Chapter 1 – Tyler
“I think you’re going to be okay, Tyler. Your recovery is going quite well, and I know that you’ve been dying for this day.”
“I’m just ready to get back to it. I’ve got a lot of work to do.”
“Just make sure that you rest up. I don’t want you back in here because you’re doing too much.”
I grinned and then winced a little. I was sure that I wasn’t going to be doing too much. I still hurt too much. Pain was a good reminder to slow down, and I was feeling it firsthand today. There was nothing that I wanted to do more than get out of the hospital, but the idea of what all was ahead of me was overwhelming.
Signing off on the paperwork that he put in front of me, I grimaced at the bill and heard him chuckle. “Come on, you’re not worried about the price, are you?”
“No, you guys saved my life. I would have paid more.”
The doctor just shook his head. He’d seen and heard it all before. The weeks that I’d stayed in that bed were going to be a part of my life that I never forgot, but to him it was just another patient in his docket. I would never forget Dr. Franks, though. I knew that it was because of him that I was even here. He’d been with me from the very beginning, and if I was a more emotional man, I would have hugged him and thanked him properly. But I wasn’t, so I didn’t.
“Thanks, Doc.”
“No problem, Tyler. I’m just glad to see you doing better. There was a while when we didn’t know.”
“I know. Me too. I feel like I got a whole new lease on life.”
“Then don’t waste it.”
I told him that I wouldn’t, and I didn’t plan to. Being in that bed for so long had given me a lot of time to think about everything that I was doing in my life. I wasn’t going to say that I liked what I’d learned, but I was thankful for the lesson. I’d been living a life that wasn’t my own. It didn’t have to do with Maya, though the marriage was a glaring failure, but so many other aspects. My job was something that my father had pushed me into, and even the car I drove was because Ivy had liked the way we looked in it. When I really started to think, I realized that I wanted to change everything.
The driver was new. I’d lost a few of my staff while I was in the hospital. I knew that it was just the tip of the iceberg, and I absolutely dreaded the idea of going back to work to find out what needed to be fixed. I had no false hopes that everything had been running the way it was supposed to. There would be problems that had come up, and I was going to have to make sure that I was there to put the fires out.
I took the phone out of my pocket and decided to call Camilla again. I’d been trying her since I woke up and she was gone from the hospital. I’d thought that she would come back, but she never had. Instead I’d spent time with my soon-to-be ex-wife and spent even more time thinking about the future. If the bullet had been a bit more to one side or the other, I might not be here. That weighed heavily on my head and cemented the idea that life was short.
When she didn’t answer, I threw the phone to the floor. I’d called and called, left so many messages that I was sure I was going into stalker territory. She wasn’t answering and hadn’t even let it ring for some time. Now it just rung once and went right to voicemail. After a few minutes of stewing, I called her cellphone one more time before I sighed loudly to myself.
Rolling the divider screen down, I asked the driver to take me to her office. I didn’t know the address, and he didn’t know where I was talking about, so I had him drive around in the vicinity while I called my mother about it. I knew that she would have the address, and sure enough she did.
“Are you okay, Tyler? I wanted to come get you, but I had to go to a meeting.”
“It’s fine, really.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re out. Are you going to come by for dinner? Your father is going to be here.”
“No, I don’t think that we’re going to have those dinners anymore. It was weird enough when we started them up again. You and dad aren’t together, and Maya and I are getting divorced.”
“What do you mean?”
“She wants a divorce, and I agree with her. We’re unhappy and I’m sick of pretending. I don’t know how you and dad can stand each other after everything that you’ve been through. You won’t have to pretend to like each other anymore. It’s exhausting.”
“Well, your father and I have always cared about each other. I know that we’ll never really be together again, but I liked the dinners. It helped me feel closer to you, and I really liked Maya. Are you sure that you can’t work it out?”
“She’s getting married to another man, so I think that ship has sailed. It’s the right thing to do.”
“What about you?”
“I don’t know. There’s a woman that I think I’ve fallen for.”
She was silent for a time, and I wondered what was going through her mind. I was usually so careful with my words, but that was another thing that was going to change. I just wasn’t going to do that anymore. I wasn’t going to sugarcoat anything for anyone anymore.
“Well, you’re going to do what you want. At least now you’ve learned to follow your heart. I’ll be down there this evening, okay?”
I wanted to tell her not to come, but she’d been a constant visitor, and that had made my hospital stay a little more tolerable. “I’ll see you later.”
The car stopped in front of the building that I’d been going to for therapy. It seemed different now. Now that I’d been shot there and everything in my life had changed.
“I’ll be right back out, Case. I just need to check something.”
The driver nodded and waited for me behind the wheel. I walked a little slower, but I made it to the receptionist area eventually. I waited for the redhead to get off the phone before I asked about Camilla.
“She hasn’t been to work in about three weeks. I think she called in or emailed us about taking some time off.”
I couldn’t believe what she was telling me, and I had to wonder if that was just the story for me. So I called a few minutes after I left, trying to get an appointment with her as a new client, but I was told the same thing. Dr. Camilla was taking some time off, and no one had seen her in weeks. That seemed strange to me. Where would she have gone?