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The woman looked at her screen and shook her head. “I’m sorry, madam, but I cannot confirm that we have a patient by that name.”
Lauren slapped her palm against the counter, refusing to believe she could be stopped at this point.
“Please,” she groaned. “It’s an emergency.”
The woman behind the counter was resolute though.
Lauren swallowed a curse, stepping aside, trying to get her frazzled brain to work out what to do next. But what was there? She couldn’t stalk the critical care ward, hoping to see him.
She wouldn’t be allowed on the ward, anyway. It was family only.
Her heart squeezed. She turned back to the woman behind the counter, barely managing to wait until she’d finished looking after someone else before pushing against the bench. “Can you at least tell me his condition?”
She shook her head but there was sympathy in her eyes now. “I cannot. My apologies, madam.”
Lauren groaned, walking towards the doors, tapping her fingers against the side of her head. She needed to think.
She paced back and forth, her mind too fogged with worry to activate, her legs like jelly as the rush of adrenaline that had brought her here fell away, leaving only despair and panic in its place.
“Lauren?”
She didn’t hear her name at first.
“Lauren? Is that you?”
She stopped walking and looked around, then almost burst into tears at the sight of Maddie – Nico’s wife – walking through the doors. Estelle was asleep in her arms, a beautiful, sleeping bundle of pink.
“Hi,” Lauren nodded, too desperate for news to say anything else. “How’s Raf?”
Maddie frowned. “I thought you left Italy?”
Didn’t she understand? Lauren didn’t have time for small talk. She needed answers, damn it.
“I did. I’m back. How is he?”
Maddie was – frustratingly – not on the same wavelength. She paused as she moved one hand into her pocket and pulled out a dummy, putting it in Estelle’s little mouth. “Otherwise she wakes up at the sound of a pin dropping,” Maddie explained. “Raf,” she nodded, as if only just remembering. “He’s out of danger. Off life support.”
Lauren had to reach behind her for support.
“He lost a lot of blood,” Maddie explained.
“Oh my God.”
Maddie’s expression shifted and then she put one hand on Lauren’s forearm. “Do you want to see him?”
She shook her head because in that moment, she was terrified. She couldn’t see him. He was going to die. She was going to lose him and she’d never told him how she felt. She’d done exactly what he’d accused her of and run away rather than have the courage to face what he meant to her. It wasn’t too late to be brave, though.
“Yes. I need to see him.”
If Maddie thought that was strange, she didn’t say. “This way.”
Lauren fell into step beside her, barely conscious of anything as they moved through the hospital. She was grateful Maddie didn’t attempt small talk – she wasn’t capable of it. She kept her eyes trained straight ahead. The lift pinged open and they walked past a nurse’s station, and into a ward full of buzzing and beeping machines.
Memories punched her in the gut.
She prayed some more, begging and bartering. She couldn’t let him die.
A large room sat at the end of the ward. There were large windows, but blinds had been drawn.
