Ruin: Part One

Chapter 7




"Kayla. Kayla, can you hear me?" A woman's voice tears through the immeasurable pain in my head. It sounds as though she's screaming at me. What the hell is her problem?

My eyes dart open and I'm instantly aware that I'm not in bed at Alexa's. This room is bright. The large light above my head is shining directly into my face.

"Kayla. Kayla Monroe?" She repeats my name. "Do you know your name?"

If I didn't, I'd guess it was Kayla Monroe just by her incessant need to repeat it over and over again to me.

"Yes," I whisper through a swollen lip. "I'm Kayla."

Her hand brushes over my forehead. "Don't move. I'll get the doctor."

"The doctor?" I try to raise my hand to touch my forehead. It's burning. I feel as though I fell asleep with my face inside of a frying pan. "What doctor?"

I sense movement beside me. Where's Alexa? I need her.

"Kayla?" It's a man now. His voice is deep and gentle. It's familiar.

I turn my head slowly towards him. I remember him. He's handsome. We kissed. "Ben," I say his name. I remember his name.

"You're going to be fine." He leans down to run his finger over my lip. "Nothing is broken. You didn't need any stitches."

"Why are you here?" I try to look behind him for another familiar face. "Did I get hurt?"

He nods slowly, his eyes darting beside me to a nurse standing next to the bed. I don't flinch as she grips my wrist to take my pulse.

"Her pulse is ninety-two." I listen as she shuffles with papers. "She's stabilizing."

"Give her four hundred milligrams of ibuprofen and get someone from admitting down here," Ben directs her. "She needs to be monitored tonight."

Why is he saying those things? I turn to watch her walk quickly past one of the curtains that surrounds the bed. I'm in the hospital. I try to sit up. I can't be here. I need to be at work in the morning. I need to tell Alexa where I am so she doesn't panic.

"I have to go." I try to swing my legs over the side of the bed. "I need to go home."


"You can't leave." His hands push me back down. "You're seriously hurt."

"I want to talk to the doctor." I feel my lip quiver. "Go get the doctor."

He shakes his head slightly. I watch him take a heavy swallow. "I'm your doctor."

"What?" I bolt back to a sitting position.

He steadies my balance with his hands on my shoulders. "You fell, Kayla. I brought you here. I'm your attending physician."

"You're not a doctor," I blurt the words out quickly without any thought. I don't know who he is. Could he be a doctor?

"I'm a doctor." He points to the identification badge clipped to the front of his sweater. "I work here."

My eyes scan the badge. I can't focus on the writing. It's blurry. "This isn't real." I feel panic race through me.

"I'm Dr. Ben Foster."

"Foster?" I shake my head certain that I misheard him. "As in the Noah Foster?"

"No, Ben Foster. I'm not Noah. Noah is a photographer. You probably saw a story about him online or in one of the papers," he says gruffly. "My name is Ben. You and I met several weeks ago. You may feel temporarily confused because of the impact of your fall. That will…"

"Do you know Noah Foster?" I interrupt him.

"Do you know him?" It's a challenge woven into a nervous chuckle.

My eyes don't leave his face. He knows Noah. I see it now. That's who he looks like. "I know him," I offer quietly. "He loves my best friend."

"Noah is in love?"

I nod slowly. "You're related to Noah, aren't you? You look like him."

His expression doesn't change but his eyes give something away. "You need to rest."

My hand darts to my mouth and I wince at the brush of my fingers against my swollen lip. "You're him, aren’t you?"

I see the resignation in his expression the moment the question leaves my lips. "I'm who?" he asks, frustration lacing his tone. "Who do you think I am?"

"You're Noah's twin brother."

He scrubs the back of his neck with his right hand. "Yes. Noah Foster is my brother."

"I live with him," I offer although the moment I say the words I realize the implied meaning in them.

"You what?" His brow cocks with the question. "You live with my brother?"

I pull my hands together as I see the nurse push the curtain aside again. This time she's holding a rectangular tray in her hands. She reaches to hand me a paper cup containing two small pills. I tenderly take it, popping both of them into my mouth. She replaces the cup with one filled with water. I grimace as the liquid touches my open lip before I swallow it. The bitter taste of blood floats over my tongue.

"I need you to call Noah," I say as much to the nurse as to Ben. "He'll be worried about where I am. I mean, Alexa will be worried."

Ben's hand flies over me towards the nurse. "I'll handle this."

She hesitates before she turns on her heel, walks towards the curtain and disappears behind it. I lean back instantly aware that I have to explain to Alexa that I had a one night stand with Noah's brother. He's the brother that she's been longing to meet for months and I hooked up with him.

"I can't believe you're Noah's brother," I mutter the words. "They were just talking about you tonight."

"Who was talking about me?" He doesn’t raise his eyes to meet mine. He's holding a tablet in his hands, his fingers jutting over the screen quickly.

"Noah and his fiancé." My eyes sting with tears. My head is throbbing, my lip feels bigger than my entire face and I know that tomorrow my new job will be in jeopardy because Vivian won't have anyone to run to the corner deli to get her a sandwich. "Can I please just go home?"

"Wait." His index finger taps my hand. "Did you just say Noah is engaged?"

Why am I the one providing all of this information to him? Shouldn't Noah be sharing the news of his impending marriage with his twin brother? I don't want to be caught in the middle of this. It's bad enough that I have to explain to Alexa and Noah that I crawled into bed with Ben without knowing his last name. I'm ashamed, I'm embarrassed and I want to get this entire mess out in the open as soon as I can.

"When is he getting married?" His fingers brush against my forehead. "What's she like?"

I can't do this. I feel as though I'm betraying Lex. I'm giving this man information that should be coming from her. "You should talk to Noah."

His hand leaps to his own forehead. His index finger traces a pointed path along his brow. "I haven't spoken to Noah in years. I can't talk to him."

My loyalty isn't to him. Once I walk through the doors of this hospital and back into my life, our connection will cease to exist. I'm a one night stand with a complication in the form of a head wound. "I can't talk about Noah to you. I need to call him and Alexa now."

"Is there someone else you can call?" he asks, pulling on the collar of his sweater.

"No," I concede. "I'm staying with them. They'll be worried about me."

He exhales audibly. "Let me think for a minute."

I sense immediately the anxiety that has overtaken him. It's the same reaction Noah had at the restaurant when Alexa pressed him about his brother.

"Just please let me call them." I sit up swiftly again, my hand bolting to the edge of the bed for stability. "Can't they take care of me tonight?"

The darkness around his eyes lifts. "No, but I can."