Chapter 23
23
G loria woke and slowly opened her eyes. The room was somewhat dark. There was a small light on in the corner of her room. She couldn't see the sun coming in the windows. It must be nighttime.
She blinked a few times to let her eyes adjust. She felt Sean squeeze her hand and her eyes slowly landed on him.
He looked tired. She could see cuts on the side of his face and a nice bruise forming on his handsome cheekbone. She swallowed and her mouth was dry again. He immediately leaned forward and picked up a cup. He pulled an ice cube from the cup and ran it along her lips. She opened her mouth and took the ice cube from his fingers. He didn't say anything. He just continued to take care of her.
A chair squeaked, and she turned her head and then froze from the pain. Remembering to go slow, she allowed her head to turn slowly. Brody. He came.
"Hey," she said.
Brody leaned forward. "How are you, beautiful?"
A soft smile appeared on her lips. "Well, I've got this blaring headache and I'm guessing I look like death warmed over. Not beautiful."
Brody chuckled. "No, you're always beautiful."
She smiled, but it tugged her face.
She asked. "How's Mina?"
She listened quietly as Brody told her of Mina's injuries.
He ended with, "She's out of surgery and they have her in the ICU for a little while. We're not allowed to see her until later on. I've given the hospital permission to speak with Sean if I'm not here. I hope you're fine with that."
She started to nod, then closed her eyes and opened them again instead of nodding.
"Yes, I'm fine with that and thank you for doing that."
She slowly turned her head to look at Sean.
"How are you?"
He swallowed a big lump in his throat and nodded once. "I'm fine."
"You have bruises."
He shook his head slowly. "No, it's all right. I'm fine. I took some aspirin, a little headache. I'm fine. It's you and Mina we have to worry about right now."
She frowned slightly and closed her eyes again.
"I feel so tired."
"That's normal. Doctors have given you a sedative to help you heal from the bang on your head. I'm told that tomorrow is going to be so much better than today."
She scoffed. "Couldn't be much worse than today, Sean."
He nodded. "That's a fact."
She looked at Brody. "Thank you for coming."
"You're welcome, Gloria. Do you want an update on everything else that's happened, or do you want to wait?"
"Update. I want an update."
"All right. Your attorneys are working with the network. I spoke to the network president myself. I explained the situation a little bit better. Your attorneys are working on the conduct clause and how the network doesn't have any authority to drop you. We all know they can work around that if they want to. But when I spoke to Bob, the president of the network, he seemed fine with everything. I guess it'll come down to their internal meetings and how everyone else feels. As far as the PR goes, I had Boon edit your statement, your joint statement." He glanced at Sean, then back to her.
"He just sent me an email with the video in it for us to look at. If you think you're up to it, we can put it on the television up here and you can watch it and approve it or ask for cuts or edits."
"Yes, I want to see it," she said.
She glanced at Sean. "Are you ready to see it?"
He nodded. "Yes, I'm fine."
"And Gloria, we can stop anytime you need to, if your eyes need a rest."
She slowly turned her head side to side. "No, I want that out there as soon as possible. Especially in light of what happened."
Brody stood, pulled some cords from his laptop case, and attached them to the back of the television.
He glanced around the room, then spotted the table where Gloria's ice chips glass was. Sean immediately stood and moved the table around to the other side of the bed so Brody could set his laptop on it. He tapped a few times, typed, clicked his mouse, and finally, the screen on the television came to life.
And the still shot was of Mina, Sean, and herself sitting on the settee in the B and B. She swallowed, remembering the emotions that were going through her at that time. But she wanted to get that out there as soon as possible.
She moved her tongue around her mouth. She hated that pasty feeling. "Go ahead, Brody, turn it on."
He started the video, then walked toward the head of the bed opposite of Sean and watched in silence with them as they watched the interview.
It was short and sweet, very poignant, very matter-of-fact. She looked scared out of her mind. Her jaw was tight, her posture was stiff, but there would be no changing that now. Sean, on the other hand, had a beautiful smile on his face the entire time, his arm around Mina's shoulders. He looked proud.
Her eyes watered. Their beautiful Mina sat between them, her long dark hair, her father's green eyes, and her take-no-shit attitude as she calmly explained the situation. She'd be so proud of how this turned out.
Gloria took a deep breath, swiped the tears off her cheeks, and said, "Let's run with it."
Brody nodded. He looked at Sean.
"You good, too?"
"Yep. If Gloria's good, I'm good."
"Okay. I'll get it out there right away."
"And then, as far as the reporters go, Sean here has attorneys working on filing a lawsuit. Our attorneys, of course, are going to want to know the extent of Mina's injuries. Before we want to divulge that information, let's just get a few days’ rest. Let's see what police toss at the reporters for their reckless behavior and we'll respond when the time is right. We may also have a personal injury lawsuit against them. Wait - as a matter-of-fact, we do have a personal injury lawsuit that we can lodge against them and their networks or studios, whoever they're working with. And the people in the car in front of you were injured as well. I imagine we can join together in their lawsuit. We'll talk about all that later. I just want you to know there's nothing to worry about right now. There's nothing you'll be able to do. You and Mina both need to rest so that you can heal and we will tackle everything else later. Yeah?"
She swallowed. She looked Brody in the eye.
"Thank you, Brody. Thank you so much." She swallowed the lump in her throat. "How's Katherine doing?"
He nodded, a small grin formed on his face. "She's doing well. Thank you for asking. I'll let her know you did."
Gloria smiled. "I'm sure she cares."
Brody shook his head and grinned. "She's all right, Gloria. She's all right."
It was no surprise that Katherine wasn't Gloria's biggest fan. Brody told Katherine right when they began dating how much he loved Gloria. It didn't sit well. She tried to be cordial to Gloria when they were together. But her smile never reached her eyes, and she excused herself as soon as she could. Gloria understood it. She'd have felt the same way if the situation was reversed.
Brody glanced at Sean and nodded. He packed up his cords and his computer, tucked them in the case. He reached over and shook Sean's hand and then his hand wrapped around her right hand and he squeezed softly.
"You get better, girl. I'm only a phone call away, and I'll check in on Mina tomorrow to see if they'll let me see her."
"Sounds good."
"Take care."
"Drive carefully."
She swallowed a few times to tamp down the emotions running through her. He was a good man. Brody. But she never felt romantic toward him and she knew that hurt him. She didn't mean to hurt him, but she didn't have the feelings. She froze for a moment and stared at the wall before her. Wow, she'd hurt Brody the way Sean had hurt her. She was far from an innocent in any of the hurtful things she had done in her life.