Chapter 40

ELEANOR

I paced in front of the hospital door, gnawing on my hangnail. I could feel my heart racing in my chest, the heat in my cheeks.

The lights flickered above me. My sneakers made loud squeaking sounds at each turn. I ran my fingers through my greasy hair furiously.

I stopped pacing and moved toward the window. It was dark outside. I could just make out the yellow streetlights illuminating the hospital parking lot. The clouds were heavy in the sky.

I scowled at my reflection in the window. I looked terrible. My hair was tangled and greasy. I wore my running leggings and a large sweatshirt.

No wonder they hadn’t let me through. I was a complete mess.

I swore and went back to pacing in front of the door, clenching and unclenching my hands.

“Ellie!”

My head shot up as Anna burst into the room. Anna and I didn’t know each other that well, having only seen each other a few Christmases, years ago.

She rushed to my side and grasped my hands. She looked a mess, too, her dress rumpled, and her blonde hair pulled back in a scrappy ponytail, her blue eyes squinting through her glasses.

“Where is he? Is he okay?” she demanded.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “They won’t let me through. I’m not… I’m not family.”

“Oh, fuck that!” she growled and hammered on the door. “Let me see my father!” she yelled. She turned back to me, eyeing my outfit. “How long have you been here?”

“Couple of hours.”

“Do you want to go to a hotel, take a shower?”

I shook my head. “No, I want to know what’s going on first,” I answered. She nodded understanding.

“Let me in!” she bellowed, hammering at the door again.

The door burst open, and a woman wearing green slacks and heavy bags under her eyes glared at us. She turned to Anna.

“You must be the daughter?”

“We both are,” Anna snapped. “How is my father?”

“Well…” She pursed her lips, obviously not happy to be spending her Saturday night in the hospital dealing with us.

“As you were told over the phone, he suffered a stroke. Now, calm down. He’s very young, so he’s pulled through and is sleeping now.”

“Can we see him?” Anna was already pushing past her.

“No!” She shoved Anna back, glaring. “Visiting hours are later, and he really needs to sleep. You can come back and visit him tomorrow morning.”

“Is he in danger of having more strokes? What caused it?” I asked.

“Listen,” she glared at me. “I have other patients to see, others who are trying to sleep. Come back tomorrow, don’t ask for me.”

She spun on her heels and marched out the door, closing it loudly behind her.

“Well, her bedside table manner is terrible,” Anna snapped.

“Yeah, that might be my fault. I was insulting her earlier. She wouldn’t let me through.” I shrugged one shoulder. Anna arched one brow at me and smiled.

“Where’s Mother?”

“With Dad,” I answered, snorting. “Somehow, she got through the first door with the ambulance.”

“This place is like a fucking video game,” Anna mused. She shook her head slowly and gazed at me. “So, where are you staying?”

“I was thinking of staying in that motel down the road,” I admitted.

Anna shook her head. “No, come with me. I’ll get us a place at the Hilton. Like that, we won’t stress Mother out with extra visitors. That man of yours joining us?”

“Yeah, he was getting the next flight. I kinda went straight to the hospital from my morning run,” I chuckled.

Anna wrapped her arm over my shoulder and walked me out of the waiting room.

“I need a bubble bath,” she murmured.

***

Anna got us adjoining rooms in the Hilton a couple of blocks from the hospital. However, neither of us could sleep.

We each bathed and then found ourselves in her room, eating out the minifridge and watching the sunrise on the horizon.

It cast a bright, golden light over the city, glinting off the skyline.

I hadn’t been to Sacramento in three years, having returned only for Christmas a couple of years ago to meet Anna’s third daughter. I really should have visited more.

Getting a call from Constance from the other side of the country telling me Dean had had a stroke and asking me if I wouldn’t mind coming to see him had broken my heart.

I knew staying away from them was keeping them safe.

Though I hadn’t seen any pureblood since that one in my class at UCLA, probably because I ran the next day to the other side of the world, I knew they were everywhere and anywhere.

I couldn’t have my human family mixed up in that kind of danger.

Already, dragging Logan around with me played hard enough on my guilty heartstrings. But he was happy enough to follow me, and I needed him.

I glanced at Anna, sipping her coffee, staring out at the city as it woke up.

