Page 59 of Slow Burn (The Boston Beauties)

‘Thanks for driving all the way down to Providence to pick me up,’ I turned to face Drew. He looked tired and I could tell he hadn’t shaved in a few days, and it appeared he was still wearing his work clothing from yesterday. I would have bet that he spent the night at the hospital and didn’t sleep at all.

‘I’d have driven to the moon to see you for a moment.’ He lifted my hand, which hadn’t really left his the entire hour-and-a-half drive, to his lips to kiss.

He parked as I looked at myself in the mirror. ‘Does the wig look straight to you?’

He looked me over. ‘You look amazing, and trust me, if I have a hard time telling it’s you, you are going to pass.’

The unknown of my father’s health, seeing my family and the lingering fear of being caught was too much for me. I was thankful for him as he held my hand walking into the hospital. I needed his assurance and his strength as I was so on edge and feeling totally out of control. For over the past year I ran the show, I was my own boss for once. I was away from danger and lived in my bubble of a safe routine, where I had few surprises and my situations were pretty much controlled and predictable. But I couldn't have predicted my father having a heart attack, nor did I know if I’d be recognized at the hospital and caught. Breton and I just needed a few more weeks maybe a month to get everything organized and our stories sorted.

While I was more than ready to be home, our evidence to finally put all the Taggarts away once and for all wasn’t.

Drew’s presence was the calm that I needed, that I would always need. He led me up to the cardiac floor where my father was in the intensive care unit. ‘He has his own room, but why don’t you wait here, and I’ll see if the coast is clear?’

I waited by the nursing station as Drew left me to walk the fifteen feet down the hall to where my father’s room was. I rooted through my purse, keeping my head down. I put on some lip balm and then took out my phone as Drew came back, wrapping his arm around my waist. ‘Abby is in there at the moment,’ he whispered, pulling me as he started walking away from the room and back towards the elevators we just came up on. ‘I’m going on a coffee run, she’s got to catch a flight soon to meet a client out of town, so she should be gone when we’re back.’

I pulled my scarf from my purse as we stepped outside and wrapped it around my head to prevent the wig from flying off in the wind. We walked to a Dunkin’ Donuts nearby and got a few coffees and two boxes of donuts.

‘What’s with all the donuts?’ I asked as we left the store, eyeing the boxes suspiciously.

‘For the nurses,’ he looked down to me. ‘They are amazing, so I want to say thanks to them.’

‘And just when I didn’t think I could love you any more.’

He smiled, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk to kiss me, causing people to walk around us, muttering not-so-dear endearments, but nothing mattered when his lips were on me.

I was worried about how my mom was going to react to seeing me. We spoke nearly every day, and texted often too, but had only ever FaceTimed a few times over the past year since they found out about me still being alive.

I knew my mother would be a big ball of stress at the moment. Hell, I couldn't blame her, I was too. She truly was in love with my father, and him with her. They had a happily-ever-after kind of marriage that not everyone gets nowadays. It was special, and I could imagine how scared she must have been right about now. Scared enough to ask me to come home, that was telling.

Over the past year, she all but begged me to come home, to meet her and my father, or to tell them where I was so they could visit me. Breton and I had to explain to them that it wasn’t safe. They understood, but it didn’t stop them from asking and wanting to know when this ordeal would finally be over and done with for good.

I got it, I wanted it to be over and done with too, and really soon it would be; just as soon as my exit plan was hatched out. I just prayed this trip didn’t put a snag into our plans. If I got caught, all my sacrifice would be for nothing.

Over the past few weeks, Breton and I started to talk about my exit plan, and he’d already started to put some things in motion. In order to go further, we would need to involve Abby, but we weren't ready for that yet. It was a close call back in the hospital. I knew in the next few hours I would need to speak with Breton and look at our timelines—if I was here for any length of time, we might as well involve Abby, as it may be hard to keep hidden.

I waited outside my father’s door as Drew went in and I heard my mother say, ‘Where is she?’

‘Hi Colleen. Oh, you’re welcome for the coffee,’ he laughed, teasing her. It was so refreshing to hear their playful banter had only increased over the past year and a half. That at a time like this, he could joke with her, to try and lighten the mood. ‘I just wanted to make sure the coast was clear,’ he laughed and stepped back out in the hall and took the two boxes of donuts from me and nodded at me to go in. ‘I’m going to give the nurses one of these.’

I walked into the room and stood there in front of my mother, and heard the door close behind me. Her eyes went wide and then roamed over my body as I walked towards her. ‘It is really you?’ she whispered, her voice cracking as she took me in her arms.

‘Yes,’ I said into her neck, feeling the tears roll down my face.

She hugged me back, her arms going all the way around my thin frame. ‘But there’s nothing to you,’ and she ran a finger through my hair.

‘It’s a wig,’ I whispered, taking off my sunglasses, ‘And I’ve got contacts in.’

‘I don’t think I’d recognize you if you passed me on the street and I wasn’t aware you were around.’

I took off my jacket and placed it on the chair. I knew how thin I looked at the moment, but I was hoping that my bones weren’t poking out through the shirt I had on.

‘Are you ok?’ she asked, rubbing my arm.

‘Well, I lost some weight after the surgery and infections, so I know I have to put on a few pounds. I look sick at the moment, but I took my final round of antibiotics last night.’

‘It’s just unreal,’ she couldn’t keep her eyes off me.

The curtain was closed around my father's bed, and all I could see was the end of his bed from where I stood and the overbed hospital table with some flowers on it.

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