Page 119 of The Bad Girl

Chapter 41

Nadine

I rouse to bright lights and commotion. A splitting pain in my head.

“She moved!” a muffled voice says. “Call the doctor!”

Doctor?

I feel groggy, out of sorts. There’s something on my arm. I don’t know where I am. Chemical cleaner floods my nose.

“Nadine?”

I try to open my eyes, but they are sensitive to the lights, I squeeze them shut again, unable to glimpse the room.

I hear a familiar voice.

“Nadine, can you please hurry and wake up? Maxwell is forcing me to stay here and report on you.”

“Harry? What—”

Stabbing pain shoots through my neck that’s fixed firmly into place.

“You were involved in a kerfuffle,” Harry says.

“God, it’s all my fault,” I hear Tom say. “If I had kept my cool, none of this would have happened.”

“Oh, hush now. Nadine’s been going off the rail for a good while now. She needed this wakeup call,” Harry says.

I open my eyes again, trying to adjust to the light.

“She’s up!” Allison gasps, her voice sounding far away.

“If you didn’t have to pee so much, you’d know that by now,” Harry says.

“Allison?”

“Clear the room,” an unfamiliar voice says. “I’ll call you back in when we’re done with testing.”

Testing?

?

Nadine

A flurry of people descends upon me, taking my blood, poking me, asking invasive questions. I hear one of the doctors say that Maxwell is flying in medical professionals from around the world, which seems rather extreme, but with his kind of money, it’s just being cautious.

The room clears, and an aged man with horn-rimmed glasses takes a seat by my bed and says, “I’m Dr. Gagne, and I will be seeing to your care for the time being. My belief is that you have a concussion, but it’s best to not take chances with potential spinal cord injuries.”

The words are like a slap in the face, so utterly shocking I feel like I might be sick. “A spinal cord injury? But I can wiggle my toes!”

“I know,” the doctor replies, “and I’m sure you’re fine. Normally, we wouldn’t take all these measures, but you have a guardian angel looking out for you, and he doesn’t want to take any risks. Let’s just take a look.”

He helps me into a wheelchair, and I’m wheeled to get scans. Along the way, we pass other patients, and the urgency of the situation finally takes hold.

I could have died at the photoshoot. If I had fallen just a little harder or hit my head on a corner, I would have either suffered brain damage or death.

Just as we are about to turn a corner, a nurse comes, grabs the doctor’s arm, and whispers something into his ear.