Every sunrise since that evening at UCLA gave me a little strength, knowing that nothing was going to happen for the next twelve hours.

Not that I was afraid of the night. I just knew I was safe during the day.

“You know,” Anna mused, still gazing at the city where she was raised. “Mother and Dad were digging into your background,” she murmured.

“They were?” I rolled to the edge of the bed, wearing my pajamas under the fluffy hotel dressing gown. “What did they find out?”

Anna glanced back at me and sat down in the chair close to the window. “Not much. A little about your parents, possible siblings.”

I arched my brows. I did wonder often who Ellie Martinez really was, the person whose name I had stolen. Where she was. I hoped fervently that she hadn’t been a victim of my first family’s violence.

“They wanted to adopt you,” Anna continued.

“Really?” I felt the blush reaching my cheeks and shame. Why hadn’t I called more often?

Anna smiled at me. “Yeah. They consider you theirs either way. They were trying to add you to their will.”

“Can they do that? I was just their foster child for two years.”

“Ellie, you have been a part of this family since you moved in, all wide-eyed and moody,” she said with a cackle.

“I should really have visited more often,” I murmured.

“Yeah, me too.” She bit down on her bottom lip with a small smile.

“We’re here now. That’ll make them happy, but maybe, we could make more of an effort, yeah? The years I can’t come for Christmas, you come and vice versa? Does that work for you?”

I nodded vigorously. “I can do that.”

“Good. So, where are you living these days? I heard you’d signed up for a master’s degree in Boston?”

“Yeah, after we got back from Brazil. You know I was finishing my bachelor’s long-distance? So, I graduated this summer and found this really interesting course in Boston.”

“And Logan just follows you around?” Anna arched her brows. I shrugged.

“I follow him too. He was the one who got the job in Boston. I would have stayed in Rio.”

“How many languages do you speak now?” Anna wrinkled her nose. I gave her a small smile.

“Fluently? Like four.”

“You had a good life for a foster kid,” she muttered.

I grinned at her. “I try my best.”

She snorted. “Come on.”

Anna slapped her hands on her thighs and launched herself off the chair.

“Now get dressed, we’re going to have some breakfast and go back to that hospital, and we’re going to give some other nurse hell.” She grinned at me.

“Sounds like a plan!”

***

It was evening by the time Logan strode through the doors and found me sitting calmly on the plastic chairs in Dean’s hospital room. He was fast asleep.

We had sent Constance home to shower and eat. Anna had gone with her.

“Fuck, Ellie,” Logan rushed to my side, squatting down and grabbing my face in one smooth movement. “Are you okay? How’s Dean?”

He kissed me furiously then glanced toward the bed.

“He’s okay,” I replied, putting my book down and pushing my hair out of my face. “He had a stroke. He’s fine now. But, you know, I don’t know when it could happen again.” I squirmed.

Logan turned back to me, stroking my cheek. He kissed me softly on the nose. “He’s a strong man, Ellie, he’ll pull through,” he insisted.

I gave him a small smile. “Did you bring my clothes?”

“Yeah,” he brandished my travel bag in the air. “How’s Constance?”

“Freaked out.”

“Understandable.”

“Hmm.” I looked past him at Dean’s massive figure, snoring on the bed. “I need to visit more,” I told him.

“Of course. Ellie, you know this job I’ve got in Boston. I don’t plan on leaving it anytime soon,” he stood and, grasping my hands, pulled me up into his arms.

He wrapped his arms tightly around my waist, and I let my head fall gently on his chest. I could hear his heart racing.

“Ellie, I don’t want to keep moving around. It was fun, don’t get me wrong. But my job is good, we’re good. And we’re a lot closer to our families,” he murmured into my hair.

“I think it could be nice for us to settle down, you know?”

“I know,” my voice was strained. I had dreaded him saying those words to me. I had tried my best, over the last five years, to stay ahead of anyone tracking me down.

But, if I settled in Boston with Logan, I just knew, eventually, they would find me again. And they would try to kill me again. I could never settle down.

Logan lifted my chin and kissed me softly, then rested his head on top of mine and breathed out heavily.

“I love you, Ellie,” he whispered.

“Yeah, me too,” I breathed, trembling, a deep dread forming in my stomach. I knew I was coming to the end of my life as I had known it.