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It all makes sense now. This is the reason why Tabitha quit and the reason why she’s avoiding me and ignoring all of my attempts to contact her. I sit there and sift through my thoughts for a few seconds, putting together the pieces and the timing of when she quit right after her doctor appointment and shortly following when she started to get sick. I think back to when we had sex, and the timing adds up.
I stand up quickly from the table, heading towards the door and bailing on my own event. Jax follows quickly behind me.
“Where are you going?” he asks.
“I need to find her, where is she? I have to talk to her.”
“I’ll text you the address,” he says with a broad smile.
When I get to her apartment, I bang on the door outside.
“Tabitha, open the door!” I shout with newfound urgency. Ineedto talk to her. When she doesn’t answer, I bang louder. “Tabitha, please let me in. We need to talk.”
“I wouldn’t waste your time,” one of her neighbors says as he pops his head out from his apartment door. “I already tried banging on her door a half hour ago and she didn’t answer me either. Her car is parked in my spot. If you have any better luck than I did, please ask her to move it.”
I nod but then a sudden panic sweeps through me. Something iswrong.
“Tabitha?” I call out one more time. When there is no answer, I throw all of my weight into breaking down the thin plywood door.
The very first thing that I set eyes on is Tabitha’s crumpled body lying in the middle of the floor. I rush over to her and drop down on my knees.
Pulse, breathing, but definitely unconscious.
I lift her up in my arms and rush her to my car. Then, I drive faster than any ambulance could until I peel into the hospital parking lot and flag down emergency medics.
“What happened?” one of the nurses asks me as I stand inside the ER watching Tabitha get whisked away behind closed doors. “Are you family? Or her husband or fiancé?”
“No, none of those things,” I say, feeling my heart drop because I know they aren’t going to give me information unless I am. “But she’s my employee, and her brother is my best friend, and I—”
I stop myself because none of it matters, and I whip out my wallet and shove it into the nurse’s hand.
“Look, I’m financially responsible for her. Use whatever cash or credit cards you need. I want her in a private medical suite as soon as she is out of the ER, and I want access to be able to stay with her.”
“But—”
I lift my hand up to the nurse to stop her short.
“Do you know who I am? I’m Hunter Rogers, and I could buy this whole damn hospital if I need to do that in order to get you to do what I’ve said. But trust me, if I need to buy this place in order to stay at Tabitha’s side while she’s in here, then you will be thefirstperson I fire.”
The nurse looks at me with wide eyes and looks as if she wants to say something but thinks better of it. She snatches my wallet out of my hands and walks away. A few seconds later, I am being shown to the private medical suite to await word from the doctors.
“She’s pregnant,” are the first words out of my mouth as soon as the doctor comes in to speak with me.
“Yes,” he nods. “I already saw that in her chart. She’s going to be fine, just a bout of low blood sugar and she fainted, likely caused by not eating enough and maybe stress. No lasting negative impacts on her health or that of the baby. Are you the father?”
The word sticks in my throat for a second, but once I say it aloud, I suddenly feel it ring true.
“Yes.”
Chapter Eleven
Tabitha
I don’t remember a thing about how I got here when I open my eyes.
I’m in a hospital room, with a few monitors hooked up to me and a blanket draped over my legs. This room looks much fancier than the ones I’ve been in before, almost like a hotel room instead of a sterile hospital ward. But even more surprising than the fact that there is a wooden ceiling fan above my head and curtains on the windows is the fact thatHunteris here.
He is sitting right beside me with his palm over my hand, and as soon as I can get my eyes to focus again and clear my throat, I ask him what in the world he is doing here and what happened to me.
