
I’m put through to an interpreter, who assures me an ambulance is on the way. I end the call and go back to Erin, wishing I could do more to help her. I kneel down beside her, trying to ease her pain by gently rubbing her neck.
“Shhh, it will be okay,” I whisper, wishing I believed it myself. “The ambulance will be here soon. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
I wrap my arms around her. She doesn’t resist, so I hold her against me until the paramedics arrive just a few minutes later. I stand back and let them work on her. Their English isn’t great and she’s in no condition to communicate, so I jump in, offering information where I can.
“Nous l'emmènerons à l'hôpital Notre-Dame.” He pauses when he sees the look of confusion on my face. “Hospitale? Familie?”
I nod, finally understanding. The Notre Dame Hospital. We walked past it the other day. They lift her onto a stretcher and wheel her out of the room while I stand there and helplessly watch. Throwing some of her things together, I grab her handbag and make my way to the hospital via the world’s slowest taxi. I’ll call her family when I know more. They’re halfway across the world and I don’t want to worry them until I really have to.
Chapter Nineteen
Cade
I arrive at the hospital to find they’ve already taken her in to be examined. I stop a nurse to try to find out what is happening, but she clearly can’t understand me. I’m growing more frustrated by the second. Getting anywhere here feels impossible, because nobody speaks English well enough to understand what the hell I’m saying. I demand an interpreter and she scurries off. She either understood that or in five minutes security is going to be removing me.
I wait in the waiting room, pacing back and forth, unable to sit still. If only I knew what was happening. If I knew she was going to be okay, then I could deal with the wait. It’s not knowing that’s the hardest. God, I don’t even know if she’s still alive.
I slump down into a seat and glance around me, trying to distract myself. It’s a busy place, with people everywhere. On one side of me, a group of teenagers are laughing. On the other, a team of doctors are rattling off gibberish to an old guy in a wheelchair. It’s a strange being in a foreign hospital, because you understand literally nothing. It’s like everyone’s speaking a foreign language. Oh wait, they are.
Every time a doctor walks towards me, I sit up a little straighter, praying it’s me he’s looking for. After the sixth disappointment, I stop hoping.
“I’m sorry, are you waiting for Erin Camden?”
I jump out of my seat, caught off guard. “Yes. Cade Wilson,” I say. “Is she okay?”
“She’s stable,” he replies. Only now do I notice his thick English accent. “We think the tumour might be rapidly growing, making the symptoms intensify.”
