Page 29 of What She Wants

A few minutes later, I get out of my car and walk to his door. Just like last time, he opens it before I can knock.

He smiles at me but his usual fire isn't in his eyes. I can immediately tell he's tired.

"Thanks for coming," he greets me and pecks my lips.

Marín is showered and dressed much like he was the first time I came over at night. He laces our fingers together and leads me to his bedroom. I don't say anything because he's not giving sex vibes so I'll allow him to state his purpose.

A shirt with an unopened toothbrush lay on his bed. He waves his hand towards them. “That's your toothbrush and you can wear that shirt.”

That definitely doesn’t give sex vibes. I'm not complaining, it's just different. Since we've met, we're either arguing or fucking. To be in the same room and not doing either is new. Again, something tells me not to argue. His bathroom is huge and I'm not surprised that it's well organized and clean. The smokey smell from the firepit is still on me so I opt to take a quick shower.

I crack the door open and peek out to ask him what's the plan but he's sitting in one of his chairs with his head in his hands obviously in deep thought.

"I smell like barbecue, can I take a quick shower?"

He nods without looking up. "Help yourself."

"Thank you." I close the door, still confused and start to undress. Something is obviously on his mind, but I'm not sure if I should pry.

I don’t have any trouble finding everything I need to shower, brush my teeth, and change. When I see him again I'm wearing his shirt and smelling like him. This is a first.

Marín is lying on his side of the bed. I can tell he was staring at the ceiling before I walked out. He pats the space next to him so I climb under the covers. And prop myself up on my elbow.

"Are you okay?" I finally inquire out loud.

He rolls on his side and cups my cheek. His thumb caresses it as he speaks.

"It was a long and rough surgery. I might want to talk about it tomorrow but for now I just want to hold you and go to sleep."

I nod and lie down. I don’t have much that I can say about that. The worst I deal with is a bridal meltdown or an upset CEO.

I can feel the tension in his body when he wraps his arm around me. Marín drops a kiss on my shoulder and that’s the last interaction I had from him. I stared into the dark even after he'd fallen asleep and only one thought kept going through my head.

I hope no one died.

Chapter18

Marín

Being a doctor,there is always a death or something close to it and each time, it affects us differently. Knowing things about my patient and then not knowing certain things, puts them and me at a risk.

Today was a Bishops’ family type of risk. I didn’t think that it was possible to be suddenly initiated into a life that I wondered about sometimes but never got to know anything about.

Andres Bishops is one of the founding families head but we’ve never had a reason to talk or anything.

Hell, I barely talked to Ainslee and only spoke to her in passing.

The Bishops have their own everything; hospital, doctor, etc. nothing goes on without them knowing. Not a single thing so when I found out today that my patient that I’ve known—knew— for a while now was married to none other than Andres Bishops’s brother, I knew that things changed.

She never said she was part of the family and neither did her husband, they didn’t live in Founder’s but she had fertility issues. She came to me because I was recommended by another doctor and after years of them trying, finally, she was pregnant.

Was.

There’s that word again. My chest hurts from the realization of what happened tonight,

What I had to do today… what I had to say to her husband; the father of her baby. The man that I knew loved her more than anything else in this world. The husband knew what happened to his wife but me, repeating that someone not only brutalized his wife but they meant to do her enormous harm. Harm that killed her. They murdered her, this wasn’t an accident. She didn’t deserve this and there was sperm on her body but not inside of her… How could someone call themselves human and hurt another person like this? She was a good woman. She didn’t deserve this.

My mind wanders as I shut my eyes cuddling Esme just as I go to the moment where I looked down at my bloodied hands and on the operating table, my patient and her baby. I couldn’t save them.

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