Page 29 of Cuts Like an Angel: Part 2

Chapter Fifteen

William

By the time they reached the hospital, William’s nerves were shot to shit and his mind was about ready to leave again. He swallowed hard as he turned the car into the lane where the hospital was. It loomed ahead of them like a dreadful concrete monster. He kept seeing that photograph with Rosie and her baby. Her dead baby. Pain slashed through him, giving him back his purpose and courage. His Rosie had to kill her own daughter. And it had destroyed her for years. As selfish and sick as it was, William knew her baby was responsible for Rosie coming into his life. The death of her daughter is what eventually sent her out of the country and into a field where she could mend lives in order to ease her conscience for ending her daughter’s. But she was only a child herself. Poor sweet Rosie. What a beautiful mother she was even if she didn’t have a child, other than those who had been thrown away and grew up into half dead, broken humans.

“We’re at the hospital?”

“Yes,” William said, cringing at that word as he drove into the big car park, rolled down his window, pushed the button and took a ticket. He parked the car in the area outside. He always liked to park there, where the sunshine could reach his skin and calm him for a moment. Even when he met with Carly at the clinic, on the days she was working from here, he parked outside. Sometimes coming early just so he could let himself sit a little while and enjoy some peace.

Rosie was leaning forward, her eyes scanning the buildings. People coming in and out of all of them, an elderly woman stooped over her walker frame, rummaging for something in her bag. “Oh god,” Rosie blurted, her eyes fixed on the building just ahead.

William frowned, following Rosie’s stare. Maternity Suite.

She turned to him, her face ashen. “Maybe I don’t want to know. Maybe …” her eyes brimmed with tears and panic. “Please. William … don’t. I couldn’t …”

“No … It isn’t …” he puffed his cheeks out. “Come, let me show you.”

He got out of the car and locked his side. Rosie was out before he got around to her and he held out his hand. “Please don’t make it be something bad,” she whispered to him, clutching it tight.

“Do you trust me?”

She nodded without hesitation. “I do, William. I really do. I just …”

He pressed her to him. “Come with me then. Let me show you.”

He led her into the main building and headed right for the escalator past the small coffee shop and newsagents. She held his hand as if for dear life and he wished there was a way to make her understand without her seeing this. But Maria wasn’t something you could explain with words. For Rosie to comprehend why he hadn’t told, she had to see it. See the thing for herself.

Every step closer to Maria’s room sent William’s pulse up a notch. Maybe this was a bad idea. A fucking big bad idea. Maybe Rosie would leave. She would see what he had done and she would get her ass back on her plane and go home. He hadn't realised he was breathing hard until Rosie pulled on his hand and made him stop. “Whatever it is, it’ll be okay,” she said.

“Perhaps,” he offered with a weak smile. And maybe it wouldn’t. “Here.” He stopped just outside the door. Staring at it like he was about to walk through the gates of hell, which actually, he was. Depending on what mood Maria was in, he could very well be taking Rosie into the wrath of Satan himself. He backed up, pushing Rosie with him. “Before we go in there. I need you to promise that you won’t get offended.”

“Offended? William, why would I get offended?”

“Maria …” he glanced up, searching for the right word. “She can be a little … vile.”

She only stared at him with worry now.

Good, she needed to be worried. Maria had a knack, like it was something built inside her. She could take down even the most confident of people, he’d seen it so many times.

“Late visit today?” a nurse asked as she approached, not really stopping to speak, but slowing down so that William and Rosie might.

“Yes. I hope that is okay?”

“Sure, it is. Tell her I’ll be in with her cup of tea and medication soon.” The nurse smiled, offering a nod to Rosie before walking off again and going back to whatever it was she was doing.

“I will.”

“You come here all the time?” Rosie asked when the nurse was out of ear shot. “Every day?”

“Not every day, but often,” he murmured. He didn’t add any more but simply went to her door and glared through the glass.

What would Rosie say about why and how Maria got there?

Rosie had her eyes on the chart hanging outside now, oblivious to William’s dread. “Mrs Maria Carter.” She frowned at William, her mind working off in a ton of different wrong directions. “You’re married?”

William shook his head. If only it were that simple. “No,” he said, pushing the door open before his brain took over and dragged them both out of the monster’s pit and back to the safety of the car. “She’s my mother.”

Rosie barely had time to grasp that information as William led her into the room, but she stopped at the doorway, her eyes filled with confusion.

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