Page 77 of Don't Forget Me
A ringing filled the silence, and she pulled out her phone, ignoring the call when she saw it was her editor. He left a message, but she didn’t have the time or the will to listen to it right now.
A commotion sounded outside the door before a woman’s voice broke through. “No, I have to get in there. Let me go. Stop. Nick!”
Jasmine glanced at the doorway where a security guard held back a small blonde woman who looked kind of familiar. Dr. McCoy came running as the woman continued to struggle.
“Liz.” The word was so quiet, Jasmine wondered if she imagined it. She turned wide eyes on Nick. Was he waking up?
But he didn’t speak again. No part of him moved, not even a twitch.
Liz.
That meant something. She was sure it hadn’t been in her head. Nick Jacobs spoke… and she was the only one who’d heard.
The woman stopped struggling as a sob wound through her. A tall, dark-skinned man pulled her into his arms.
“Booker,” she cried. “You don’t understand. I need to see him. I… we…”
“Shh.” The man she called Booker also wore a white doctor’s coat, but he didn’t hold her like their relationship was doctor and patient.
One of the security guards shifted, blocking the scene from Jasmine’s view. She wrote Liz in her notebook and circled it three times.
Maybe she was the key.
Leaning forward, Jasmine lowered her voice to a whisper. “You don’t know me, Nick, but I’m going to help you. I’m a reporter, and my job is to find the truth.”
Truth. Something gossip columnists didn’t know the meaning of.
Elizabeth Ross. Jasmine had gleaned that much information from the other nurses. She’d already known Elizabeth had been in a coma, but she woke days ago and had asked to see Nick multiple times.
Liz.
It had to be her, right?
Jasmine stood outside the door next to the wheelchair she’d brought. Was she really doing this?
Leaving the chair in the hall, she knocked on the partially open door. “Hello?” She pushed it open farther.
“I told you I don’t want anything else to eat, Booker.” The voice that reached Jasmine sounded exhausted, but not only physically. Something had defeated her.
“I don’t know who Booker is,” Jasmine started. “But I didn’t bring you any food.”
The woman’s eyes shot to her. “Another new nurse? Where’s Samantha?”
Jasmine had to make a quick decision to earn Elizabeth’s trust, a decision that could backfire.
Stepping farther into the room, she shut the door. “I’m not a nurse.”
Elizabeth only looked mildly surprised, her brow furrowing. “Then, who are you?”
“A reporter.” Well, apparently, she was going with honesty.
Unlike most people, Elizabeth didn’t look disgusted by that, only intrigued. “Okay.”
“I saw you in the hall outside Nick’s room.”
Elizabeth’s shoulders dropped, and her eyes fell to her hands. “Yeah, not my finest moment. I’m pretty sure Booker and Doc McCoy are ready to put me in the mental health ward. They think I’m just a crazed fan who woke up from her coma and found herself only a few doors down from her idol.” She laughed a humorless laugh, the corner of her mouth curving up. “I was a bit of a fan when I first met him, not like they think that ever happened.”
Jasmine couldn’t help thinking those words hadn’t been meant for her, and still, she knew there was something going on here, something Elizabeth probably wouldn’t explain to a stranger. “I believe you.”
