Page 99 of Wanted

“Okay,” I reply, getting up from the bed. “You need space to rest and recover. I’ll be in the hall, for whenever you are ready to talk.”

Before leaving through the door and exiting the room I hear her let out an exasperated sigh.

Yes, this time the roles have been reversed. It is time to fight for what I want.

And what I want is her.

And I’m not going to give up so easily.

* * *

“I suppose you’re Lionel,” says a woman in a rather demure gray dress and sensible shoes.

I look at her from my place on the floor. I’ve been reading the electronic version of that famous book about pregnancies since Stella kicked me out of the room. Sometimes I get up and walk around the hallways, earning side glances from the staff. But mostly here on the floor, giving her room to think, but never too far. My place is by her side.

I get up to say hello. “Indeed, I’m Lionel Kral, but I’m at a disadvantage, you are…”

“Sister June,” she replies, narrowing her eyes, very obviously looking me up and down. “Stella has been with me for just under a month.”

I let out a sigh of pure relief. At least now I know that Stella wasn’t alone.

“What happened? Why did she end up here in the hospital?”

She takes a deep breath and shakes her head before answering. “That girl is stubborn as a mule, she kept insisting that it was just a bug that she might have caught from all the stress, but I suspected it was something different. I insisted for days that she needed to see a doctor, but my words were said in vain. This weekend, she was home alone as I attended a retreat that we have long planned in the community. When we arrived, we found her passed out in the bathroom.”

I run a hand through my hair, feeling exasperated. Stella can be very hardheaded when she wants to be.

“Thank God, I arrived on time,” Sister June adds.

“Has she been feeling sick for a long time?”

She nods her head. “Since she arrived, she said it was difficult to hide it from you when she was in Los Angeles.”

Dammit. And I was too busy doing other things, between waking up early to get some exercise and being able to eat breakfast with her before I went to work.

Why the hell wasn’t I paying more attention? Guilt hits me like a speeding train.

“How did you find her?” she asks me, this time raising her eyebrows.

“I had been looking for her since she left our house in Los Angeles, it’s difficult to trace someone who doesn’t use their phone or credit cards. But as soon as she was admitted, they gave us the alert.”

She looks at me for a few seconds in silence, her gray eyes fixed on mine. Sister June would be a fantastic schoolteacher, even at thirty-four, she has me as nervous as a naughty child.

“What is your agenda now, Lionel Kral. What are you planning?”

Wow, I didn’t expect her to be so direct, so I do the same.

“Kneel in front of her and beg, after that, to go home with my wife. After all, we have a baby on the way.”

Her eyes soften a little, although her expression is still severe. “Are you going to take good care of them both?”

I don’t think about it much. It comes straight from the bottom of my heart. “That’s my plan.”

This time I’m rewarded with a bright smile. “I’m starting to like you, just a little.”

“My first victory of the day,” I reply, smiling, feeling hopeful.

As the hours go by, I do what I can without moving from my vantage point in the hallway. At noon, and after consulting with her doctor, I ordered food for both of us. I enter the room carrying a tray in my hands, earning myself a disapproving look, but I’ve seen that her lips have curled up a bit.

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