Page 13 of The Billionaire's Wife (An Heir At Any Price 2)

I smiled and thought about how lucky in life I had really been. I had nothing to whine about at all really. As soon as I had that thought, things began to happen that would lead me to wonder about the strangeness of life later on. One second you’re content and everything is right in your world, and the next minute it’s turned completely upside down. Joe yelled out the window at Rose, he needed her in the kitchen. At that same moment, I realized that Eric had dropped one of his shoes. Rose got up and headed to the kitchen and I sat down the cup of coffee the waitress had just poured for me on the table. As I always did, I made sure it was out of Eric’s reach. Then, I bent down underneath the table to pick up the shoe. As soon as I did, I felt the sharp movement of the table like someone had bumped into it…and I heard my baby begin to scream.

I pulled my head up quickly and saw a tall, thin woman with long, dark hair standing next to the table, things were upside down and spilled out on the table top and my poor baby, had hot coffee splashed all over his little arms and chest.

“Oh my God!” I screamed and grabbed him out of the high chair. I started pulling the shirt off of him to get the hot coffee away from his skin and once I’d gotten it off, the dark haired woman, stuck her hand in one of the water glasses and pressed ice on the baby’s arm where the red marks were. Everyone in the restaurant was staring at us and a few of them had gathered around to see if they could help.

“I’m so sorry! I tripped and fell into the table,” the woman was saying. “That cup of coffee was so close to him…I hope he’s going to be okay.”

“Holly! What happened?” Joe and Rose were suddenly there too. Rose had a wet towel in her hand which she used to wipe the crying baby down. I inspected his skin. He had some dark red spots on both of his arms but his chest was fine and so far he didn’t seem to be blistering.

“He got hot coffee spilled on him,” I said. “I need to take him to the hospital.” I could feel my heart racing. There was nothing worse than to hear your child cry out in pain.

“I’ll go with you,” Rose said. “Let me just grab my purse.” I looked back up at the woman who had “tripped” into the table again. I wasn’t sure why, but I got the impression that she wasn’t really sorry at all. Something about the look on her face was smugger than it was remorseful.

She said again, “I’m so sorry, the poor baby,” in a monotone voice. She didn’t even look at Eric when she said it. It was like she was saying it for the other observers’ benefit. Then she said, “That’s why I would never leave a cup of hot coffee so close to my baby. It was sitting right next to him. You really should be more careful. You never know what’s going to happen.” At that point she seemed to be lecturing me rather than genuinely offering an apology. I was appalled. Eric was still crying so I scooped another handful of ice to put on his little arm and then I looked back up to tell the woman what she could do with her lecture but she was gone.

“You ready?” Rose asked from behind me.

I didn’t have time to worry about a clumsy, hateful woman now. I had to get my baby taken care of.

“We’re ready,” I told her.

On the way to the hospital as Rose drove, I called Aiden’s cell phone. He didn’t answer it and I didn’t want to leave this news on a voicemail and scare him. I hung up and called his office. A young man’s voice answered.

“Thank you for calling Aiden Scott’s office, this is Ryan, how can I help you?”

“Hi Ryan, this is Holly Scott, Aiden’s wife. I need to speak with him, urgently.”

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Scott, he stepped out for lunch. Have you tried his cell phone?”

“Yes, I just did. Will you ask him to call me, or just to meet me at Memorial Hospital in the ER? Tell him there was a little accident with the baby, but not to worry, he’s okay.”

“I sure will, ma’am,” Ryan said. “I hope everything will be alright.”

“Thank you. Ryan, are you new there?” I asked him, thinking about Aiden telling me he was going to hire some lady from Scarsdale.

“As Mr. Scott’s assistant, yes. I just started this week.”

“Oh, do you know what happened to Mrs. Lange? I think she was being considered for the job. She worked for one of the executives who was retiring?” He probably wondered why I was asking such an odd question.

“No ma’am. Mr. Scott promoted me from within. I’ve worked here several years and I don’t know a Mrs. Lange.”

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