Page 56 of Don't Forget Me
“Not if I can help it.”
Jasmine changed into her scrubs in the bathroom before heading to the wing she’d visited yesterday, hoping no one had wondered where she’d gone during her supposed shift. There were only so many times a person could do this, but if she got the contact info for the agent, this would be the last.
Sherrie stood outside Nick’s room, her fingers gripping the arm of one of the security guards as she batted her lashes at him. Disgust twisted in Jasmine’s gut. So much for playing the devoted wife.
A wife supposedly on the verge of losing her husband right before he crashed his car into another.
Since then, her fame had skyrocketed. She’d been a small-time actress, struggling to gain a foothold in Hollywood. Jasmine knew because she’d reported on some of her movie roles. But now… Sherrie was the media darling, the doting wife sticking by one of the world’s favorite actors despite this awful thing he did.
Even as they scorned him, they loved her for it.
Sherrie turned toward where Jasmine watched her, and Jasmine ducked into the closest room to avoid her harsh gaze. The steady rhythm of a breathing machine filled the room with its sad song, and she turned to find herself face to face with the other coma patient.
Elizabeth.
Lying in the bed, she looked frail, as if a simple gust of wind would blow her from this world. There was an ashy quality to her skin, not simply pale like Nick’s. Almost like… well, almost like she was dead.
Footsteps sounded on the tile, and she turned to see a doctor walk in, his confident stride carrying him toward the bed. He stopped when he saw her, a welcoming smile coming to his face. “Oh, you must be the new nurse everyone is raving about. Hello. I’m Dr. McCoy.” He leaned in conspiratorially. “Though, I let the nurses call me Colby. Shh don’t tell.”
Jasmine liked him instantly, his smile putting her at ease and reminding her people here thought she belonged. As long as they didn’t ask her to do medical stuff, she’d be good. “I’m Jas.”
“Well, Jas, I see you’ve met Elizabeth.”
“I needed a minute to myself, and hers was the closest room.”
He nodded in understanding. “Well, you chose a good one. There is no better listener than Lizzy Ross.”
“You knew her before the coma?” Something about this woman drew her in, and she needed to know more.
“Oh yes. I’ve known her since she was seventeen, the first time she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma when I was a resident.”
“She had cancer?”
“Yes. That’s why I’m here. I don’t normally work on this floor, but we wanted to run some tests to see if there’s another reason she isn’t waking up.”
“It could be the cancer again?”
His eyes were sad as they settled on Elizabeth. “There’s a slight possibility if her body has been weakened somehow. There were some alarming features on her scans, so we’re being cautious. Her father wanted to pause all of this until she wakes. She’s just barely hanging on. If she doesn’t wake soon though…”
There was something desperate in his voice, something that told her how much he cared about this one patient. He walked around her to check the monitors, and Jasmine stepped up to the bed, thinking of the kids she’d seen in here the day before.
Was she their mom?
Jasmine thought she’d imagined it at first, the mumbled word. She leaned down anyway, catching it again.
“Nick.”
“Did you hear that?” Jasmine looked to the doctor.
“Hear what?” He scribbled something on his clipboard.
“She spoke.”
Lowering his clipboard, he faced her with a sad smile. “Nurse Jas, Liz is completely comatose. There has been no movement. When she wakes, it won’t be with words first. We all wish for things that aren’t there sometimes. It can make us imagine better circumstances.”
He was wrong. Jasmine knew it, but she didn’t say anything more as she stared at the girl before her. Was it a sign Jasmine needed to figure this puzzle with Nick out?
Nothing made sense anymore.
