No. It felt like he had given me every piece of him. And then I remembered. “She did send him pictures. Like she sent me. Compromising photos. He made it seem like she gave them to him in person. But maybe she sent other thing like she did with me. Which means maybe she threatened him too.”
“Okay. You go talk to the cops. I’m going to go to your apartment and search for the pictures and anything else that might help. Call me if you get an update on James.”
“Wait.” I grabbed his arm. “Can you stay for a second? I’m having trouble catching my breath.”
“I’ll go get the doctor.”
“No.” I closed my eyes and leaned my back against the wall. “Just tell me something good. Tell me something that will calm me down.”
“You’re having a baby.”
Possibly without a father. I opened my eyes. “Something else. Tell me about you and Daphne. Distract me.”
He smiled. “What do you want to know?”
“How serious are you guys? Do you really like her?”
“I more than like her. She gets me in a way that no one ever has before. She laughs at my jokes. She… grounds me. I feel more centered ever since I met her. And more useful, more needed, like I finally have a purpose in life. Making her smile makes me happier than I’ve ever been. And I get this weird feeling in my chest when we’re apart. I haven’t even told her this yet, but I know that I love her. Penny, I’m going to marry that girl. Shit, why are you crying?”
“I don’t know.” I tried to wipe away my tears. “I’m just really happy for you.”
He laughed and pulled me in for a hug. “James is going to be okay, you know. We’re going to be going on double dates in no time.”
“Yeah.” But my heart wasn’t in my words. James was in surgery. And if he didn’t make it, I wasn’t going to make it either.
“I have to go, Penny.”
“Can’t it wait? He needs you here. I need you here.”
“If Isabella did threaten to kill him and she didn’t succeed, she’s not going to give up. She’s always been determined to get her way. It can’t wait. She’ll come here. And they’ll let her, because the cops aren’t even fucking looking at her. They haven’t even asked her to come back to the city for questioning. And if someone out there is talking to Isabella…” he let his voice trail off. “Don’t tell anyone about this, okay?”
I nodded.
“No one.”
“I won’t.”
He gave me one more swift hug. “Call me the second you know anything.” He handed me my phone that he had been holding onto for me. “Don’t look at me like that. You don’t have to answer any of the calls except the ones from me. Ignore the press. Ignore it all, okay?”
I nodded. “Call me when you find the proof that we need.”
“I will.” He patted my back and left me alone in the hallway with my thoughts. I didn’t want to believe that James knew Isabella was going to try to hurt him. But it made sense. Normally I would have been mad at him for something like this. But not today. Today, all I could think about was how sweet it was if it was true. How he wanted to marry me so badly he put himself in danger. And how much guiltier it made me feel. Rob was right. We needed to get to the bottom of this. We needed to make sure that when James woke up, everything was taken care of. And he could just focus on healing.
I looked back at the swinging doors. When. Not if. My husband was going to come back to me. He had to.
Wednesday
“No one else would have sent me this message,” I said.
Officer Daugherty shook his head. “This could be any bachelorette in this city. They’re all jealous of you. There’s a lot of crazy people out there.”
“You’re kidding right?”
“No. This doesn’t mean anything.” He handed the note back to me.
“What other evidence could you possibly need?”
“Solid evidence.”
I tried to stay calm. Rob was working on getting that. Hopefully he’d find something. I had pulled Officer Daugherty into the hallway that I had been talking to Rob in so that no one would overhear us. But this wasn’t going the way I would have hoped. Maybe he’d listen to what I had to say next. “Rob and I have both felt like someone’s been watching us.”
“We have a team outside the hospital. Melissa isn’t allowed within 50 feet of the building.”
Still not working. “What I mean is that someone in the waiting room is feeding Isabella information. Or there’s a camera or something.”
“Mrs. Hunter, I don’t know how many times I have to tell you that Isabella isn’t…”
“Okay. Fine. Then not Isabella. But someone is telling whoever has been sending me these notes what’s been going on here.” And it’s Isabella!
He nodded. “Could be. I’ll ask everyone a few questions. See what I can turn up.”
“Thank you.”
Officer Daugherty glanced at his phone. “Looks like there was no record of that shipment with UPS. It must have just been someone that was dressed like a UPS guy.”
“Aren’t there cameras in this hospital? You could probably get an angle of his face. Run it against your system?”
“You’ve been watching too many crime shows. How about you leave the detective work to us? And I recommend you get some sleep.”
Condescending asshole. “Thanks, Officer Daugherty.”
***
“I heard what you said to Mason. You’re not weak,” James’ father said as he sat down next to me.
I kept my eyes on Officer Daugherty. He was having a conversation with Jen. It definitely wasn’t Jen. Or anyone else here. What had I been thinking? None of these people would betray me. I sighed. “You don’t know me very well.” It was a cold response. But I was trying to focus. I was trying to see if anyone was texting or slipping away too often for the restroom.
“James came to our house once a month for the past two years trying to convince us to meet you. I know more than you think.”
I turned toward him. “Really?”
“He didn’t tell you?”