Save Me - Lisa Scottoline [17]
“That’s it!” Leo bellowed, pulling a stunned Rose to her feet.
Cathy burst into nervous laughter. Wanda’s mouth dropped open. The reporters surged forward, the photographers held their cameras overhead, and the crowd reacted with gasps, chatter, and a hoot or two.
“Let’s go!” Leo hurried Rose through the glass doors into the hospital. The lobby was like a refuge, quiet and cool, filled with potted plants and soothing framed landscapes. A few older people sat in sectional furniture, one holding Get Well balloons weighted with a small sandbag. Leo touched Rose’s arm. “My God. Are you okay, honey?”
“Yes.” She brushed cigarette ashes from her jeans. “And Melly’s not a freak.”
“I know.” Leo smoothed down his suit jacket. “Sorry about that. I should’ve seen that coming.”
“It was an accident.”
“Right. Yes, but they still laughed about it.”
Shaken, Rose tried to recover. “You told me not to talk to them, but I thought they deserved an answer.”
“They didn’t want an answer. They wanted to vent.” Leo put an arm around her. “Damn, I should have anticipated this. Hubby let you down.”
“Hubby never lets me down.”
Leo gave her a quick kiss. “You good to go?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, then we need an information desk.” Leo looked around.
“There.” Rose pointed, and they went to the information desk, where they gave their name and asked for Melly’s room.
“She’s in 306,” answered the receptionist, who was an older woman with a button that read VOLUNTEER. “She’s one of the little girls from the school, isn’t she?”
“Yes, she’s our daughter.” Rose leaned over the counter. “Where is the other little girl, Amanda Gigot?”
“Let me see.” The receptionist hit a few keys. “Yes. She’s in 406. That’s Intensive Care.”
Rose felt her stomach tense.
Leo leaned on the desk. “What floor did you say is Intensive Care? The fourth?”
“Yes, but you can’t visit. Only immediate family is permitted.”
“I understand, thanks.” Leo took Rose’s arm, and they left for the elevators.
“Do you want to visit Amanda?” Rose asked, incredulous.
“No, I want to avoid the fourth floor.”
Chapter Eleven
Rose stood at Melly’s bedside, suppressing a surge of emotion. It was one thing to know that Melly was in a hospital, and another to see her lying there, asleep. She took up only half of the bed, and her feet made little mounds in the white coverlet, midway. Her hospital gown was too big, and its scoop neck exposed her collarbones. Her eyes were closed, and even though she was only sleeping, she could so easily have been gone, forever. Rose watched her chest move up and down, to make sure she was breathing. There wasn’t a mother in the world who hadn’t done the same thing, more than once.
Mommy!
Melly’s head lay tilted to the right, displaying her birthmark in a way that would have mortified her, if she’d been awake. It was as red as fresh blood, covering her left cheek at its upper edge, roughly roundish in shape, about the size of a small plum. A greenish oxygen tube lay across it under her nostrils, and her index finger was covered by a plastic cap that connected her to a boxy monitor, flashing her vital signs in multi-colored digits.
“She looks good,” Leo whispered, a wet shine in his eyes.
“Thank God she’s alive.”
“Let me get you a seat.” Leo picked up a wooden chair and moved it close to the bed, near the thick plastic guardrail. Behind them, a TV mounted on the wall played on mute. “Here, sit.”
“Wanna share? I’ll move over.”
“No, you.”
“Thanks.” Rose sat down, resting her hand on the bedrail. As happy as she was that Melly was alive, she couldn’t forget that a different scene would be playing out a floor above them, in Intensive Care. She tried to shoo away thoughts of Amanda, but the images were too fresh in her mind.
“Oh no. We left your overnight bag in the car.”
“It’s okay.” Rose flashed again on Amanda, on the stretcher. The bandages on her forehead had been blood-soaked, and Eileen had said