Chapter 5. I Decide Where I Go

Dane's eyes returned to her.

“If I'd been at the hospital, I could have shown them these papers first. Now I have to explain why I ran away before anything else.”

Evelyn glanced at the boy and lowered her voice.

“Don't send anyone to help me. Whatever I say, they'll claim you put me up to it.”

From Marco's phone came a subordinate's voice, saying he would go to the hospital. Dane took the call.

“Stay away from that hospital. I'll answer for who was acting on my orders.”

He sent the guards down the opposite corridor. Evelyn saved the article to her own phone and returned Marco's. When she sent her friend the name of the hospital they were going to, her own face was still on the screen. She hadn't signed the paper that made her take all the blame. But in the article, she was already a fugitive.

As the stretcher began to move, Leo looked for her. Evelyn brought her uninjured arm close. Dane started to take the rail on the other side, then saw the boy pulling her sleeve and let go. The nurse showed him where his guardian could stand. He moved behind the medical staff. Evelyn put her phone in her pocket and walked beside the boy.

***

The sky was growing pale when they reached the port hospital.

The automatic doors beside reception opened. Evelyn took a step toward them, and no one stopped her. Only after drawing in the cold air outside did she release her grip on her own wrist.

The attending doctor took Leo's medication records first. Evelyn explained his condition when she had arrived and the changes during the transfer. After listening to everything, he said he would take over the boy's care, and the strength left her knees.

In the treatment room next door, she cried as they washed her arm. Tears of pain. She gripped the examination table so tightly that the skin beneath her nails went white. Ordinarily, she would have explained what she was about to do to a child before touching them like this. She'd thought if she endured it, it would be over sooner, but her shoulders kept rising. When the nurse supported her elbow, the breath she had been holding broke free.

Evelyn started to say she was fine, then swallowed the words. She had forgotten she was the patient and was already thinking about what came next. Which door had Leo's stretcher gone through? Had she called Olivia? When the doctor asked whether she needed a pause, this time she didn't say she was fine.

She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

“Just a moment.”

Footsteps stopped outside the door. The nurse asked if the man was her next of kin, and his answer was slow in coming.

“I'm the child's guardian. She's here for treatment separately.”

Dane's voice.

Evelyn looked at the closed door. When he didn't come in, she held out her arm again.

When she came out after treatment, Dane was standing by the wall. He had changed, and the bloodstained collar was gone. His eyes went first to her fresh dressing.

“They say Leo needs more observation.”

“They explained it to me.”

“Are you staying too, Doctor?”

Evelyn collected her bag from reception. Olivia had sent her the details of the report she'd filed.

“Let's check on him first. Then I'll decide what I do.”

Dane stopped in front of the automatic doors. Evelyn looked at his feet first, checking whether he meant to block her way.

“I need your help until Leo's next appointment.”

“I understand that. This time, don't touch me until I've given you an answer.”

Evelyn passed his open hand and stood in front of the doors. They slid apart with a chime. People coming in and going out passed beside her. Dane stayed to one side.

“I decide whether I go back. After I hear another explanation of his condition.”

Dane looked at her, bag in hand. Before he could add anything, Evelyn went to reception.

“I need somewhere I can speak to someone alone.”

The receptionist pointed down the corridor. People went their separate ways through the automatic doors, letting in the cold air. Evelyn could be one of them. Only after the doors closed again did some of the tension leave her wrists.

She called Olivia. This time, she began with the condition of her arm. The wound had been cleaned and dressed, and it would need to be checked again for infection. She had also shown the medical staff the marks where her wrists had been bound.

“Don't stay near that man.”

“I'm away from him now.”

“Then let's work out how to get you home.”

Evelyn pictured the home she could return to. The sneakers she'd left by the door. The book lying facedown where she'd stopped reading. Until yesterday, they had all been things she could go back to without a thought.

“Okay. But the boy...”

She heard a long breath on the other end.

“Evelyn. There are doctors there too.”

“There are.”

Inside the room, a nurse called another doctor. Even as Evelyn turned her head, the medical staff stayed with Leo. She spoke into the phone again.

“He's not a child I can make better on my own.”

At that, Olivia's voice softened a little.

“Then don't forget it.”

Olivia said she had reported the abduction and Evelyn's location to the authorities in both Westmere and Valdora. Evelyn also explained what had happened to an investigator in a consultation room, with an interpreter connected. She underlined the part about being taken away even after she had refused.

“Please tell me where I can stay if I don't go back to the island.”

She saved the details of accommodation near the hospital and said she would call Olivia again. She had somewhere else to go now, yet her feet still carried her toward the boy's room.