Page 34 of Contract Of Shame

He followed her.

John Barnes stood waiting.

“What happened?” she demanded.

“Everything is all right. Calm down. Harry is stable. His inhaler didn’t work, and he couldn’t catch his breath. We’ve got him on oxygen at the moment, and he should be fine. I’ll need to prescribe another inhaler.”

Richard stared past the doctor’s shoulder to the room. He saw Harry lying in the bed, weak.

He rubbed a hand over his face, and John stopped him from going further. “Only family is allowed.”

Scarlet turned round, and he waited for her consent. The look she gave him stopped him in his footsteps. “I don’t want you here.”

In those words his world died. Their time together meant nothing in face of that binding, fucking contract. John gazed at him with pity.

“Everything is paid for. Send the bill straight to me,” Richard said.

“I’ll do what you ordered, but my first responsibility is to my patient. If Scarlet asks about payment, I’ll tell her where it’s coming from.” John flipped his papers over and walked away.

“I’m so sorry, Richard,” Lily said walking over to him. “We didn’t know what to do, and she gave us the hospital details and everything. He couldn’t stop coughing, and getting his breath back was difficult.” He calmed her down and stared at Wayne.

“Sorry,” he said over her head. Richard nodded. He didn’t blame his friends. There was nothing they could do.

“I think it best you go home. I’ll handle everything.” His friends offered to stay and keep him company, but he refused. There was nothing else to say or to do.

All he could do was wait it out. Hope and pray Scarlet forgave him. He should never have taken her away from her son. Richard cursed himself.

For hours he waited outside the room. Scarlet didn’t move from beside Harry’s bed. He wanted to go in and see her little boy. To see with his own two eyes that Harry was safe.

The nurse came by and offered him a coffee. He refused.

When the sun went down Scarlet came out of Harry’s room and moved toward Richard. “I thought you’d have left by now,” she said.

“I wanted to make sure you and Harry were safe.”

“Don’t do that. Don’t make out you care about us. The only thing you care about is what you want and how desperate you are to get it.” Her voice rose with every word.

“I care, Scarlet.”

“Really? You see, I’ve been thinking about it, and to be honest you’re no different from David.”

“Stop right there. I’d never force myself on you. I’m nothing like that snivelling little shit.” Usually from his upbringing he didn’t like to cause a scene. He knew where this argument was going to lead, and he had to stop it and nip it in the bud.

“You’re right. At least David only forced himself the one time. You, you forced me to sign a fucking contract giving you complete access to my body. You wanted me, and you couldn’t just ask me on a date like a normal person. Tell me, Richard, what is so fucking wrong with me that men can’t ask me on a date? They make demands and force their way into my life?” The tears were pouring down her face, and his gut twisted.

At any time in his life, if he ever had any doubt about his feelings with regards to this woman, in that instant they were wiped clean.

Scarlet Hughes, the woman he’d been the biggest bastard to, was the very woman who owned his heart.

He knew the look in Scarlet’s eyes. This was it, and they were over.

“There’s nothing wrong with you,” he said. I’m the screw-up.

“I think you should leave.” She brushed away her tears.

“What?”

“I want you gone. I want nothing to do with you anymore. Consider this the end of it.” Scarlet turned to leave. Richard couldn’t leave it like that.

---