While Brie is away, I try to think of how I should go about finding him. The first thing I do is actually look him up online. I know that it’s stupid. But he is a celebrity. Maybe someone, somewhere found out about him being taken to another hospital and posted the name of it. Unfortunately, there isn’t much to be found on Google except some information about the shooting and the fact that I had killed Blake after he attacked me. Things I already know all too well.

Then I search for hospitals and doctors specializing in coma patients. Little did I know, but Boston is a mecca of brain medicine and hospitals in general. It seems like if you are afflicted with something, it’s Boston where you want to be. Frankly, I don’t even know where to start. The best course of action is to go back upstairs. Someone up there has to know something. Maybe one of the nurses, or an orderly. Someone must’ve heard something when they were moving him. Dr. Briggs and all the other doctors have made it quite obvious that they were against the idea.

What the hell is taking her so long? I wonder.

Where are you? I text Brie. No answer. I finish my cup of coffee and head upstairs.

I walk straight to the nurses’ station and find one that I remember chatting with earlier. Unfortunately, all of their names are a blur.

“I’m sorry, I can’t remember your name. This has been a difficult few days,” I say to the younger one. The one with the friendliest face.

“I’m Amber.”

“Hi, Amber. I’m Ellie. My boyfriend, Aiden Black—“

“Yes, I know,” she cuts me off.

“He was shot. They put him into a medically induced coma,” I continue.

“Yes, I was here for that.”

“Please, Amber, you have to help me. I went home last night and his mother just took him away. She transferred him to some other hospital, in Boston. But I don’t know where he is.”

“I’m sorry,” she mumbles.

“Amber, I’m begging you. He’s my fiancée. We’re getting married. I’m carrying his baby. I need to be with him. I have to know if he’s okay.”

“Can’t you just contact his mother?”

“That’s the thing…I don’t know how. She never told me she was going to do this. She just took off.”

“I don’t know what I can do.”

I can’t tell if I’m making any progress, but I continue.

“I’m sure that if you just looked through the computer, you would find his files. There must be some information here about where they transferred him to.”

“I’m not sure if we’re supposed to do that.” She shrugs. “Private medical information, you know.”

“Yes, I know. But I’m family. I’m the closest person to him and they took him away. He hasn’t talked to his mother in a long time. I’ve never even met her and we were going to get married.”

I pause. No, that doesn’t sound right.

“We are going to get married,” I correct myself. “I just want to be with him. I want to make sure he’s okay.”

Amber looks around. The other nurses are busy talking to each other and on the phone. One is looking through paperwork. C’mon, please, Amber, I say silently to myself. Please, help me.

“I really need your help,” I whisper, leaning over the counter.

“Okay,” she finally agrees. I let out a sigh of relief. Okay, okay, this is going to work.

“What’s his full name again?”

I give it to her. She types it into the computer, which is facing away from me.

“Is he the Aiden Black?”

“Yep.”

“The founder of Owl.”

“Yep.”

“Oh, wow, you’re lucky,” she says in a girly way, but then catches herself. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”

“It’s totally okay,” I mumble.

“Okay, let’s see here. It seems like they are taking him to —“

“Amber,” a low disapproving voice interrupts her.

“Where? Where did they take him?” I whisper.

“Amber, please come with me.”

“Why?” she asks.

“You know quite well that we cannot release medical information to non-family members,” the older nurse with big hair and an even bigger bosom says.

“Amber, where did they take him?” I plead. “Just tell me and I’ll go.”

Amber is about to open her mouth. But then the nurse says, “If you tell her, then you are fired.”

Amber takes a step back.

“What? You can’t do that.”

“Yes, I can. You will be fired for disclosing private medical information to a stranger.”

“I’m not a fucking stranger.”

“I would like you to leave, Ms. Rhodes. I’m calling security to escort you out.”

I shake my head. No, no, no. This can’t be happening. I was so close to finding out.

“Please, ma’am, I don’t think you understand.”

“I do understand,” she says calmly. The tone of her voice is ice-cold. “I’m sorry, but we cannot tell you.”

I look over at Amber. Her eyes are wide and filled with horror.

I’m sorry, she mouths.

“Now, are you going to leave, Ms. Rhodes? Or shall I call security?”

“I’m going,” I whisper. “I’m going.”

***

I walk down the hallway. My shoulders are sagging with the weight of the whole world on them. What am I going to do now? My mind goes in circles over all the possibilities, but I come up with nothing. Turning at the corner, I disappear out of sight. I hope that’s enough for now for security not to be called on me. I still have to find Brie.

“Pssst, over here.” I hear Brie whisper. I turn around and see her peeking out of an office.

“What are you doing?” I whisper back. She motions for me to come over and disappears inside.

I glance down the hallway in both directions. When I’m certain that I’m alone, I duck into a little room. It’s cramped and filled to the brim with paperwork.

“What is this place?” I ask, looking around a space that is only a little bit bigger than a broom closet.

“It’s Dr. Briggs’s office.”

“What?”

“She left her laptop on.” Brie sits down at the table and moves the mouse around the screen. “She’s his primary doctor. There has to be something here about where they took him.”

With my heart racing, I stand over her shoulder as she searches Dr. Briggs’s computer. My hands get clammy and I shift my weight from one side to another to try to calm myself down.

“We’re going to get caught,” I whisper.

“We’re not, if you keep your mouth shut. Or better yet, go act like a lookout.”

I glance back. Okay, yes, I can do that.

My decision couldn’t have come at a better time. As soon as I walk out of the office and close the door slightly behind me, leaving it a bit ajar, I see Dr. Briggs walking down the hall.

“Dr. Briggs, hey.” I walk up to her, pulling her attention away until her back is to the office.

“Hello, Ellie,” she says quietly. I’m probably one of the last people she wants to see right now.

“I’m sorry to bother you again,” I say. “But is there anything you could do? I have to find Aiden. There are so many hospitals in Boston. Can you at least tell me if he’s in Massachusetts General?”

She inhales and exhales deeply.

“Did Mrs. Black tell you anything?” she asks. I shake my head. “I don’t have her number so I have no way of getting in touch with her.”

She takes out her phone. “If I tell you, you cannot ever say that it came from me.”

“Okay, yes, of course.”

“Where are you going to say you got this information?”

“I don’t know,” I say, trying to think of a plausible excuse. “I’ll avoid it for as long as possible and then if pressed I’ll say that I called all the hospitals in the area and someone finally told me. Aiden is quite famous.”

Dr. Briggs doesn’t seem completely convinced, but after a moment, she reads off the information on her phone.

“Dr. Shannon Duhaine and Dr. Lawrence Chapman are overseeing his condition. Yes, he is at Mass General.”

I let out a big sigh of relief.

“Thank you! Thank you so much!” I say, giving her a big hug. She pushes me away quickly.

“I didn’t tell you anything, remember?”

“Oh, yes, of course.”

“And he made it there okay? The move?”

“Yes, it seems like he did. It was still not a good idea.”

“Yes, I agree.”

“Well, I have to go. I have patients to see. Good luck with his mother.”

Suddenly, I remember that Brie is still looking through her computer. I’m about to run up to her and distract her again, but luckily she walks down the other hallway and disappears around the corner.

“Brie, let’s go,” I whisper. “She told me where he is.”

“Really?” She looks shocked. “Good. ‘Cause I got nothing from her computer. It must be somewhere on the main system.”