Page 86 of Waiting For A Girl Like You (Haven House #4)
“ C an we leave now?”
Damon must have asked the same question at least a dozen times. Snuggled in Liam’s lap as they sat on a small corner hospital room chair, Jamison sincerely hoped the nurses would finally give him a straight answer.
“The doctor will be making his rounds momentarily,” the nurse said as she wheeled out her blood pressure cart. “He’ll let us know.”
“Has anyone checked on Holden lately?” Claudia asked from the second chair, Madison still asleep on her chest. “I thought I heard he was awake.”
“He has a concussion,” Liam told her. “But he’s being discharged into my dad’s care, and they’re getting ready to head back to the staging area.”
The phrase complete devastation had been uttered repeatedly.
The fireball that swept over the land during Michael’s grand finale had taken out much of the forest and was still burning even now, hours later.
Liam wanted to go with his father and Holden, but he refused to leave her, and neither she nor her dad felt comfortable leaving Damon and his sisters alone.
“If they let you out,” Ben said to Damon from his designated corner spot near the door, “do you want to get a hotel here for the night? Or do you want to take the plane with Claudia back to North Carolina? We have a second jet here, and it’s ready whenever you are.
It can drop Emily in Houston first and then get you three back to Raleigh. ”
Claudia paled at the mention of North Carolina. “Um, I mean… it would be good for Madi to sleep in her own bed, but…”
But she didn’t want to face returning to the home she shared with Parker. Wrapping her mind around what Claudia must be going through felt mentally impossible for Jamison. The entire world Claudia knew had been a lie.
“I don’t need to go to Houston,” Emily said, moving to Claudia’s side and taking her sister’s hand. “I’m going with Claudia and Madi to help them do whatever it is that you do after something like this.”
Jamison remembered those days and snuggled closer to Liam. It wouldn’t be overnight. Normalcy wouldn’t come in a week or even a month from now. After Toby, she could easily recall how it had taken them so long to process the full extent of the trauma they’d dealt with on that horrible day.
“Liam’s mom is pretty amazing,” Jamison told Claudia.
“She’s a family therapist and is used to dealing with various cases.
Some basic day-to-day things, and some—many, actually—more serious things as well.
If you ever want to talk to her, just say the word, and I know Bernie will be more than happy to step in and help. ”
Claudia rested her cheek on top of Madi’s head. “I think that sounds good,” she replied, openly crying as she spoke. “For me and Madi, and for…”
And for the baby .
The doctors had checked Claudia thoroughly. Bruce hadn’t lied—everything she’d been given while captive had been safe. The baby was strong and healthy, with an early summer due date in place.
Through quiet tears, Claudia smiled up at her sister. “And I think spending time with my bratty little sister sounds fantastic.”
“Who are you calling a brat?” Emily lifted Claudia’s hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it, the move shocking everyone. The sisters never showed any type of affection. Ever. “Maybe this Dr. Bernie can fix us both.”
“Christ, Liam.” Damon reclined back on the hospital bed. “I hope your mom’s a miracle worker.”
“Howdy!” The young nurse who had been overly eager to treat Damon came into the room, her hips holding a little more sway to them and her lips a little more color after she’d applied some gloss.
“Doc says you’re free to go. All the blood tests are coming back clear or on the decline.
He wants you to take it easy for the next few days, and then you should start to feel normal. ”
Damon smiled at the woman, a canine snagging his bottom lip. His hair had fallen forward into his eyes, and he knocked it back with a jerk of his head. “Thank you for taking such good care of me.”
“A-a-anytime.” The nurse didn’t move, simply staring at Damon until snapping out of her trance when an alarm down the hall went off. “Uh, excuse me. I’ll be back with your paperwork in just a sec.”
“Stop flirting with the nurses,” Claudia admonished with a whisper.
“I wasn’t flirting.” Damon kicked off the covers, swinging his long legs over the edge of the bed. “All I did was smile.”
“Same thing,” Emily mumbled. “And you know it.”
Heather and Trevor chose that moment to sweep into the room.
“Get up. All of you.” Heather snapped her fingers at her daughters, waking Madison in the process. “We’re leaving.”
Not many people intimidated Jamison Fairweather, but Heather always had to some degree. To call her a terror was an understatement, and Jamison now partially understood why Claudia had been the way she’d been for so many years.
A monster of her mother’s making.
“We’re waiting on Damon’s paperwork,” Emily said calmly, placing a hand on Claudia’s shoulder when she tried to rise. “They think the drugs are almost out of his system.”
