Chapter 20 #2
“You have a humerus fracture. Luckily, it was a clean break. The orthopedic surgeon on call decided you only needed a splint and a sling to keep the arm immobile until they can do a better assessment after the swelling goes down a bit. He doesn’t think you’ll need a cast, though.
The baby is fine,” Dr. Carson was quick to add when my other hand moved to my belly.
He pointed to the monitors beside my bed.
“That one is the baby. We’re keeping you for a couple days to monitor both of you. ”
“The beeping is killing my head,” I admitted.
“I’ll turn the volume down for now,” Doc Carson said as he leaned over and did just that.
“You have a mild to moderate concussion. If you weren’t pregnant, we would be able to send you home tomorrow, but seeing as you are, and you are also now three centimeters dilated, I have suggested that you remain in the hospital for the time being.
We had you moved to the maternity ward just in case, but your ortho and I will be checking in on you routinely. ”
“Drake?” I questioned. “Where is my brother?”
“As far as I know, he is in surgery.” Dr. Carson glanced down at his wrist - his watch. “He should be coming back out soon.”
“Surgery for what?”
“Your mother and father are at the surgical center waiting room,” he mentioned. “They knew you were okay and needed to be there for Drake.”
“I get that, but what surgery did he need?”
“I’m not sure, but I’ll go try to find out. It is imperative for you and the baby that you try to remain calm, Violet. You’ve been through a great deal.”
I gave him a nod of assurance, and Dr. Carson left to go find out about my brother or do whatever he did when he wasn’t checking in on me.
After a while, a nurse popped her head in and offered me a wide smile. “Dr. Carson sent me to let you know that they’re still waiting on an update, but your brother is doing well in surgery and your family is still waiting to hear more.”
“Thank you,” I managed.
“We have a strict protocol for your room and visitors, but there is a couple downstairs in the emergency room who are asking to see you. Garret and Evelyn Westover.”
I gave her a nod and when she continued to stand there, I offered a quick smile as well. “The baby’s grandparents,” I admitted. “You can send them up.”
“I will let them know downstairs. Is there anything you need before I head out?”
“Thirsty,” I admitted, considering speaking felt like a chore.
My nurse pulled a rolling table closer to me and then realized quickly that wouldn’t work because it was on the wrong side of the bed from my good arm and the machines that kept watch on mine and my baby’s vitals were piled over on the other side.
“I’ll help you take a few sips real quick and then get someone in here to help me move all this stuff around.”
I offered a rather weak thanks after she set my cup back down.
It wasn’t near enough water since my throat still felt like it was in the middle of a dry spell in a desert.
Still, it was probably for the best because the more I drank, the quicker I’d have to figure out how to get myself free of everything so I could go to the bathroom.
About ten minutes later, Garret and Evelyn Westover made their way into my room. Evelyn immediately started to cry when she saw me. I hadn’t seen myself yet, but I knew that my face and head hurt on my left side and my right arm was in a sling and situated on top of my big belly.
“Oh my God! You could have died!”
“Ev, we talked about this,” Garret warned her as he came over and placed a gentle kiss on my uninjured cheek. “Do you need anything?” he asked me.
“More water,” I suggested with a tip of my head toward where the nurse left my cup and a pitcher of ice water.
“I’ll get that for you,” he said as Evelyn made her way to my side.
“I’m too short to lean up and kiss you without bumping your arm,” my former mother-in-law lamented. She surprised me then by leaning forward and placing a quick kiss on my belly. “That will have to do for both of you.” It was weird and endearing all at the same time.
“How are you guys here?” I asked.
“Mark called me. He didn’t want you to be alone while he and Wendy waited to hear the news about Drake.
” My father-in-law did not seem very impressed with my parents.
“I don’t see why one of them couldn’t be here for you while the other waited for news,” he mumbled, and Evelyn popped his shoulder playfully.
“Now who needs to remember what we talked about?” she teased. “It’s not our place to judge.”
“It’s okay. If they were here, we would just be worried about Drake together.”
“Well, at least then you wouldn’t have been alone doing it.”
I didn’t bother to point out that if one of my parents were here with me then one of them would have been alone in the waiting room by themselves. None of this was fair or easy, and I was a grown adult. Drake was still in high school.
“We did get an update on our way up,” Garret assured me.
“Drake isn’t out of recovery yet, so your parents haven’t been in to see him, but they do know that he had to have a splenectomy.
He had several cracked ribs, one that needed to be set with a plate and screws, which is what took so long.
The surgeries went well, and your brother will be just fine after he has some time to heal. ”
“He’ll miss the rest of the season,” I grumbled, having no doubt that my brother would probably be upset when he woke up to find out. Garret threw a look at his wife and didn’t realize I caught it. “What was that about?”
“Have you noticed Drake complaining about his shoulder?”
“Yeah, that’s why he was in the back seat today. He went to lie down because his shoulder hurt and caused his neck to hurt as well when he was sitting up.”
“The doctors think he had a pinched nerve that was affecting his range of motion and causing the pain in his neck and shoulder. They can’t tell for sure if what they saw in the imaging was an older problem or something brought on by the accident.
I think they’ll know more after all the inflammation goes down. ”
“That can’t be good. It’s his pitching arm.”
“Probably not. He’s going to be a miserable son of a bitch when he finds out.”
“We should make sure he thinks it was just the accident that caused it. I’d rather him hate me for what happened than blame himself for doing too much training…”
“Hey, it’s okay, Drake knows what he’s been dealing with, even though he tried to hide it from everyone. He must, since you said he was babying it today.”
“I appreciate that, Garret, but it will suck for him to not have baseball.”
“He’s alive and so are the two of you. If he doesn’t see how lucky that makes him, I’ll add another injury to his list when I put a foot up his ass for you.”
“Garret!” Evelyn chided, though the sparkle in her eyes told me she agreed with her husband.
“I hate to do this, but visiting hours are coming to an end.” Just as my nurse announced that, Evelyn’s phone rang, and she stepped just outside of my room to take the call while Garret said his goodbyes. The minute he left, I could hear her conversation as she had the phone on speaker.
"There's been an accident. The baby is okay for now," Evelyn explained to someone.
"Fiona?" I almost cried at hearing my husband’s voice again for the first time in seven damn months. And then again because the woman he was concerned about was the same bitch that might have run us into traffic.
“Why is she your first thought?” Evelyn snapped at her son.
“She’s the only pregnant woman I know right now, Mom.”
“Well, I doubt very seriously that horrible woman was ever pregnant, but according to witnesses and Violet, they think Fiona may have been the one to cause the accident. Violet and the baby are doing okay for now, but Drake just got out of surgery. He was with her when it happened.”
“What the hell do you mean Violet and the baby? What the hell is going on there?” I heard Ridge yell, but his voice grew distant as his parents must have walked away from my room.
My heart hurt that the first person he thought to check on was Fiona, but then again, he hadn’t known about my pregnancy.
For good reason. I had a right to be concerned, considering what happened earlier.
It was a targeted attack, and I didn’t have any enemies who would want to harm me beyond the woman who was hell-bent on destroying my marriage.
She won, though. I didn’t know why she felt the need to come after me the way she did.