I collapse in a chair by her bed. Then gently hold her hand with no attachments, and bury my face in it.
Fragile - Stevie Wonder & Sting
“I’ll leave you alone with her, Mr. Grey. But we will conduct additional tests to confirm her stability and progress, and of course to see if there are any changes to her condition.” When I look up to thank the doctor, I can only nod in response. Now that the adrenaline is running out, I feel a kaleidoscope of emotions; relieved, exhausted, angry, cautiously optimistic, in love, and in a punishing mood starting with my wife.
And by God if she ever tries to pull anything like that again, I will spank the shit out of her! As the doctor walks out, I see Taylor by the door, his lips thinned into a tight line, his jaw clenched, his eyes staring at the light pointedly which is a trick I have used in the past to prevent shedding tears. Taylor too is relieved, upset, worried and angry about Anastasia.
He clears his throat. “I’m glad Mrs. Grey’s prognosis is positive, sir. I’ll go talk to Sawyer and Welch and see where we are.”
I nod. “Tell Welch, I need to see him as soon as he’s done with the…” my voice breaks, I stop, take a breath and continue, “…scene. And find out where they took the fucking bastard.”
“Yes, sir,” he replies. As he opens the door to exit, Gail is standing on the other side of it, her hand held up as she gets ready to knock the door.
I can see Taylor’s eyes soften, and something in him melts. His lip quivers, but he doesn’t say anything. He just holds her in his embrace, and presses his lips firmly on her forehead and holds her there for long few minutes. Wordlessly they look at each other, and she nods understanding he has a job to do, and lets him walk away.
Gail’s eyes are red rimmed, and though she’s impeccably dressed in her usual professional manner, she looks bewildered and out of sorts.
“Mr. Grey! I came as soon as I could. How is Mrs. Grey?” she asks dabbing her eyes with a crumpled tissue in her hand.
“Her prognosis is positive so far, Gail,” I say with difficulty.
“Oh, Mr. Grey,” she says and makes her way to me in rapid steps. In an unguarded moment, she opens her arms in the gesture of a hug, but realizes who she’s trying to hug, and holds back, but, I hold my hand up and gently touch her shoulder.
“I know, Gail,” I say nodding.
“Is the… is the baby okay?” she asks tentatively.
“Yes…” I say relieved. “Yes, the baby is okay.”
“Thank God!” she sighs relieved, reflecting my sentiment.
The door to Ana’s room swings open forcefully as the teary eyed Katherine Kavanagh rushes in followed by my brother Elliot. She makes a beeline to Ana’s side.
“What happened to her?” she asks partly accusatory because only a day ago I called her looking for Anastasia when she spent the night in the playroom.
“Kate!” Elliot says admonishing, and then he comes and holds me in a bear hug. I find myself reciprocating and needing his embrace. When we let go of each other, I notice
that he still has his hard hat on his head, work clothes, and steel toed construction boots.
“Dad called on his way here. I rushed from work and Kate from hers,” he says in a choking voice. “He said Mia is at the hospital too and that it was Hyde who kidnapped them and you and your men rescued them, but didn’t have time to explain a whole a lot because he was rushing to the hospital. What the fuck happened?”
"Mr. Grey, I'll leave you with your family, and come back and check on Mrs. Grey later," Gail says, and I give her a broken smile in response.
“My personal hell unleashed…” I say in hoarse voice. And like Taylor did earlier, I find myself looking into the light to prevent shedding my mutinous tears. “The details are just surfacing. I’m waiting for Welch to come and give the particulars of the bigger picture. But we have a general idea,” I say running my hands through my face and my hair. I swallow and then I sink back to my chair, and hold Anastasia’s hand, gently kissing it all over. Kate moves by the side of my brother, holding onto him, she wipes away her tears and finally she buries her face into his chest. He tightens his embrace on her; it kills me that I can’t do to my wife right now as she lies in her bed silently.
Oxygen is being given to her to aid her breathing in order to help her heal her body faster, but she can breathe on her own. I caress the hand I take into my gently, kiss it once again, and cover it with my other hand. My gaze fixed on my wife’s still face, I continue.
“I had to go to Portland for business. Right before Taylor and I flew back, we got word that Ana wasn’t well, and was going home. As soon as I landed in Seattle, my world just fell apart. Sawyer called and said that Ana ran away from Escala.” Katherine lifts her head up from Elliot’s chest looking at me with widened eyes first, but then she narrows them.
“I received a phone call from my bank telling me that Anastasia was withdrawing five million dollars. I thought that confirmed that she was leaving me-“
“Ana would never do that! She doesn’t care for your money, Grey!” Kate defends her best friend.
“I know,” I say in a small voice, disgusted of myself that others have more trust in her than I let myself trust. It’s not a trust issue, maybe. More that I’m not worthy of her.
