scorn. “I came here thinking—well, it doesn’t matter, does it? I made a mistake. You, Imogen, are the only mistake I have ever made. Do you know that?”
TRAVIS HEARD HER breath catch and watched her eyes widen in surprise at how ruthlessly he’d thrown that direct hit.
He didn’t feel particularly bad about knocking her when she was down. He was speaking the truth, and she was showing an annoying lack of appreciation for his helping her when he could have hung up at the sound of her name.
He should have. Imogen Gantry was the epitome of a clichéd, spoiled New York princess. Self-involved, devious and intent on a free ride.
She didn’t look like much right now, of course. What the hell had she been up to that she had wound up in an overcrowded, understaffed emergency room, unable to speak for herself?
“Be happy I had you transferred. Do you know where they took you, when they scraped your frozen body off the sidewalk? What were you doing in that part of the city anyway?”
“If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.” Her green eyes met his briefly, glimmering with indecision as she wavered toward telling him something, then decided against it. The light in her gaze dimmed and she looked away.
Drugs, he had surmised darkly when he’d heard where she’d been picked up and seen how gaunt she was. It seemed the only explanation. Blood tests hadn’t found anything, however. No track marks or withdrawal symptoms, either.
She’d been raging with fever, though. Had a terrible ear infection that had thankfully responded to the intravenous antibiotics. It was something that should have been dealt with sooner, the doctor had said. She could have lost her hearing or wound up with meningitis. He’d looked at Travis as though it was his fault she was so ill.
That had been when she’d been transferred here to this enormously better-equipped private hospital. Travis had been trying to remember her birthday and searching for her details online only to discover she didn’t seem to exist anywhere but in the flesh. He’d found a handful of very old posts, selfies with other socialites at whichever clubs had been the it spot around the time they’d married, but aside from her father’s obituary, which was short and stated no service would be held, there was nothing recent about her online.
Her father’s house had been sold, he quickly discovered, and Travis hadn’t been able to find her current address. He’d had to write down his own. He had acted like her husband and approved her treatment, underwriting the cost. What else was he supposed to do?
Whatever they’d given her for the pain had knocked her out for almost twenty-four hours. Given how bedraggled she’d looked, he’d deduced she needed the sleep.
She still had dark circles around her eyes and an olive tinge in her normally ivory face. The hollows in her cheeks he put down to some women’s desire for a skeletal frame in the name of fashion, but she was overdue for a manicure and her hair was limp and dull.
Looking at her, all he felt was pity at her condition. Tired anger. He had known he was making a mistake even as he married her, so why had he gone through with it?
The doctor came in at that moment, along with the nurse who elevated her bed. The doctor wanted her to finish her course of antibiotics orally and said she was anemic. Needed iron.
“You’re run-down. Burnt out. I’m prescribing a few weeks off work, along with high-potency multivitamins and proper eating. Get your strength back.”
“Off” from what? Travis wondered acridly. She hadn’t held down a real job in her life.
“Thanks,” Imogen said with a tight smile, folding the prescription in half once, then held out her hand to Travis.
He gave her the worn silk bag that was all she’d had on her when she collapsed, like she was some kind of runaway. It might have been good quality twenty or thirty years ago, but it was frayed and faded now. Ugly.
“So, I can go?” She indicated the needle still feeding medication and fluids into her arm.
“Oh, goodness no,” the doctor said. “You’ll have another dose of antibiotics and an iron infusion. We’ll talk tomorrow about discharge, but I would think later in the week—”
“I can’t afford this,” she cut in. “Please.” She lifted her arm. “I’d rather you remove this even if I have to pay for it. I’m squeamish.”
“Mrs. Sanders—”
“Gantry,” she said at the same time Travis said, “We’re divorced.”
The doctor sent a perplexed look between them.
“My ex-husband isn’t paying for my treatment. I am.”
Travis had to raise his brows at that, but was far less surprised by her next words.
“And I can’t. So.” She crossed her arm over her body toward the nurse. “Please get me out of here as quickly and cheaply as possible.”
“You’re not well,” the doctor said firmly. “She’s not,” he insisted to Travis, causing an annoying niggle of concern to tug on his conscience.
Why did she get to him like this?
* * *
Her stupid arm was too heavy to hold up and even her head needed to flop back against the pillow. “Is this pro bono, then?”
She knew it wasn’t. She knew suggesting it put Travis in a tight spot. He’d brought her here. He would be liable if she refused to pay.
“I’ll pay for her treatment,” Travis ground out, tone so thick with contempt she cringed. His next words, resounding with sarcasm, sawed right through her breastbone to scratch themselves into her heart. “You can pay me back.”
“I’ll pay for my own treatment,” she said, capable of her own pointed disdain. If she knew nothing else, she knew that she would not go deeper into his debt. “But my bills stop now. Bring me whatever forms I need to fill out and get this needle out of my arm. Where are my clothes?”
“I threw them away,” Travis said.
“Are you serious? Who—Well, that’s just great, isn’t it? Thanks.” She looked at the nurse. “I’ll need some pajamas. Heck, throw in a hot meal, since I’m spending like a drunken sailor anyway.”
“Like an Imogen Gantry,” Travis corrected under his breath, just loud enough for her to hear it.
She glared at him. “Don’t let me keep you.”
He had the nerve to look at the doctor and jerk his head, ordering the man to confer with him outside the room.
“Don’t you talk about me,” she said to their backs. “Did you see what just happened?” she asked the nurse.
“Let’s finish this dose of medication before we talk about removing your needle. I’ll bring you some soup.”
Imogen
