CHAPTER FIVE
Scott
I ran after Blair as fast as I could. How could this have happened? Why had she come to the office?
It became clear she wasn’t going to stop the car, even though I knew she had to see me running after her. I finally bent over, hands on my knees, gasping to catch my breath.
This was not good. I shook my head and suddenly yelled, “No! No, no, no!” while in the middle of the street.
That’s when I realized people were staring.
This most definitely wasn’t good for business.
Especially not in a town this size. People would be saying the dentist had a nervous breakdown in the middle of the street by dinnertime.
I forced a smile, waved at the people staring at me, and turned to walk slowly back to my dental practice. Well. That had backfired spectacularly.
“Fuck!” I yelled, kicking a rock and not caring this time if people heard or what they thought. Blair thought I was cheating on her. With Calliope.
This was a mess. I reached for my phone. I had to call her to tell her what was really going on.
I hurried inside the practice, glancing quickly at the front office staff all gathered around each other, eyes wide.
“Why didn’t any of you think to tell her not to go back there?”
Donna winced. “I didn’t know what to do. If I told her not to go in, she’d think it was something bad… and I couldn’t think of a way to stop her. I kept her talking as long as I could, but it was clear she was on a mission.”
“We didn’t want to ruin the surprise, boss,” Keisha, who’d worked for me for five years but still just called me boss instead of Scott or Dr. Hastings, said.
“This is such a fucking mess,” I groaned.
A chorus of gasps went up behind me, and I squeezed my eyes shut with regret. I saw patients of all ages, but I could tell I must have several kids waiting for me. Their moms would probably never bring them back.
Although, they didn’t have much choice unless they wanted to drive to Halliwell. I was the only dentist in Indigo Falls.
Donna was on top of it. “Oh, my goodness!” she said, her eyes comically wide. “Dr. Hastings will have to put money in the swear jar, won’t he?”
I turned around. “I apologize. I shouldn’t have said that word, should I?”
Timmy Duncan, his big eyes huge with shock, shook his head slowly back and forth while his mother glared at me.
I had to pull out the big guns.
“Donna, I’m going to need a few of the cards.”
“Already on it.” She walked around the room handing out free blizzard coupons to the local Dairy Queen.
“I don’t usually believe in sugary foods like ice cream, but there’s a time when they’re called for.” This was a total lie. I liked sweets as much as the next person, but there were some things you had to say as a dentist.
Everyone looked much happier now.
“Give me just a moment before I call my next patient back.”
I turned and walked down the hall until I was out of sight. Then I ran. I burst into my office, scaring the hell out of Calliope. She jumped about a mile in the air.
“Sorry,” I muttered absentmindedly.
“Did you catch her?” she asked. “Does she know who I am now?” Her voice was hopeful.
“No, and this is turning into a shit show.” I punched in Blair’s number on my phone. It rang and rang before going to voicemail, but I kept trying anyway. I had to tell her this was completely innocent.
And pray that she believed me. After all I’d put her through in the past, it would be more than I deserved.
“My goodness,” Calliope said, looking out the windows. “What in the world has happened?”
“What?” I didn’t really care, but I didn’t want to be rude.
“All the emergency vehicles. I’ve seen three ambulances, a fire truck, and several police cars go by.”
“Hmm.” I grunted, still hitting redial.
Nothing. She wasn’t going to answer.
“Fuck!” I bellowed and threw my phone at the wall. This could not be happening. I hadn’t been a great husband—by any stretch of the imagination. But I was trying to be better. I really was. And I loved her so much—whether she believed me or not.
Calliope hadn’t turned from the window. “Something awful has to have happened.”
I tuned out the various sirens as they all went screeching by.
Then my phone rang. “Thank God.” I leaped over my desk to get to my phone. It was on the floor where it had fallen, and I was just thankful it worked. It had to be Blair calling me. It had to be.
I looked at the screen and frowned. It wasn’t Blair. It was an unfamiliar number. I started to send it to voicemail, but something made me answer.
“Hello?”
“Is this Dr. Hastings?” a serious male voice asked.
“It is.”
“I’m sorry, sir, but your wife has been in a car accident. A serious car accident. We’re waiting on a helicopter which will take her to Emory in Atlanta. I’d recommend you come as soon as possible.”
I couldn’t form words.
“Sir?”
“What… what happened?”
“A delivery van appears to have run a red light and crashed into your wife. Her car was forced off the road, rolled down the embankment, and crashed into a tree.”
“Oh my God.”