“But I didn’t know what to think. I asked her if she was leaving me, and she first said, no, but a second later she said yes. She said yes!” I say my voice unrecognizable, the
pain is fresh. “My entire world was crumbling. Finally when Taylor got a phone call saying Hyde was released on bail, I called Ana back to prevent her from following through whatever crazy scheme she was going to follow against Hyde, but she wouldn’t answer the phone. We rushed to the bank but Hyde was working with Elisabeth Morgan! I didn’t know she was partners in crime with him... She worked with Anastasia every day at SIP!” I utter in pain.
“Elisabeth and Hyde kidnapped Mia, and we understood later that he blackmailed Ana, and that’s why she was withdrawing the money. She could have told me, but she didn’t and broke my heart and went to meet the fuckers to pay his ransom and save Mia! I’m so angry with her, with myself, with everyone!”
“I’m extremely angry with her, myself! What the hell was she thinking? Why would she think that she could handle this psycho and his maniac assistant? She could have… she could have…” says Kate unable to bring her sentence to a close, she starts crying again.
“We tracked her phone to locate her. When we got there, she shot the fucker Hyde on the leg after he beat her an inch of her life. So here we are.” I say as both Elliot and Kate look at me with the identical shocked expressions.
“She did what?” Kate squeaks in a high pitched noise.
“She shot Hyde. But by the time we arrived at the scene, Ana was unconscious with her sustained injuries, and Mia was drugged. Seeing my wife on the cold concrete nearly dead, Mia lulling lifeless in Sawyer’s arms, I lost myself and I nearly killed Hyde for what he did to them and now here you are witnessing my worst nightmare come true,”
I say shrugging.
I see my brother go rigid, his lips thinned, his eyes darkened with malice which is a mood I have never seen him in.
“I’m sorry Christian!” he says. “Ana risked her life for our sister. It’s the most courageous, and selfless thing anyone had ever done for our family,” he says words choking him.
“Not to mention the stupidest!” Kate shouts.
“Shhhh! You must be quiet. Mrs. Grey is supposed to be resting, not having a convention in her room! She has been through a trauma,” admonishes a middle aged bulky nurse as she closes the door behind her. Her name tag reads “Nora, RN”.
“I’m here to check her vitals, and we will take her to do some tests and scan her brain activity.”
“I thought the doctor said her brain function was normal,” I say alarmed.
“And we’d like to keep it that way. That’s why she is in a hospital so we can monitor her, Mr. Grey. We must see all the changes in her -- good or bad so that we can take necessary steps to prevent the undesired outcomes and make sure her treatment is making the progress we desire,” she says as she takes Ana’s temperature, marks her chart with inputs from the several monitors that are in the room.
“If you don’t mind, I will have to examine Mrs. Grey’s body, and I'd like to keep her modesty. She will need some privacy,” says Nurse Nora wanting to kick everyone out.
“Uhm. Yeah, we’ll visit tomorrow again. We’ll go and find Mia and Mom and dad,”
Elliot says as he tags Kate's hand and they exit the room.
“I want to stay,” I say to Nurse Nora with unblinking eyes.
“But Mr. Grey, she will need her privacy.”
“Don’t worry Nurse Nora! I’ve seen my wife’s body before. I will remain in the room,” I say.
“She may not want you to see her like this; most patients don’t—“ she repeats her protest.
“I’m not leaving!” I growl, and she begrudgingly sighs and continues her examination of my wife. She doesn’t pull the sheet down but opens different sections and checks the bruising, and takes notes on her chart. When she’s nearly done with her check-up, two technicians appear at the door. I look at the nurse questioning; worried.
“We have to take Mrs. Grey for an MRI,” she explains.
“Why?”
“She has a contusion to the head and a hairline fracture as Mrs. Grey’s doctor told you.
That must be monitored. I’m sure one of her attending physicians can explain the purpose of her MRI scan to you, Mr. Grey.”
“How long will she be gone?”
“The MRI scan is about thirty minutes. Would you like the attending Physician to come and talk to you? Dr. Singh is on duty right now.”
“Yes. I need to get more information. But, first, I want to go with my wife.”
"We can't take you to the MRI room Mr. Grey. The hospital rules require us to only take the patient. Perhaps you'd like to talk to the Doctor first."
You said thirty minutes? I'll wait," I say and she nods at the technicians.
When Anastasia is wheeled out of her room, I follow her outside, and find Taylor standing at the door.
“Where’s Welch?” I ask.
“He tied up the loose ends with the police and he’s on his way here, sir,” he says.
“What loose ends?”
“I had Welch's men pull guns on the police, sir, when you were trying to get to Hyde, and they trained their guns on you, ready to shoot. That loose end…”
“Will they get arrested?”
“I hardly think so, sir. The police and the judicial system fucked this up so much that they are going to be only more cooperative with us. Not after what went down, and
how ineffective the cops were in apprehending Hyde. You don’t need to worry about that. Welch got his foot so high up in the Police Department’s ass, they’ll be shitting out nails and his expensive leather for the next two months!”
“What about the court and the bail?”
