“Winter? Where are you going?” Rider came running behind her.
“To the hospital. My aunt had a heart attack.” She opened the back door, running down the walkway.
As she ran toward the parking lot, Sasha and Viper were coming up. Winter would have laughed at their expressions of surprise, but she was too terrified for Aunt Shay to kill her cheating husband.
“Winter? What the hell? Where are you going?” Viper tried to catch her arm, but fury gave her the strength to pull away from him.
“Stay away from me!” she screamed. “My aunt may be dying, and instead of being with me, you’re outside, fucking another woman, just like when my mother died and when I nearly died!” She took off running again. When she tried to open her car door, Viper blocked her.
“I’ll drive you.” His chilly demeanor didn’t faze her.
She saw Sasha and Rider come to stand beside the car.
“Can I help?” Sasha tried to intervene as Winter took a step back from Viper.
“I think you’ve done more than enough,” she said harshly, going to the other side of the car and opening the passenger side door. “I don’t have time to argue with you right now. Drive me to the hospital. Then stay the hell away from me,” she spat at Viper.
He got inside the car, waving Sasha and Rider back.
Winter grimly stared out the window as her husband drove toward the hospital.
“Why do you think I was fucking Sasha?”
“I saw you at the gazebo with her. For your information, Rider sucks at lying.”
“He told you I was inside the gazebo with Sasha?”
“No, he told me you were in the clubhouse. Then, when I was about to go outside, he lied and said you were back with Ton. You should give him lessons. I believed every lie you told me.”
“I’m not going to fight with you when you’re upset about your aunt, but I didn’t lie for the reason you think I did.”
She sighed in exhaustion. “I don’t need to hear your explanations. It was pretty clear from what I saw.”
“Then you saw wrong.”
Viper’s profile was forbidding as he drove up to the entrance of the hospital. When he brought the car to a stop, she already had her hand on the door handle.
“I’ll park the car and be there in a minute.”
Winter didn’t take the time to argue with him. She rushed inside the hospital, going to the emergency room. Beth and Razer were sitting there, their faces ashen. Winter feared she had gotten there too late.
“How is she doing?” she asked, when Beth rose to hug her.
“She’s stable. The doctor is waiting for her tests to come back,” Beth tearfully answered. “I wanted to stay with her, but they wouldn’t let me.”
“I’ll check to see if they’ll let me.” Winter hurried to the desk, seeing Viper coming in and taking a seat next to Razer.
“Are you family?” the woman at the desk asked, when Winter made her request.
“Yes, I’m her niece.”
“Go inside the side door. A nurse will escort you.”
“Thank you.” She followed the woman’s directions, and a nurse immediately took her to her aunt’s room.
Seeing her lying there, so frail and helpless on the hospital bed, Winter wanted to break into tears. However, she forced herself to keep her composure, going to her aunt’s side and taking her thin hand in hers.
“Did you watch another scary movie without me?” Winter teased, trying to keep herself in control.
Aunt Shay gave her a trembling smile. “No, it was my game show.”
“If you weren’t feeling well, why didn’t you ask me to stay?”
“I didn’t want to be a nuisance.”
“From now on, I’m the one who’s going to be a nuisance,” Winter warned. The days of her aunt living alone were over. She should have put her foot down before, but she hadn’t wanted to take her aunt’s independence from her.
“If there is a next time.” Her weak reply had Winter gripping her hand more tightly.
“Please don’t talk like that, Aunt Shay. You’ll get better. You have to. Who will I watch scary movies with?”
“Winter, that’s what old people do. They die so they can make way for the new.”
Winter hated that saying. Her mother had said it often to her. When her mother had found out her breast cancer was terminal, she had said the old leaves fell off the tree so new could grow.
“Don’t be silly; you’re not old,” Winter scolded teasingly, as the doctor walked into the room, his tall, muscular frame making the room feel even smaller. She had thought she knew everyone in town, but the doctor was new to her.
“Hello, I’m Dr. Price,” he introduced himself, as Winter nervously waited to hear what he had to say. “Good news! It wasn’t a heart attack. Mrs. Langley’s potassium level is low. We’ll simply give her some medication overnight, and you’ll be as good as new tomorrow. Well, almost as good. I want you to put some weight on.”