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That was good news, but it wasn't the young woman’s physical condition she was most concerned about. “What about psychologically?”
“Traumatized,” Eric summarized. “She hasn’t spoken much since she was brought here. I tried engaging her while I was examining her, but she just lay there and looked at me. She’s obviously afraid, which makes sense if we’re correct in our assumptions of what happened to her.”
Chloe agreed. Taylor Sallow had disappeared almost nineteen months ago, and they believed they knew where she’d been in those missing months. If they were right, and they wouldn’t know until Taylor herself gave them confirmation, then the young woman had suffered horribly.
“How areyoudoing?” Eric asked, changing the subject.
She didn't want to lie to the doctor who had become her friend over the last several months, but she also didn't want to get into a discussion about her mental health. She had met Eric seven months ago when she had been in a horrible car accident, and he had been her doctor.
That would have been the extent of their relationship if it hadn’t been for what they had in common.
In the car accident she hadn’t been seriously injured, but the injuries she’d had, had been life-changing. She had been five months pregnant, and she’d gone into premature labor. At only twenty weeks, the baby wasn't viable and had lived only a couple of minutes before dying in her arms.
There hadn’t been a day that had gone by since that she hadn’t missed her son. If he hadn’t died and she’d carried him to term, he’d be almost four months old now, babbling and rolling over and maybe getting his first tooth. Chloe knew she’d never get over his loss but hoped the pain would begin to dull withtime. She couldn’t survive with this slicing agony in her heart indefinitely.
Eric Abbott and his wife Lila had lost their five-year-old son in a carjacking. He’d been shot, lost too much blood, and didn't survive. According to Eric, their son’s death had almost destroyed his marriage and his wife. But over time, they had learned to draw strength from one another instead of pulling away from each other. Now, close to a decade later, their relationship was stronger than ever, and he and Lila had added another two children to their family.
She and Eric had talked a lot about the loss of a child. Although the circumstances of their losses were vastly different, the pain was the same. She had drawn comfort from his words and the fact that he’d managed to find happiness even though the pain of his son’s death would never leave him.
It gave her hope that one day she would find herself in the same place.
“Have you talked to him?” Eric asked.
“Who?” She feigned innocence. Her baby wasn't the only thing she had lost after the accident.
“You know who.”
“No.”
“I know you’ve said no the last few times I've brought it up—”
“And I'm going to say no again this time,” she interrupted.
“But I really think,” Eric continued, undaunted, “that you should talk to someone.”
“I don’t need a shrink,” she huffed.
“My brother is really good. Seriously. I'm not just saying that because he’s my brother. Charlie has helped a lot of people. A lot of people who were a lot more adamant than you are that they didn't need help. Just think about it. Please. I don’t want to see you go down a path that you don’t know how to find your way back from.”
Eric looked so sincere that she found herself wanting to say yes just to make him feel better.
Chloe might well have done it if she hadn’t seen her partner come rushing through the hospital’s doors. She and Tom Drake had been partners for a little over a year now, and she considered him and his wife close friends. She had learned a lot from Tom. He’d helped her become a better agent, and he had been very supportive following the loss of her son.
“Sorry I'm late,” Tom said as he hurried over to join them. While Chloe spent most of her time in bed crying when she wasn't at work, Tom also spent most of his time in bed only for a whole different reason. Her partner had reconnected with his ex-wife a year ago, and the two were about the sappiest, most in love couple she had ever seen.
Sometimes Chloe couldn’t quite help the little stab of jealousy she felt when she saw Tom and Hannah together. It wasn't that she begrudged them their happiness. Quite the opposite. The two had been through a lot, and if anyone deserved a happy ending, it was certainly them. But seeing them so happy and in love just reminded her that she wasn't.
“Hi, Eric.” Tom shook the doctor’s hand.
“Tom.” Eric nodded. “Chloe and I were just talking about your victim.”
“You’re her doctor?”
“Yes, I was telling Chloe she’s in reasonably good physical condition, especially all things considering, but psychologically? That’s a totally different story.”
“Think we’re going to get anything out of her tonight?” Tom asked.
“I doubt it,” Eric replied.
