Stolen Love

Chapter Fifteen

Ashton

"Who was the nurse that was here, and why was she attempting to give my son an injection?" I inquired.

"I'll need to speak with the nurse who was with him earlier to understand the situation. She should be handing over to the other nurse. I'll be right back," she said.

She quickly walked toward the nurses' station, calling out another nurse's name, 'Sammy.' They talked in a corner, and I occasionally glanced over, observing their puzzled looks.

Then another nurse joined them, and the nurse in charge came over to me.

"Riley?" I looked at my son and smiled.

"Yes, Daddy?" he answered, scooping another spoonful of ice cream into his mouth.

"Daddy will be over there, I'm going to talk to the nurse just to see if you are ready to come home," I said, and he nodded happily.

"Okay, are we going home? Where's Mummy?" he asked.

"Remember how I told you the nice doctors will be helping her get better? Well, it's going to take them a little longer because she's really sick. I promise we'll get to see her before then, okay?" And he smiled happily.

"Okay!" he said.

The nurse in charge smiled at me, waiting for me to finish talking to my son. I stood up and pulled the curtain back, so I could see him clearly while standing against the counter.

"Hi there, my name is Kelly, and I'm the in charge nurse for tonight. I just heard from Zoe, Riley's nurse, that you had some concerns about a nurse from earlier?" she asked.

"Yeah, do you know what she was going to give my son? And how come Zoe didn't know what I was talking about?" I asked.

"Sir—" I interrupted her.

"Ashton, my name is Ashton," I smiled down at her.

She cleared her throat and looked behind her for a few seconds before facing me again. The tips of her ears red as anything.

"So, we don't have a nurse that was on today with black hair. We do have Wendy, but I'm sure you met her earlier," she stated, and I nodded sheepishly at her.

"Riley isn't charted for medications because we were waiting for his scans to come back, and they were negative for everything. I don't know who that was, but I'll be sure to inform our unit manager and after hours of this," she replied, concerned.

"If Riley is to be discharged soon, can you contact me? I'll leave my number for you. Can I borrow your pen, please?" I asked as she pulled her pen and a note pad out, handing it over to me.

I wrote down my information and handed it over to her as Zoe rounded the corner with Riley's discharge papers.

"Thank you both so much for all your hard work, I appreciate it," I replied, smiling before I turned around and walked back over to my son.

"You ready to go?" I asked as he pushed the table away from himself, nodding excitedly.

I grabbed him, lifting him up to sit on my forearm.

"Don't forget my toys, daddy," he exclaimed.

I nodded and picked up his toys, handing them to him.

"These are for you," I said.

I made my way toward the family room to inform the family of Riley's discharge as he played happily with his dinosaur.

Once I opened the door, Lisa barreled forward, grabbing Rileys cheeks.

"Aw, my little heartbreaker! I told you, you were gonna be fine!" She smiled happily.

He reached out his arms for Lisa to grab him, and she smiled excitedly, grabbing him and giving him cuddles.

I pulled Jarrod aside.

"When I went to see Riley earlier, a nurse was in there trying to give him a needle saying she was just flushing it," Lisa overheard me and handed Riley over to my mum.

"What happened?" She asked.

I repeated myself, and her eyebrows went up.

"Why would she be flushing his cannula with a needle?" She questioned, raising more questions in my already suspicious head.

"There was a needle attached. She hadn't emptied the contents yet because I walked in," I said.

"What did she look like?" Lisa asked.

"I didn't see her face, but I asked the nurse, and she told me that the nurse I was talking about wasn't even Riley's nurse today. The nurse I saw had long black hair about 5'4" and brown skin. It was like she was intentionally avoiding seeing my face," I said.

She looked at Jarrod, worry etched in her features.

"I don't like this, I don't like this at all," she said as Jarrod pulled her in for a hug.

"I was right," Jarrod said.

"The car accident was deliberate. Someone is out there to get her, I don't know who, but I'm gonna find out," he said, promising.

"Did she have a boyfriend, you didn't know about?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Ashton, she was just as celibate as you are. There's no boyfriend or ex-boyfriend," he said matter-of-factly.

"Ashton, is this your way of sneakily fishing for info about Mia?" Lisa asked, smirking.

"No, I just thought it might be an obsessive ex or something, I have no idea what she's been up to these five years guys, I didn't even know I had a son out there," I retorted.

"Sorry, I didn't think that one through. But in all honesty Ashton, she did not have a boyfriend or anything of that matter she was focusing on her career," Lisa said.

I nodded at her. "What was she doing?" I asked.

Jarrod smiled sadly.

"She graduated today. She was moving back to town. Police academy program," he said.

"Police officer?" I asked. The years we were together, she wanted a career but was still contemplating what she wanted to do while she worked on her candle business.

"I'm proud of her," I said.

"Yeah, we all are," Jarrod replied.

"But what I really want to know is who is it that wants to get her? Who's to say they won't come back to finish the job if they've almost succeeded in doing so," I said.

"That's the thing! Where do we start when there isn't a beginning, not one we could go off anyway," Jarrod said.

"I know someone, a private investigator," I said as they widened their eyes.