Decked out in a beautiful cream ankle-length skirt with a simple cashmere top and a pair of absurdly high heels, Heather stuck her nose in the air as she surveyed everyone present. “Why is he on drugs?”
“Because those people had to drug me, or else I would have killed them for kidnapping us.” The usual icy indifference Damon held returned, dripping from every word as he spoke. “And hello, Mother. It’s nice to see you again.”
Damon wasn’t one to back down, and Jamison was starting to realize the trait wasn’t the usual innate stubbornness most Fairweathers held, but likely a survival tactic developed in the years he lived under Trevor and Heather’s roof .
Mother and son stared at each other across the cramped hospital room. Or Jamison assumed they did. Heather refused to take off her ridiculously oversized sunglasses, so it was hard to tell.
“It’s good to see you’re doing well,” Trevor said, his words muffled as he addressed the floor instead of his son. “We didn’t know what we were walking into.”
“I’m not doing well.” Damon’s glare shifted from Heather to Trevor, softening just a fraction. “You’re walking into a moment where your children have just escaped being kidnapped by a group of deranged luna—”
“ Shhhh !” Heather flailed both hands up and down, her diamond ring large enough to feed a small country sparkling under the fluorescents. “The entire hospital doesn’t need to hear all the sordid details.”
Jamison swore Damon would break his jaw by how tight he was clenching it. The extremely uncanny resemblance to her father was always there, but pissed off? Yeah, he most definitely took after their branch of the family tree.
The same could be said for Emily. “Oh, gee, Mom. Sorry. We wouldn’t want the world to know that those crazies are actually crazy and came after us.
We wouldn’t want anyone to know that they kept Claudia in a dog crate and me bound while they drugged Damon to the point where we had to drag him out of that place. ”
“We should give them a minute,” Liam whispered in Jamison’s ear. “I think they need a little privacy.”
Being nosy to a fault, Jamison didn’t move off his lap. “You reopened your stitches,” she whispered back to him. And he had, although mildly. The nurse patched him up in no time. “You really shouldn’t move yet.”
Liam pinched her butt, but she stayed in her place, listening so she could tell Simone everything later. Her father didn’t move either, too busy staring daggers at Heather.
“You had to drag him out?” Heather sounded appalled, following up her outrage in true Heather fashion. “What kind of man gets rescued by women? A weak one, sure, but you, Damon? I thought we raised you better than that.”
“Obviously not.” Damon attempted to stand, but his legs couldn’t hold him, and he grabbed onto the bedside railing before he fell. “Son of a bitch. ”
Liam didn’t give her a choice then and moved her off him so he could help Damon. “Em and Claudia said they only fed you broth, so your system is likely in need of nutrients.”
“We’ll get you a big steak dinner,” Trevor said, attempting to smile at Madison, but it only made her whimper. “I’m sure there’s a decent place around here to eat.”
“Nonsense. We’re leaving for Raleigh immediately, and Madison, cease your crying. I will not listen to it for the entire plane ride home.” Heather snapped her fingers again. “Let’s go.”
Jamison stepped back when she saw her father’s eyes darken. The look encompassing his face meant only one thing. Benjamin Fairweather had heard enough.
“Heather, I’d like to see you in the hall.”
Heather lifted her chin defiantly. “No.”
“That wasn’t a question.”
Jamison pressed her lips together as her father closed the distance between himself and Heather. Holding his hand out, he gestured for the door. “Shall we?”
As Heather’s heels clicked out into the hall, the tension in Trevor’s body lessened, and he crouched down to speak to Madison. “Hey, sweetie. How’s Grandpa’s best girl doing?”
Madison’s eyes filled with fresh tears. “Why was my daddy being bad?”
Stiffening, Claudia drew into herself and stared at the wall as her father tried to smooth over the situation.
“Oh.” Trevor cleared his throat and thought for a moment. “Uh…well.”
Her uncle was indeed stepping away from his duties at Fairweather, telling people that retirement suited him, but there were also whispers of something more happening.
A mental decline. An unknown illness keeping him in its grips.
Jamison thought there were too many rumors for any of them to be true, office gossip, and nothing more, but she hadn’t seen him in a long time. The difference was staggering.
“Sometimes… sometimes people we love do bad things,” Trevor continued. “It’s not our fault.”
“But why?” Madison whispered. She reached for him, and Trevor looked startled for a moment, but then extracted the little girl from Claudia’s arms .