J & P Book 3 - Please Don't Leave Me

Chapter 17

As Paul came into the ward, Jenny looked sadly at him. He was still dressed in the same clothes as he'd been wearing last night, the shirt she'd removed, now spattered with her blood from this morning. A lot had happened in the last twenty-four hours.

"Jen, I just need five minutes, that's all I need."

She nodded. She knew what he was likely to say to her. But she wasn't going to give him that option. For his sake, this time it needed to be her decision. "I need to talk to you too, P. Thank you for everything you did in there."

"I didn't do much," he said, sitting down on the chair next to her bed.

Jenny smiled at him. His very presence had reassured her that things would turn out alright, even as she'd drifted out of consciousness, feeling nothing but pain in her abdomen.

"You were there. You kept Andrew safe."

"That was just instinct, Jen. He's wonderful."

She nodded. "He is. Does he know...?"

Paul shook his head. "Baby did tell him, but I told him she must have been mistaken. You need to have that conversation with him, Jenny. If you don't want him to know, then that's fine."

"No," Jenny said, shaking her head. "Of course I want him to know. But it's good to know that he can hear it from me. He needs to know who his father is."

Paul looked at her. He wasn't smiling.

"And I want you to be part of his life, Paul. A big part."

"Jenny.. listen.." Paul looked pained. Jenny knew what he was trying to say. She knew he was trying to tell her he was going back to Oxford, even if she begged him not to, because he didn't want to break up her happy home.

"But I'm not going to leave Patrick, P. I'm sorry."

Paul looked a little startled by her words, but not upset.

"I can't destroy his life, and I don't want to cause any more upheaval for Andrew. Can you understand?"

Paul smiled, and touched her arm, making her feel warm and happy. "I completely understand, Jen."

"Did Baby hurt you?"

"No. Well, she injected me with some sort of tranquiliser to get me to her flat," Paul explained.

Jenny was horrified. "Did she use it on Andrew?"

"I don't think so, no. She overheard what happened last night. She said she followed you to the hotel."

"I felt like I was being followed. Thought I was just being paranoid."

"Well, when you left, she came in and kicked off. She said she'd told Deny what had happened and he was on his way. I wasn't sure I believed her, but I figured I needed to get out of there anyway, and next thing I know she's shoving me in a taxi and injecting a shot in my arm. I woke up a few hours later in her flat. I think she was planning to... well, that doesn't matter now. She decided to introduce me to Andrew first. And I stayed with him after that, and until the police arrived. Did you get my text?"

Jenny nodded, feeling disgusted at Baby's plans. "If it wasn't for that, I don't know if the police would have tracked you down so quickly. We rang them as soon as I got that text and asked them to follow up on Baby. Patrick was his usual persistent self."