Lucidity

Chapter 38 - In the Mourning

“Grace, can you hear me?” Vincent’s voice broke through the haze that shrouded her mind.

She struggled to open her eyes. He wore scrubs, a surgical mask dangling from his neck. She realized she was in the ICU, a ventilator doing the work of breathing for her, IV’s dripping fluids into her veins.

Grace closed her eyes. Vincent was the last person she wanted to see. Her brain might be foggy, but she still remembered his betrayal.

“I’m so sorry.” His words came in an earnest whisper, rustling the hairs on her cheek. “I really do care for you, Grace. But Eve gave me no choice. Don’t worry, though. I’m taking over as Director of the ECU. Things are going to change. Lucidine has so much potential. That was one thing Eve had right. I’ll do better than her, I promise.” He paused, cleared his throat and she felt his hand squeeze hers. “Maybe then, we can, you could—”

Grace pulled away from his touch, and he sighed. She opened her eyes long enough to watch him walk away, then allowed the drugs to do their work and transport her into a blissful slumber. To her dreams, where she could be with Jimmy—until it was time to be with him again forever.

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Vincent twisted his wrist, glanced at the new Rolex there. Leonard Augustine was three minutes late. He tugged his silk tie straight and paced to the wide expanse of windows overlooking the small park beside the hospital. It was a bright April day, marking Vincent’s one-month anniversary as Director of the ECU and the Lucidine project.

He placed his hand against the glass warmed by early morning sun. The forecast called for record highs, it was already in the fifties when he’d driven his new Saab convertible into work this morning. He covered a yawn with his other hand.

Eve had left a legacy of private clients who kept growing as word of Lucidine’s success spread. And, like Leonard, these clients insisted upon meeting with him in private for their treatments, always before and after business hours, giving him little time for anything except work. Despite moving into a comfortable Shadyside townhouse, he practically lived here in the ECU.

His gaze zeroed in on an unusual group traveling down the sidewalk into the grassy expanse of the park. He watched with a pang of regret as Grace spread out a bright plaid blanket. Despite her rejection of him, he still dreamt of her, of what they could have had. At least her operation had freed her from the prison of her fears and agoraphobia. He could take comfort for his role in that.

Kat pushed Alex in a wheelchair. He’d meant to visit the children, check in on them, but he’d been too busy. He’d heard from Helman that Kat was almost done with her rehab, would be going home in another week or so. Also that the ethics committee had approved Alex’s DNR and Grace had been appointed his guardian ad litem. No small feat, considering Grace had lost her ability to speak during the surgery that saved her life.

He watched her with the children, her graceful movements striking even from this distance. Kat threw her head back and spun around with glee, wavering a little when she put her weight on her left leg.

Despite losing her voice, that hypnotic angel’s voice that had first attracted him to her, Grace had no difficulty communicating with the two children. He watched as she gently lifted Alex from his chair and made him comfortable on the blanket.

Then he realized Alex had no oxygen with him. Grace held Alex on her lap, pointing out the early budding forsythia, crocus and daffodils while Kat sat on his other side, blowing bubbles from a small bottle.

Vincent closed his eyes on the scene, his hand still pressed against the glass, trembling as he realized what he was witnessing. Alex’s death. And Vincent’s failure.

“All right, Emberek.” A man’s voice broke through his reverie. “Let’s talk turkey. What’s it gonna take to get rid of these lousy feelings? I don’t have time for all that talk-therapy crap, can’t afford to lose my edge because of Prozac or any of that other shit. So tell me, what can you bring to the table? What’s this new wonder drug of yours I heard about?”

Vincent opened his eyes, the tableau below him blurring as he blinked. He spun around, a wide smile creasing his face.

“Lucidine,” he told Leonard Augustine, a powerful Hollywood advertising executive, certain to be another success story for Vincent. “It will change your world. Forever.”

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New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of seventeen books, former pediatric ER doctor CJ Lyons has lived the life she writes about in her cutting edge Thrillers with Heart.

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