FIVE
RIFT
She didn’t have her engagement ring on, and for some reason, it made me irrational. I hadn’t meant to cut her off so rudely at the bookstore, but her bare finger had struck a wrong chord with me.
Was she hiding the fact she was engaged?
Fucking women and their cheating ways.
I knew another engaged woman who didn’t wear her ring in public, and she’d been taking it from every dick that crossed her path. Thanks to her, my heart was frozen solid.
Maybe I was wrong about Gwyneth.
Maybe she was just like the rest, and Mitchell was mistaken about how innocent his fiancée was.
Either way, I would enjoy finding out.
Using her to enlarge my bank account.
She would never know it was coming. Gripping my steering wheel, I smirked when I watched her step off the elevator and head to her car. She didn’t have any packages with her, which meant she either didn’t buy anything or she was having the books shipped.
Children’s books.
Mitchell had said she was obsessed with the kids at the hospital. Obviously, the books were for them, but I wanted to know more.
That led me to step two … watch your target.
Which was what I was doing.
I watched as she got into her car and pulled away. I followed as she drove across town. And when she pulled into the parking garage for the hospital, I did, as well.
After my meeting with Mitchell and knowing she worked and volunteered at the hospital most days, I figured I would spend a lot of time around there. I wasn’t much for hospitals, but I had to do what I had to do. Something about being surrounded by sickness and death didn’t sit well with me.
Once inside the hospital, I lost her when she slid onto the elevator as it was closing, and since the elevator was full of people, I wasn’t sure which floor she had gotten off on.
I stepped into the next available elevator, and my stomach dropped and turned with each stop at every single floor. The back of the elevator was glass, allowing me to watch my ascent with each floor. Taking in the view of the lobby, I was struck by how beautiful and advanced the place was.
I could remember when the hospital opened, and how the newscasters went on about the new pediatric wing and how advanced the technology was.
Then it all came together.
Children’s books.
The children’s wing.
I slammed my finger against the number one to get back to the first floor, and when I did, my eyes skimmed a plaque just to the side of the elevator buttons. The name Petrova stuck out as if highlighted. Another memory of the hospital opening hit, and I remembered the Petrova name being linked to the hospital.
Mitchell could have saved me a ton of time with this information.
The cheating bastard.
The pediatric wing of Savannah Hope Hospital was magnificent. The hospital feel went away completely the second I stepped foot through the door.
Instead of white walls and the scent of antiseptic, the décor was colorful and happy, and strangely, the place smelled of cotton candy. My shoes clicked against the black and white checkered floor as I made my way toward the front desk.
The ladies behind the desk were wearing colorful scrubs and fun headbands with ears as they worked in front of a mural of cartoon characters painted on the wall.
“Can I help you?” a nurse with red hair and bunny ears asked.
I turned with a grin, and her cheeks turned pink.
“I’m good. Just visiting my nephew.”
I worried she would push, but just as she opened her mouth, an alarm sounded, and the nurses moved around in a flurry. I stepped to the side, pressing myself against the wall to stay out of their way.
Soon, the alarm silenced, and a little boy on a gurney passed me. My breathing stopped when I realized they were doing CPR on him as they rushed him away.
Once the boy was wheeled away, the hallway grew silent. The nurses were nowhere to be found, so I started down the hallway. After turning a corner onto a hallway painted blue, I found her in a room at the end. The door was open, and even though a young boy somewhere in the hospital was fighting for his life, I heard laughter coming from the room.
The laughter was cut off when a nurse stepped into the hall and pulled the door closed. Through the small window in the door, I could see Gwyneth smiling brightly, pulling me toward the door like a magnet.
I pressed my fingers against the door and moved closer to the window, careful not to be seen. Inside, a group of bald children smiled up at Gwyneth. She pulled books out of a box at her side and handed them to each child who came up to her and shook her hand.
The breath in my lungs rushed out as if I’d been punched in the stomach. What I was seeing was strangely beautiful, and as my eyes moved over the smiling faces of very sick children, a thought occurred to me.
Sure, Gwyneth didn’t wear her engagement ring, but maybe that had more to do with Mitchell than it did with her because the woman I was looking at couldn’t be as evil as my heart hoped she was. She looked angelic, her smile illuminating the children as if its brightness was curing them as I watched on.
I backed away from the window, feeling a bit sick to my stomach. I’d never felt this way about a job before. What was the heaviness in my chest, pressing so hard my heart felt like there wasn’t enough room to beat?
Guilt.
What the fuck?
I didn’t feel guilt.
Not ever.
I wasn’t even sure it was a real thing. I’d heard others speak of it before and blew it off as if it were nothing, but it definitely existed.
I moved farther away from the door until I could no longer see Gwyneth and the children. The farther away I got, the less I felt the guilt. It wasn’t until I was in my SUV again that I was able to breathe and think things through.
I couldn’t afford to let stupid things like guilt hold me back. Just because she did nice things for the children didn’t mean anything. It didn’t change the fact she was my job, and I never screwed up a job.
Seeing her with those kids pushed me further into my plan and led me to the next step.
Step three: Find out what she liked.
The kids at Savannah Hope Hospital were obviously what she liked. It was in her eyes. The brightness of her smile when she looked down at them and handed them each a book. Standing at the door and looking in, I had almost smiled at the scene that unfolded in front of me.
Sick children were her weakness. Hell, sick kids were a weakness for anyone, and being the bastard I was, I would use that knowledge to my advantage.