“That’s another thing. Your lawyer decided to earn his keep, and managed to drag his thousand dollars an hour ass to the courthouse all day today since the fucker Hyde was released on confidential bail and your lawyers weren’t informed of it due to some convenient paperwork mix-up for 3 whole hours. By the time we learned about it this afternoon, Hyde had been free for six fucking hours! They were supposed to be informed of any attempt for bail! Not after the court sees no opposition from the aggrieved party, and releases a criminal to commit yet another crime within two hours of release!” he says angrily.
“Six hours?” I say stuck in the original declaration. Rage brews anew in me. I don’t know who to turn my wrath on to first. The police, Hyde, courts, the bail bondsman…
“Some of the information is coming to light after your lawyer finally got fire lit under him. The bail that was granted to release Hyde was confidential. There were attempts to post the bail anonymously but that can’t be done. The confidential posting was in cash, and track of it stops at the poster. The poster has no prior relations, and his name so far is not released, and the bondsman has no prior knowledge of Hyde. It’s a virtual dead end. You know what that means sir...” he says raising his eyebrows.
“Yes. It’s a well-orchestrated plan to get Hyde out knowing what he would do to my family,” I reply seeing the malice in the scheme.
“Exactly! When Welch gets here…” he says and Welch turns the corner to talk to the nurse’s station. Seeing us he makes his way towards the two of us with somber face.
“Speaking of the devil…” says Taylor.
“I’m sorry for Mrs. Grey and your sister, sir,” he starts. I nod.
“Give me the deeds!”
“It’s as you and Taylor suspected. I interviewed the bank manager, employees, and surveyed the crime scene. The last anyone heard from your sister or seen her was when she was at the gym. She had not taken her security with her, and your father confirms that he relented on it past few days. I worked out a deal where I or one of my men will get to listen in on the initial interrogations of Hyde and Morgan. Miss Morgan got a phone call from Hyde this morning. She swears up and down that she didn’t know he was getting out, and blackmailed her into—“
“Blackmailed her how?” I ask.
“Apparently Hyde fucked her in ways that would totally ruin her reputation, and she couldn’t ever get a job in a respectable workplace, and apparently she comes from a conservative family. Her mom is still living. She said it would kill her mother if she found out.”
“So, she opted on killing my family instead?” I ask with fury.
“It appears that he didn’t give her much time to think. Apparently he forced her to cooperate before. She was the Dodge driver when your car was chased, for instance. He told her that he would leak the information to the media and make it look like it was all her idea. But then money got into the equation today and she was more than willing.
Hyde promised her ½ of the take; though I have serious doubts that he would give her anything. It’s too early to speak, but I think he had all the intention to dispose of the women, sir, including Miss Morgan.”
“What?” I ask my eyes wide, my nostrils flaring, my hands run to my hair.
“It’s not set in stone yet, but there were horse tranquilizers enough to kill a couple of elephants, as well as makeshifts weights to tie to a body and dump into the ocean. Your sister was given a date rape drug called Rohypnol which is illegal to manufacture, sell
or use in the United States but doctors can order it from neighboring countries for medical purposes; it’s available in Mexico. You just can’t get it off the pharmacy shelf...
Unless of course Hyde has had this plan in his back pocket for a while or someone provided him with those things beforehand. That's something we still have to discover.”
“How can you be absolutely sure? Because if that’s the case, I want you to find each and every person so I can personally destroy them!”
“Here’s the thing sir: Hyde was just released that morning. When did he have time to go to the doctor and convince a doctor to provide him this injection when it’s illegal to use it here? He didn’t. What’s more, maybe you can find the pill form of the drug from a dealer. But this was an injection, and harder to come by. Rohypnol is given for sleep disorders in its original purpose; it’s a sedative and starts its effect 15-20 minutes after administration, and just one dose’s effect may persist more than twelve hours, and this shit causes short term memory loss; that’s why it’s an effective date-rape drug.
But there’s more… We found a chloroform bottle in the SUV. It was evident that he used that first on Miss Mia to knock her out. It was 900 ppm which I gave to the hospital so they can get a better idea what was forcefully administered to Miss Mia. The problem with that is sir; 500 ppm of chloroform poses immediate danger. And breathing what was administered to your sister even for a very short period can cause dizziness. That rag he held onto your sister’s face was soaked with it. She’s very lucky that she passed out immediately because even if she was to swallow 10 ml of chloroform, it could have killed her! We also found a syringe with a broken needle with the horse tranquilizer in it. They pulled the rest of the needle out of your sister’s shoulder I’m told. He probably ended up breaking the needle possibly in his nervous attempt to subdue Miss Mia. When that didn’t work he reached for the closest drug which was Rohypnol.”
I listen to Welch’s account with growing fury; my vengeance is slowly brewing inside. I want to know everything that was planned so that no one ever attempts to harm anyone I love. When the time comes, I will exact my due with interest. They all fucked with the wrong man!
“What else?” I ask completely in control, and impassive.
“We also found about five-hundred thousand Dollars of cash in ten-thousand Dollar sleeves that is other than what Mrs. Grey had withdrawn from the bank. But that was Hyde’s personal stash which Miss Morgan swears up and down she had no idea about.