Page 17 of Hacker Christmas

I clicked the phone off and looked in Neal’s direction. “We need to go. Daisy’s been in an accident.”

8

Neal

The car ride to the hospital felt like an eternity. Aaron pulled up to the valet, but I didn’t wait for the car to stop before my feet hit the ground. A young lady sat behind the desk at patient services.

“I’m looking for Daisy Michaels,” I said tersely. I wanted to reach across the desk and rip the keyboard out of her hands. I didn’t need to turn around to know Aaron stood next to me. When the receptionist caught sight of him, her fingers stopped typing. Any other time, I wouldn’t have cared about someone being starstruck by Aaron. But I wanted to get to Daisy. “Did you find her?”

“We have nobody by that name.” She seemed bored.

“I meant Dakota Michaels. Can you hurry up?”

Aaron gripped my shoulder. I knew he wanted to curb my attitude, but I didn’t care if I hurt the young girl’s feelings. I wanted to see Daisy.

“She is still with the doctors. A nurse will find you when they have an update.”

Waiting to find out if she was okay was going to drive me crazy. I wanted to be by her side. I leaned forward to give the young lady a piece of my mind when Aaron grabbed my arm and pulled me to the side.

When I turned in his direction, he had his phone against his ear. He pressed his lips into a thin line as he answered questions on the other side.

“I want to know where Daisy is.”

Aaron grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze. At the same time, the front doors to the hospital swooshed open, and Antonio Senior and Martha Ross burst in. I tried to pull my hand away, but Aaron gripped it tighter and narrowed his eyes at me.

We had talked about the three of us being together in private, but I didn’t know how he felt about his family knowing. When Martha’s eyes landed on Aaron’s hand holding mine, her eyes lit up, and she came and gave me a hug. “I’m so happy you guys are figuring this out. Now, we need for Daisy to be okay,” she whispered in my ear.

“Where is my daughter-in-law?” Antonio demanded. His voice echoed through the lobby. Aaron still had the phone pressed to his ear, and the conversation looked heated. When he finally hit the end button, his mom pulled him to her in a hug. He dropped my hand and wrapped both of his arms around his mother.

Aaron gave his attention to his father. “According to the chief physician, all we can do is wait in the ER waiting room. Since she is not our wife, he won’t tell us anything. According to her medical records, Brock is her medical contact.” Aaron held up his hand to stop my impending outburst. “She probably never remembered to change it after Sam and Brock rescued her. I will have it changed by the end of the day today, and I don’t want to wait much longer to make her our wife. I hate not knowing.”

“This is ridiculous,” Antonio said. “I’ve donated millions to this hospital, and I want to know how my future daughter-in-law is.”

Aaron let out a sigh. “Dad, you can’t use your donations as leverage. They were donations. Brock will be here in a few minutes. I’m going to see if Detective Higgins can meet us in the waiting room and tell us what happened.”

I stretched my fingers, missing Aaron’s warm touch. It helped ground me.

From the first moment I sat in the teal-green chair, I was transported to my childhood. The smell of the waiting room brought back memories I would just as soon forget. Between the ages of three and five, I spent a lot of my time in that exact waiting room. The only thing to change was an updated coffee pot, and the TV was a flat-screen. It seemed the hospital still had the same kids’ table and toys in the corner. I used to spend hours at that table while my mom had chemo. Dad never came with us—he spent that time drinking and blaming my mom for her cancer.

I spent hours with the nurses. They even bought me a cake on my fifth birthday, and we celebrated another year with them. But it would turn out tobe one of the worst days of my life.

Dr. Larson had walked in and asked the nurse to contact my father. His eyes had a sheen. He had been my mother’s doctor for years, and he would come out and spend time with me sometimes. I asked if I could take a piece of cake back to my mom. I hadn’t understood what had happened yet. Betty, a young nurse, wrapped me in a hug and told me she needed to call my dad. When my father wouldn’t pick up the phone, Betty sat with me through her shift change. Three hours later, when he still didn’t answer, she took me to the cafeteria for dinner. We sat waiting for my father for six hours, and when he showed up, she told him my mom died. My dad turned and walked out of the hospital. Betty ran after him and told him he forgot me. I will never forget his words. “I don’t want to see him. He is the reason my wife died.” My dad turned on his heels and walked out of the hospital.

The sound of a soft voice took me from the horrible memory. “Is that you, Neal?” a woman in her late sixties asked, holding her hand to her mouth, with tears in her eyes.

Aaron grabbed my hand, but I couldn’t pull my eyes away from the woman in front of me. “Betty?”

“Oh my God, it is you.” She wrapped her arms around me and pressed a kiss to my cheek. I heard Aaron grumbling next to me. I had to give her a one-armed hug because Aaron still had my hand in his.

“Betty, I would like you to meet my partner, Aaron.”

Aaron reached out and shook her hand.

“Betty used to watch me while my mom had her chemo treatments.”

Aaron’s head whipped in my direction, and I shook my head. It was a conversation I needed to have with Aaron and Daisy.

“It’s nice to meet you, Aaron.” Betty turned back in my direction. Her gray hair had fallen out of her bun. “What are you doing here?”

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