“Please have someone drive you to Emory University Hospital now.”
“I will. Thank you.”
I hung up the phone, my hand covering my mouth as I struggled not to cry.
“What is it? What’s happened?” Calliope asked, face pale.
“The sirens… they were for Blair. She was in a terrible car accident. They’re sending her to Emory by life flight.”
Calliope gasped.
I ran to the connecting bathroom in my office and was sick. I retched until I had nothing left in me. I rinsed my mouth and brushed my teeth—the benefit of being a dentist—then splashed cold water on my face. I was trying to get my shaking hands under control.
Someone knocked on the bathroom door.
I opened it to find Donna standing there. “Come on,” she said gently but urgently. “I’ll drive you.”
“How do you know?”
“One of the EMTs is my cousin. He recognized Blair and called me.”
I nodded, then burst into tears.
Donna’s eyes went wide, but then she opened her arms and held me while I sobbed.
“She can’t die. She can’t die thinking I had an affair.” The words came out garbled, but Donna seemed to understand.
She led me down the hallway and out the door. “Don’t even think about death. Blair is so strong. There is no way she’s going to die and leave those kids behind. She’ll do everything she can to stay with us.”
She was right. My Blair was a fighter. She would get through this.
She had to.
***
I felt catatonic as I stared out the window. Donna drove as fast as she could without getting pulled over. It was the middle of the day, so at least we didn’t have to worry about Atlanta traffic. At least not the worst of it—there was always bad traffic in Atlanta.
“You don’t need to worry about the kids, Scott,” she said. “I left Carrie Caldwell’s number with Keisha and asked her to call her. I’m sure Carrie will handle everything.”
I breathed a huge sigh of relief. “Thank you,” I murmured. I was quiet the rest of the way there. It was a trip that both seemed to take forever and go by in the blink of an eye.
Before I knew it, Donna was helping me navigate the hospital, speaking to all the nurses to find out where we needed to go.
Then I was sitting in the waiting room outside the ICU.
I sat with my head in my hands, horrible thoughts running through my mind.
Mental images of my beautiful wife crushed and crippled kept mingling with thoughts of me and the kids at her funeral, them turning to look at me as if I was the worst possible substitute for their mother.
They wouldn’t be wrong. I couldn’t sit still and started pacing back and forth, not caring that a couple of the other families were shooting me death glares. I couldn’t help it. The only way I could calm myself down was to move.
Every time the door opened, I looked up with hope. I needed to know what was going on. But so far? Nothing.
I was going to go insane if someone didn’t tell me something soon.
Suddenly, the door opened. Carrie, Sadie, Melinda, Thatcher, Harrison, and Drake poured into the waiting room. Carrie rushed over to me. “Have they told you anything?”
“Nothing,” I said miserably.
She nodded. She looked horrible. We all did, I realized. Everyone had red eyes and frantic looks of worry on their faces. This was a living nightmare.
“The kids?” I asked, realizing Carrie was supposed to be watching them.
“Mom picked them up and brought them back to their house. Gam is there, too.”
“Do they know…”
Carrie shook her head, blonde curls bouncing. “Not really. They know she was in an accident and had to go to the hospital, but they don’t know she was life flighted. They’ll have to know soon, though, or risk finding out from someone else. Do you want to tell them?”
I shook my head. “Not until I have an update. I need to know what’s going on first. All I know is that she’s in surgery.” I looked up at her, tears in my eyes. “I wouldn’t have any answers for them if they asked me questions.”
Carrie nodded, and I halfway wondered if she hadn’t even listened to what I said. Her face was pale, and she looked dazed. “I can’t bear it.” Tears started streaming over her cheeks. “I can’t bear the thought of her not being here.”
At her words, Sadie, Melinda, and Drake all lost the composure they’d been trying to hold in place. They began sobbing quietly, leaning on each other. Thatcher came up behind Carrie and held her in his arms.
The look he was giving me was… hostile. What the hell?
My eyes jerked to Carrie’s. She also looked mad at me, I realized. Why? Had Blair called Carrie and told her what she thought? Was she talking to her when the accident happened?
“How could you do this to her?” she hissed at me. “Haven’t you done enough already?”
“Shh,” Thatcher held her tighter. “This isn’t the time, baby.”
She pulled away from him and pointed at me. “If she dies because she was hurrying to get away from you, I will never forgive you. It will be like you killed her yourself.”
“There’s something you need to know…”
“Save it.” I’d never seen Carrie so angry. She was shaking with rage, her face red.