Page 384 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 2
I ignored him as I pushed opened the door. I slammed it closed and started running. Normally the summer heat in the middle of the day would bother me. Running in a suit would bother me. But all I could feel was my heart. It fucking hurt. I let her down. She needed me and I wasn't there.Please be okay, baby.
***
I pushed through the doors of the hospital, gasping for air. "Penny Hunter!" I said before I even approached the front desk. "Penny Hunter," I said a little louder as I ran over to the womanwho looked bored out of her mind. Again, I found it jarring that the whole world wasn't in pain like me. Everyone should have been breaking. Everyone. Yet no one seemed to understand the extent of what was happening.
"Penny Hunter," the woman said as she typed the name into her computer. "Third floor. She's still in surgery."
"What happened?"
She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, sir. Are you related to the patient?"
"I'm her husband."
"Okay, great. If you could just sign in and we'll give you a wristband."
I didn't have time for this nonsense. My wife was in surgery. She had just said that. Didn't she realize how ridiculous her request was after what she had just told me? I ran over to the elevators and slammed my fist against the arrow pointing up.
"You need a wristband, sir!" she called after me.
Fuck you.I ignored her. When the doors didn't immediately open, I looked around for the staircase. I sprinted over to it and took the stairs two at a time. I burst through the door and into a waiting room. Familiar faces turned toward me. My father. Daphne. But Rob didn't look up. He was sitting with his elbows on his knees. Daphne was rubbing his back.
"Is she okay?" I asked. But I knew she wasn't. By the way they were looking at me, I just knew the love of my life was dying. I could feel my body turning cold. It was like I could feel her pain. And the weight of it was unbearable.
Mascara was smudged under Daphne's eyes, tears dried on her cheeks. She pressed her lips together, unable to answer me. But I could read her expression pretty clearly. It was one of loss. Insufferable loss. The kind of loss that I knew would kill me.
God, Penny. Someone fucking say something!
Rob shook his head as he slowly looked up at me. "I don't know. They won't tell us anything. All I know is that they said they were trying to deliver the baby. But that was half an hour ago. We haven't heard anything else."
The baby.I looked down at his dress shirt and pants. He was covered in blood. My wife's blood. I didn't care about the baby. Why were they talking about the baby? It didn't matter. I wanted to know how my wife was. "I didn't ask about the baby, I asked about her. Someone fucking say something!" I was losing it. The side of my face started twitching with agitation. A feeling I hadn't experienced since meeting Penny. A nervous tick that made me aware of just how quickly I was losing control. A feeling I used to numb.
"Why don't you sit down," Daphne said. "I'll go talk to the nurse at the front desk again."
I shook my head and stepped back from them. Why weren't they telling me? God, how bad was it?
"Son, take a seat," my dad said, placing his hand on my shoulder. "I'm sure the doctor will be out in a moment. We just have to wait. We've told you everything we know."
Fuck that."I need to know if she's okay."
"She's not okay," Rob said. "She died in my arms and you weren't there. She stopped breathing. They're not saying anything because they're trying to deliver the baby before it dies too. Because her body is no longer supporting it."
"Robert," my dad said sternly. "That's enough."
She can't be dead.I shook my head. I put my hand on the side of my face where my eye wouldn't stop twitching. It felt like my feet were melting into the floor.
"Where were you, James?" Rob said as he abruptly stood up. He walked toward me. "You piece of shit!" He shoved me hard.
"Robert!" my dad said more sternly and grabbed the back of Rob's collar. "Sit down." He pushed him away from me.
"Rob," Daphne said and grabbed his arm. "This isn't the time or place for this."
But Rob was right. He should shove me. I had nothing to say. I felt like shit. I let Penny down. "She can't be dead." I shook my head. "She can't be." I shook my head again. I wanted Rob to shove me again. I wanted him to hit me. I needed to feel the pain. I clenched my hand into a fist. I needed to feel the pain she was feeling.
My dad grabbed my arm and pulled me to the front desk. "Her husband is here now. Can't you give updates to him?"
The nurse looked up at us. "She's in surgery. As soon as she's out, a doctor will come to talk to you. It shouldn't be much longer."
"I need to talk to someone now," I said.
