Twenty-Eight
Three days later…
The hospital smelled like a sickening mixture of cafeteria food and Lysol, making Maddie’s stomach gurgle. She jabbed the elevator button for the second floor and shifted from foot to foot waiting for the doors to close.
MJ was with Merrick and Rachael at an apartment Merrick owned in Atlanta. He’d let them stay there while her dad was in the hospital since it was close. Maddie told MJ she needed some time alone with her dad today and she’d call if he woke up. The roller-coaster ride of the past few days left her feeling claustrophobic and in need of air and space to get her mind wrapped around everything that happened.
She approached room two-eighty-one and peeked inside. The bed closest to the door was empty, and her father’s frail frame lay under the white sheet on the far bed beside the windows. He was buried under wires and tubes. Machines blinked and beeped around him.
“Daddy?” she whispered, crossing the room to his bed. “I’m back.” She’d spent the better part of the past few days in this room, only leaving when MJ absolutely insisted she come back to the apartment and get some sleep. She bent and kissed the top of her dad’s head. His gray, wiry hair prickled her nose. “I’m sorry.”
She sat in the chair beside his bed and waited for a nurse to come in and give her an update. When a half hour went by, she turned on the TV to an old movie and let her mind drift to the night before. Exhausted and stressed, MJ had made love to her so gently, so breathtakingly, she’d been shattered and whole at the same time. Needy and complete. Only MJ could make her feel two extremes at once.
Where would they go from here?
She couldn’t let her father live alone, and there was no way he was going back to the Rocha Estate. She’d have to find a place for them to live. He’d retire, and she’d find a job to help supplement his Social Security.
MJ would go back to school. She’d see him on weekends. He’d get to know his father.
It would be good.
But it didn’t feel good. She wanted his promise of every night in his arms. But, she couldn’t do that and live with her dad at the same time. She was twenty-four, but she wouldn’t throw her private life in his face.
She and MJ would have their time, but it couldn’t be until he was ready for the level of commitment she was. She’d marry him tomorrow if she could, but he needed to focus on graduating and running Rocha Enterprises for now.
If he knew she was making decisions for him, he’d be pissed. He was a man and she didn’t need to watch out for him. Or so he said. But, she’d always watch out for him. She loved him. It had nothing to do with age.
A nurse finally came in. She said Maddie’s dad’s vital signs were all good and they expected him to wake up any time. The swelling in his head had gone down and as soon as he was awake, they would take the oxygen mask off. He had a few bruises and abrasions on his arms and legs, but nothing was broken.
“He hit his head pretty hard for only falling down the stairs, didn’t he?” Maddie said.
“We have orders to call the police when he wakes. The doctor alerted a social worker to the case and they want to send over an investigator to speak with him when he’s able.”
“Good,” Maddie said, resting her hand on her father’s arm. “Someone did this to him.”
The nurse jotted some numbers down on her dad’s chart and left the room. Maddie’s stomach growled, having not eaten all day. Since her dad was still unconscious, she decided to head down to the ground floor and see what she could find for dinner in the cafeteria. Hopefully, they had a decent cup of coffee. “Be right back,” she told him, and patted his hand.
The cafeteria was enormous, with hot food stations, a salad bar, a deli case and dessert counter. She was starving and wanted one of everything.
Maddie put a turkey sandwich and cup of broccoli cheese soup on a tray before filling a paper cup with steaming hot coffee. She paid and made her way back up to the second floor in the elevator.
The doors opened. She stepped out, turned the corner and froze seeing three policemen standing outside her father’s room. Rushing forward, she almost dumped her tray. “What happened?” she asked.
“Peach?” she heard from inside the room. “Is that you?”
“Dad.” She pushed her way inside.
He was awake. The nurse was checking his blood pressure, and a uniformed officer stood beside his bed with a tablet.
“You’re awake,” Maddie said, sitting her tray on his side table, and kissing him on the cheek. “What happened?”
He closed his eyes and shook his head in disbelief. “Enzo hit me in the back of the head with something. I didn’t see what. I fell down the stairs and that’s all I know.”
“Will you be pressing assault charges?” the officer asked.
“Yes,” she answered for her dad. “Absolutely.”
Her dad squeezed her hand. “I’m glad you’re here, safe with me Peach.”