Page 55 of Surprise Baby for Daddy's Best Friend

Jessica didn't face me.

"Answer me," I growled.

She sucked in a deep breath, "It's better if you hear it from him."

My blood went cold as we hurried to her office. I didn't wait for her to close the door when I picked up the phone. I prayed he wasn't hurt.

"Maurice? What's wrong."

"Oh thank god you finally answered, Jared," his voice was shaky. "I can't get off work. And I don't know who else to turn to..."

"What's going on?"

Maurice shuddered a breath before continuing, "It's Kim. She's in the hospital right now. I need you to go check on her for me. Carl had to leave. I just..." His voice cracked, "Can you do this for me? Please?"

I opened my mouth and closed it again. I wasn't sure what to say, "Isn't there someone else you'd rather have out there with her? I mean I barely know her."

"No," he almost snapped the answer at me. "No, I want you to go out there. I trust you. Just be there for her, for me. You can do that, right?"

"Yeah, I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks...She's at Mount Sinai Hospital," he let out a sigh of relief and ended the call.

I stood in the office, feeling more panicked than I was willing to let on. I didn't know anything about Kim being in bad health and Maurice hadn’t said anything about her being ill either. Something bad must have happened to put her in the hospital. I wasn't sure how ready I was to see her in that condition.

Images of Kim strapped to multiple machines flashed through my head. Doctors rushing in and out of the room to keep her alive. My stomach twisted in knots. I wanted to throw up.

"Sir?" Jessica's voice felt far away like she was in a completely different realm of existence.

I raised my eyes to look up at her. The fear on her face told me everything I needed to know about how I looked.

"Call my car for me. I need to leave for Mount Sinai. Now."

"Of course!" Jessica lifted a hand to her chest as if sighing in relief and hurried out of the room.

I stood in the room trying to calm my nerves. I was overthinking things. It couldn't be as bad as I was thinking. For all I knew, she had just broken a bone and Maurice just wanted someone there in case they needed someone to be with her when she was discharged. I sucked in a deep breath and counted to ten to calm my heartbeat.

After another ten minutes passed before Jessica returned. The shock on her face was gone which meant either she was used to how terrified I looked, or I had genuinely calmed down.

"Should I call your daughter?"

I shook my head. "No. Let her enjoy her vacation. If I need to reach her, I'll do it at the hospital. No reason to make her worry while she's out of the country." I tugged on the sleeves of my jacket. "My car?"

"We have a driver outside with your car in front of the building. He's been made aware of your destination already.”

“Good.” I tried to recall if I had even told her where we needed to go. I couldn't remember anything from the moment I ended the call to now.

I sat in the back of the Mercedes and closed my eyes and shut out the noise of the streets. I wondered how many red lights we ran through just to get to the hospital. If the sound of honking and yelling outside the car was any indication, I doubted we had stopped for anything beyond others in front of us.

"Mr. Jones, we're here."

I stepped out of the car quickly, and thanked the driver.

Inside the hospital was quiet. A few people were sitting in the emergency waiting room. Each of them had a mask on. Some of them were masks from home and the others were hospital produced. I grabbed one myself, thankful for the anonymity of wearing one. At any other time, those who knew me would probably try to ask me questions or generally annoy me. With this, I was no different from any other businessman visiting the hospital.

"Excuse me," I said, catching the attention of the woman at the check-in desk.

She glanced up at me and then turned back to the computer. I ground my teeth in frustration and clenched my fist.

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