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“Uh…” She frowned as she studied the screen before she nodded. “A Mr. Troy Larson.”
Blood drained from my face, and my ears started ringing. He paid it all? How could he have done that when he’d hurt me so much? Did he think that it would fix it all?
It didn’t. I didn’t care that he’d given us so much money; I could never repay him. Rachel would have been in so much debt after the hospital visit. Provided she survived, she’d have had to pay down the bill for the rest of her life. Now, there was none of that—no stress, and they could give her the care she needed.
I wasn’t going to forgive him for what he’d done. It wasn’t fair. He couldn’t buy my affection right after throwing it all in my face and betraying me. That wasn’t how it worked.
“Thank you,” I said before turning away from the secretary.
I left the admin block in a daze, walking to the cafeteria. My phone rang, pulling me out of my stunned state.
“Yeah?” I asked.
“How is she doing? Is she in yet?” Hailey asked.
“She just went in,” I said. “It will be a while now.”
“I’m coming to the hospital. Let’s have lunch at the cafeteria.”
I agreed, and we ended the call. On the way to the cafeteria, I spotted Scott. He smiled at me, but I averted my eyes. I didn’t want to talk to him, I didn’t want to play nice. He’d done nothing wrong, but I couldn’t be friendly with him and be mad at Troy. I couldn’t deal with any of this. Right now, the only thing that mattered was that Rachel would come out of the operation okay. The rest, I would worry about later.
Hailey found me at one of the cafeteria tables. I’d already ordered us two coffees, and she sat down opposite me.
“How are you holding up?” she asked.
“I’m worried,” I admitted. “No, scratch that. I’m terrified. I can’t even imagine what would happen if I lost Rachel.”
“Then don’t even go there,” Hailey suggested. “We’re going to assume everything is going just fine, and when she comes out, it’s settled—she’s taken care of and okay again.”
I nodded. “That works for me.”
“And how are you otherwise?” Hailey asked.
I opened my mouth to tell her I was just fine, but instead of being able to say something, I started crying. I covered my face with my hands, but the more I tried to suck back my tears, the more I sobbed.
Hailey got up, her chair scraping, and she came around the table. She rubbed my back and held onto me, letting me cry it out. Everyone around here had someone they worried about—the hospital cafeteria was a place where people weren’t always happy. This was the one place it wouldn’t be out of place to cry like this.
I still felt stupid. I hadn’t meant to fall apart.
“It’s just one big mess,” I said, sniveling. I dropped my hands and reached for a napkin to mop up my tears. When I ran my fingers underneath my eyes, they came away stained with mascara. Great—I was going to look even worse now.
“It’s okay,” Hailey said. “You don’t look nearly as bad as you think.”
“I feel worse than I think I look,” I retorted.
“Is it the baby?” Hailey asked.
“I guess that’s a reason I’m so emotional, but no. It’s Troy.”
Hailey reached for her chair and pulled it closer, sitting on my side of the table beside me. She waited patiently for me to snivel and hiccup and sob a bit more before I pulled myself together and told her what I’d just found out.
“That’s so nice of him,” Hailey finally said. “Wow.”
“Yeah, maybe it would have been great if he hadn’t cheated me out of the contract I need so badly,” I said bitterly. “I’m not going to call him and thank him. It’s too little too late.”
“Too little?” Hailey asked skeptically. “What would it take for him to tell you he’s sorry?”
“Actually telling me he’s sorry,” I said bitterly. “That would be a good start. I mean, it’s great he’s helping Rachel but it feels like such a cop-out. He won’t just man up and admit what he did and tell me he was wrong.”
