Chapter 8
Harvey sat on a chair in the corner of the bedroom and watched Lily sleep. He kept quiet and still so he didn’t wake her.
It felt weird to care this much about someone else’s needs and feelings, but she came first.
Harvey had always thought that he knew best ever since he was a child, and that’s because he did. But the last thing he wanted was to scare her.
Still, he knew at some stage he was going to have to get her to talk to him. Because he had to get to the bottom of her extreme reactions.
The way she’d vomited at the idea of someone taking her blood while she was asleep . . . it didn’t sit well with him.
There were a lot of pieces of this puzzle he was missing, and Harvey didn’t like that either. He knew he could be a dog with a bone when there was a mystery to solve.
To his surprise, she’d gone off to sleep pretty easily. She hadn’t even asked where he’d be sleeping. Didn’t she realize this was the main bedroom?
His bedroom.
Not that he intended to climb into bed with her. He wasn’t a complete monster. He knew she wasn’t ready for that.
He needed to build up her health.
Both physical and emotional.
He picked up Lily’s handbag which Gareth had dropped off just before and searched through it. There wasn’t much in it.
A wallet with her ID and a bank card. Was that really it? Where were her receipts? Change? Discount cards?
No one had a wallet with just two cards in it.
The next thing he drew out were a pair of designer sunglasses, a small bag of cosmetics, and her phone. Another bag held a couple of necklaces and some rings.
He tried turning the phone on. To his surprise it still had some battery charge left.
Several messages came through. Most were from her mother, demanding that she contact her. The only message he read fully was the one from Clem telling Lily to message her if she needed her.
Clem was amazing. And he was glad that she’d found someone like Jaret Malone. He’d done some research into the Malones. They weren’t to be messed with.
That’s what Clem needed. Someone at her back like that.
And even though she might not realize it yet, that’s what Lily now had as well.
Because he had her back, he was at her side, or in front of her, whatever was needed.
Finally, he tipped out the bottle of pills and opened it. It was about half full. He couldn’t tell anything about the pills from looking at them.
He studied the label on the front and searched up the name of the drug.
Just as Michaela had said, a light sedative. It didn’t make a lot of sense. He thought about taking one as an experiment, but he didn’t want to be drugged in case she needed him.
He’d just have to wait for the results of the test as much as it killed him.
He studied the name of the doctor. D. Wallace.
Michaela hadn’t heard about him or her before.
There was just the initial ‘D’ for the first name.
But surely it wouldn’t take much to find them.
And Lily would know the full name. A quick search on his phone didn’t bear any results, though.
So, instead, he sent the name to his brother with a request to look into the doctor. Well, not exactly a request.
Paddy: Why? What’s going on? Where are you?
Harvey: I told you that I was taking some personal time.
Paddy: Gramps is asking for you.
Harvey: Tell him I’ll call. I have things to do. Just find out everything you can about the doctor.
Paddy: Sir, yes, Sir!
His younger brother sent an emoji giving a salute. Harvey rolled his eyes. Then another emoji came in, giving him the finger.
Yeah, that was more like it.
Getting up, he moved into the bathroom to get ready for bed, and when he walked back into the room, he slid a mattress out from under the bed. No way was he sleeping in a different bedroom from her.
Especially not considering how often she’d run away from him.
One day, she’d learn to run to him.