Love, Honor, and Betray by Roby, Lawson (ebook reader ink txt) 📕

“Thank you so much for coming, J.”

“Did the police say how the accident occurred?” Janine asked.

“No. They didn’t say much of anything at all. Although, it may have been because they knew I needed to get to the hospital.”

Surprisingly, Matthew took a seat next to her, and Charlotte put her arm around him. She was worried sick about Curtis butglad Matthew was talking to her. “Your dad is going to be fine, Matt.”

“You don’t know that, Mom.”

“I do know that, and if he were sitting here right now, the first thing he’d say is we need to keep our faith strong. So,that’s what we have to do.”

Matthew didn’t comment, and Charlotte knew he was scared. She was, too, but she tried not to let him see it.

Not long after, in walked Aunt Emma, Anise, and Curtina. Charlotte still hadn’t spoken to Aunt Emma in a couple of weeks,so she was sure Matthew had been the one to call them.

Aunt Emma hugged Charlotte. “So what are the doctors saying?”

“We’re still waiting to hear something.”

“I’m so sorry this has happened,” Aunt Emma said.

“I am, too,” Anise told her.

“Thank you for being here.”

“Of course. We wouldn’t be anywhere else at a time like this,” Anise added.

Curtina walked in front of Charlotte, smiling. “Mommy.”

“Hi, sweetie,” she said. “How are you?”

Curtina kept smiling and then moved on to her brother.

“Hey, little girl,” he said, picking her up.

Finally, a nurse came and directed them into a family consultation room, and two doctors entered only minutes after.

“Mrs. Black,” the younger of the two said, shaking her hand, “I’m Dr. Mason, one of the general surgeons, and this is Dr.Rumeister, one of our pulmonary specialists who just so happened to still be here this evening.”

“Nice to meet you both.”

“And I assume the rest of you are family as well?” he said, looking at the others. All but Janine said yes.

“This is our son, Matthew,” Charlotte told him. “And this is my stepdaughter, aunt, cousin, and my best friend.”

“Good to meet all of you. Okay, well, we’ve now had a chance to evaluate things a little better and do some preliminary tests.And what we know so far is that he has a pretty bad concussion, a number of skin lacerations, a slight cervical spine fracture,and a pneumothorax—or, in layman’s terms, a collapsed lung.”

“Oh my God. Will he need surgery?” Charlotte asked.

“Dr. Rumeister can explain that part for you,” Dr. Mason said.

“Not necessarily,” Dr. Rumeister said. “But right now, our main concern is his blood pressure, which is way too low, and alsohis heart rate, which is far too elevated. These conditions are both due to the collapsed lung situation, but we’re hopinghis lung will correct itself within the next forty-eight to seventy-two hours.”

Charlotte didn’t like the sound of this. “But what if it doesn’t?”

“Then we’ll need to go in with a needle to remove air from his pleural cavity. Then, if that doesn’t do the trick, we mayhave to do surgery and possibly remove damaged or scarred portions of his lung. This will then allow the lung to begin healingthe way it should. But again, this is only if it doesn’t heal on its own.”

“Will his cervical spine fracture affect his ability to walk?” Anise asked.

“No,” Dr. Mason said. “It’s pretty doubtful, but he may have some neck pain for a while. If the injury had been to his spinalcord, we would have had reason to worry, but fortunately it wasn’t. But again, we’re going to keep working to get him stabilizedand will keep you updated.”

“We appreciate that,” Charlotte said.

“Do you have any other questions?” Dr. Mason said, scanning the room.

“No,” Charlotte said. “I think that’s it for now.”

“We’ll take good care of him, Mrs. Black,” Dr. Rumeister assured her.

The entire crew went back out to the waiting area, and Alicia and Phillip stood up. They both hugged everyone, and then Aliciasaid, “So, how did this happen?”

“We don’t know,” Charlotte told her, even though she knew Curtis had been highly upset when he’d left out of the drivewayand that this was probably the reason he’d caused someone to crash into him.

“What are the doctors saying?” Alicia asked, taking off her leather gloves and wool coat.

Charlotte repeated everything Dr. Mason and Dr. Rumeister had told them a few minutes ago, but looked up when two police officersapproached them.

One of them was the officer who had come to her home with news of the accident. “Mrs. Black?” he said.

“Yes?”

“If you don’t mind, we’d like to ask you a couple of quick questions for our report.”

“Sure. Please go ahead.”

“Was your husband ill or upset about something? Or was there maybe some sort of emergency that caused him to leave the houseso abruptly? Because not only did he drive onto the street in the midst of traffic, but he didn’t have his seat belt on either.”

“No,” she said, lying. “Not at all.”

“Do you know where he was on his way to?”

“To pick up his daughter.”

“That’s right,” Aunt Emma added. “He’d called me this afternoon to say he was going home first and then he would come by topick her up later.”

Charlotte hadn’t expected Aunt Emma to say anything, but she was glad she’d helped corroborate her story without even realizingit.

“Was anyone else hurt, Officer?” Charlotte asked. “The other driver?”

“No, amazingly, he only has a slight case of whiplash and is being treated and released.”

“Thank God,” she said.

“Yes,” Aunt Emma said. “Thank God, he’s okay.”

“That’s for sure,” Anise added.

“Well, I think that’s pretty much it for now,” the officer said. “But we’ll still need to speak to Pastor Black when he’sfeeling better.”

Charlotte told them that would be fine, deciding she wasn’t going to worry about that until she had to. She didn’t want tothink about the reason this accident had happened, and she was relieved that none of her family members knew about those photos.She was happy they didn’t know a thing about her and Curtis’s huge blowup or that he’d told her their marriage was over.