Page 30 of Born To Be My Baby

"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."

---