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“Official is all we deal with around here,” she replied with an arched eyebrow.
He fought back the sudden insane urge to laugh. All the times he had wanted to be treated like just a regular guy on the streets instead of a billionaire. Now, of all the times for his wish to be granted, it had to be when he needed to be by Evolet’s side. And Constanza’s. He’d never met Evolet’s adoptive mother. The thought of never meeting the woman who’d rescued Evolet from her life of solitude, who had introduced her to music and family made his stomach twist so tightly it nearly made him sick.
“Look... Katelyn,” he said as he glanced down at the nurse’s name tag, “I need to see Constanza. She’s very important to someone I...”
His voice trailed off. How could he describe how he felt about Evolet? How much she meant to him? How he needed to be with her if she lost the one person she had in the world who hadn’t let her down?
“I don’t know what happened today, but I need to see her in case...” His voice faltered as he remembered running through the hospital, past the crying and the muffled conversations and the steady beat of monitors, only to be confronted with a wall of silence in the room his mother had been taken to. Silence except for the dull thudding of his heartbeat as he’d stared at her bruised and broken body on the hospital bed.
The nurse’s expression relaxed a fraction.
“Sir, I’m sorry. Truly,” she added with a gentle pat on the back of his hand. “I can talk to her kids and ask, but—”
“Damon?”
Evolet’s voice rolled over him, soft and roughened from crying. She stood in the middle of the hallway, blond curls falling out of her ponytail, her eyes rimmed in red and her face pale. Her arms were wrapped around her waist, as if she were comforting herself from whatever she’d just come from.
His heart catapulted into his throat. “Constanza?”
Evolet let out a shuddering breath. “She’s going to be okay. She fell and hit her head. She’s a little disoriented, but so far all of the tests are coming back okay.”
She spoke as if she were far away. Which she was, he realized with a spurt of panic as she didn’t move, didn’t flinch as a doctor rushed by and brushed her shoulder. She just stared at a point over his shoulder, her eyes blank. Only six feet away, but she might as well have been on the other side of the world.
“How are you?”
Her eyes shifted to him then. He waited to see something, a flicker of emotion, a flare of feeling.
“I’m here.”
To hell with being careful.
He moved forward and pulled her into his arms, enfolding her in a tight embrace. His breath rushed out as her familiar scent washed over him, clean and sweet. Three weeks since he’d woken up to her in his bed, since he’d drawn her into his arms and kissed her like it was the last time he ever would.
It felt like a lifetime.
“Thank you for coming, Damon.”
She didn’t relax into his arms, didn’t rest her head on his shoulder. She stayed stiff as a board for one long, drawn-out moment before planting a hand on his chest and gently but firmly pushing him away.
Don’t!he wanted to shout.Don’t push me away.
But he had no right to ask that of her. Especially right now, when tucking herself safely behind that wall of ice was probably the only thing keeping her on her feet.
“Don’t worry about costs, Evolet, I’ll—”
“No!”
He blinked at her vehement denial. Color rushed back into her cheeks, burning a hot pink as her eyes suddenly glittered with what he recognized as anger.
“This isn’t your problem, Damon. It’s mine and Samuel’s.”
“Don’t be a fool,” he replied, keeping his voice even. “I can make sure she receives the best of care and—”
“I’m her daughter,” Evolet retorted. “It’s my responsibility.”
He paused, tried another tactic. “Audrey said right before Samuel called you got an audition with the Philharmonic. Are you going to give up on that, too?”
“It was for tonight. I can’t leave her.”
