Page 124 of Fierce-Matt

“Why didn’t you get me out of court?” Matt rushed into the room to see Anya and Amber sitting in the corner.

“You look out of breath,” she said.

“I ran,” he said. “Difficult in these shoes too.”

He’d sat in court waiting for his client to be called up. Family court cases weren’t his favorite thing to do, but like everything else in the practice, he had to put his time in.

If he was going to take over the firm with Phoebe in the future, he had to experience it all.

“You didn’t need to rush,” she said. “We’ve been sitting here for hours waiting for news.”

Amber looked like hell. Her eyes were red, her nose too. Her hair stuck up in many directions from fingers running through it.

Anya wasn’t much better, though her face didn’t appear as swollen from crying and her hair was on top of her head in a messy bun.

“You could have called the office to get me out of court. Why didn’t you?”

The last thing he needed to do was unload his hurt on her that she didn’t find any way possible to get to him.

“Matt, your job is important. You need to be there for other people.”

“I need to be here for you,” he said. “Tell me what is going on. Your message was brief.”

Which was another frustrating fact. All she’d said was her father got hurt and they were at the ER.

Amber nodded her head for Anya to speak. “My father was at the store. He somehow got on a ladder with no one knowing and slipped and fell off it. As far as we know, he’s unconscious, but we have gotten little information. We know he broke his leg, but nothing more.”

He frowned. “No one will give you answers?”

“No,” Amber said. “They told us to wait thirty minutes before we even asked the nurse at the station. We waited, but they are so busy they pushed us off another thirty. Then they said his tests were still underway, and his chart hadn’t been updated.”

“How long ago was that?” he asked.

Anya looked at her watch. “Ninety minutes. They said they’d come out and get us when they had information.”

“You haven’t gone back in to ask?”

She shook her head. “They are busy. Riding their butt nonstop will not make things go faster.”

“Come with me,” he said. “One of you. I don’t care who. We’ll get some answers.”

“Go,” Amber said. “I’ll just start crying again.”

Anya stood up and moved out of the room with him. “She’s not doing well,” he said.

“She blames herself. I told her she can’t be his keeper. She can’t watch him every minute of every day. There is no blame, but she won’t believe me. Her mind races on how to care for him.”

“We’ll figure it out,” he said.

“We’ve got a plan,” she said. “At least one in relation to his broken leg.”

They moved to the desk. There were two nurses behind it. “Excuse me,” he said when neither made an effort to look at them.

“Yes?” one of them said.

“I’m checking on my father again,” she said. “Elliot Emerson. They brought him in over two hours ago. Is there any update?”

“I’m not sure,” the nurse said. “We’ve had several emergencies.”