Page 6 of The Desperate Warrior

Her cell phone rang. She reached for her purse and fished it out. It was her older sister, Zoe.

“Hey, sis,” Jules began and then spewed. “Remind me never to let Mom fix me up with anyone again,” she growled. “You won’t believe what just happened …”

When Jules got to work the next morning, she could tell from the thick cloud of tension in the air that something was terribly wrong. “What’s going on?” she asked Mindy.

“You know the patient who got the laparoscopic cholecystectomy yesterday morning?”

Jules nodded. “Of course. Lisa Randall.”

Mindy clutched the paper cup containing her coffee with both hands. “She died last night from a clot to the brain.”

The air whooshed out of Jules’s lungs. “H—how?” she sputtered. “She wasn’t high risk.”

Mindy lowered her voice. “An ambulance rushed her to Harris last night, but it was already too late. She coded in the ER.”

Jules’s mind spun. “A stroke?”

“Cerebral embolism. Most likely from a DVT formed after surgery.”

“There was nothing in her chart to give me cause for concern.” The room expanded and then contracted, making Jules feel like she couldn’t breathe. She rubbed a hand over her forehead as her words came out hoarse. “I promised her that she would be okay. Her husband wanted to reschedule since Dr.Winslow was out sick, but I assured them that the surgery was routine.”

“All you could do was go off the details in her chart.”

Jules’s stomach twisted, making her want to throw up. “This is a nightmare.” An image of Lisa’s nervous eyes flashed before her face, and she saw the woman’s hands twisting the fabric of the hospital gown. Lisa had been so kind.

“It is,” Mindy agreed. “Lisa’s husband has been calling and giving out threats.” She lowered her voice. “LouAnna and Bree contacted the police and filed a report. They are talking about hiring security guards until this all blows over.”

Bree Cline was the office manager of the surgical center and LouAnna’s counterpart.

“I can’t believe this is happening.”

“LouAnna and Bree are calling a closed-door meeting for all of us who were involved in the surgery yesterday.”

Jules nodded numbly. She’d been through this process before, having lost two other patients. However, those patients had been high risk, so the outcome was not a total shock. As the charge nurse, LouAnna would take verbal statements at the meeting, asking everyone to recount details that they remembered. Then an incident report would be filed. A hot blanket of guilt wrapped Jules. If she’d not injured her toe … if Alyssa hadn’t stopped by unexpectedly … if she’d not been late for work … if she’d not been so harried … then she might’ve noticed a warning flag that could’ve saved Lisa’s life. Oh, how she wished she could turn back time and do things differently.

Mindy pressed her lips together in tight lines. Her eyes held a haunted look that iced Jules’s veins.

“What else are you not telling me?”

Mindy’s face caved as tears rose to her eyes. “Alyssa Roberts was killed in a car accident yesterday. I just found out this morning when I got here.”

Jules’s knees gave way as she staggered. “W—what?” She shook her head back and forth. “No, that’s impossible. I talked to her yesterday morning before I came to work. She was going to spend some time with her parents.”

“It happened on her way there. Alyssa was traveling on a rural road. She went off an embankment and was killed.”

The world began to spin as darkness crowded the edges of Jules’s eyes. Alyssa was dead. And so was her unborn child. It was too much for her brain to process.

Mindy caught hold of her arm. “Are you okay?” she asked, but her voice came from far away.

“No,” was the last thing Jules remembered saying before her knees buckled.

Chapter 2

FOUR MONTHS LATER

“What do you think?” Zoe pressed the flats of her hands against the bodice of her wedding gown as she turned from the full-length mirror to face Jules, who was sitting at the foot of the bed.

“You’re a vision.” A gush of emotion went through Jules as a tender smile tipped her lips. Her older sister was so beautiful and glamorous with her expressive brown eyes, golden hair, and even features. It was no wonder that she was a social media fashion icon. The designer dress fit her like a glove, and her makeup was flawless.

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