“Yes,” Drake said with a soft laugh. “I squeezed his hand and told him to get better because he was my only father. He said, ‘Go home.’”
I smiled and nodded. “We should go. Elaine will be able to take the reclining chair into his room later.”
Drake squeezed my hand. “Sophie needs to be fed from her momma,” he said and stood. “I’ll get our coats and talk to the nurses before we go.” He left us in the alcove and I stood up and hugged Elaine.
“Call us if anything happens,” I said, my fatigue catching up with me finally. “We can be here in fifteen minutes.”
“I will. You go home to that baby and sleep.”
We kissed and I went to the nursing station where Drake was standing with our coats in hand. The nurses smiled at me and then the two of us left the ward, on our way home to our baby.
Chapter 11 : Drake
Later, when I saw Kate in the slider feeding Sophie, Sophie’s little hand on Kate’s breast and nursing happily, I finally felt that all was right with my little world.
Finally.
I’d been on edge all day due to Ethan’s surgery and near-death experience. The news reports about the attempted murder case didn’t help, especially the suggestion that I had been involved with Lisa and had encouraged her to try to kill Kate so the two of us could be together.
I’d wanted to punch someone, and I was not prone to fits of violence.
Now, with Ethan stable, and with Kate seemingly willing to leave him at the hospital in the care of the staff, and now with her feeding Sophie with such a look of contentment in her eyes, I felt I could relax.
My life was truly blessed to have the two of them – and Ethan – in my life.
I went to the kitchen and thanked Karen for staying to reheat our supper before she left for the night.
“You don’t know how much of a Godsend you’ve been to us,” I said and walked her out of the apartment, handing her the bag she brought with her. “I know that Kate felt completely secure with you caring for Sophie so that was a big load off her shoulders.”
“I hope everything works out for your father-in-law,” Karen said and squeezed my arm. “I’ll be over tomorrow so you both can go up and see him. Sophie’s a very easy baby, considering all she’s been through.”
“She is.”
We said our goodbyes and I went back to Sophie’s bedroom to watch while Kate deftly slipped Sophie’s pacifier back into her mouth and laid her down in her crib. She’d fallen asleep on the breast, as she did almost all the time at night, and was now sleeping on her side, her little fists clenched and by her face, her back arched, sucking away on her pacifier.
Kate turned to me and smiled. We tiptoed out of the room and I closed the door softly behind me after taking one last glance at my sleeping baby girl. She was so beautiful, so precious – even more so since we almost lost her and Kate. Had I not hired the security staff, and had the man not been there to administer first aid, Kate
or Sophie – or both – could have died.
Kate laid a hand on my shoulder and leaned up to kiss me on the cheek. I smiled and then kissed her back, lightly, on the cheek.
"I’m going to have a shower,” she said and held a hand over her yawn. “It’s been a rough day and I need to go to bed now.”
“Sure,” I said and nodded, rubbing her shoulder with affection. “You go right ahead. I’m going to check my mail. I’ll be up later.”
She left me in the hallway, on her way to our master suite and the bathroom. I went to my office and sat at my desk and opened my email, checking to see what messages I’d received and whether there was any news from Lara.
Sure enough, there was an email from her. I opened it, a knot of anxiety in my gut.
To: Morgan, Drake MD
Reply-To: MistressLara
Re: The Case
Drake:
Hope things are better re: Ethan. I’m sure this is just one more thing that you don’t need to think about, so I’m doing it for you. I’ve done some sleuthing and spoke with GaryM, whom you will remember from our days at Yonkers. He is a close friend of Derek Richardson, who apparently moved to Singapore to start a new business. I tried to reach out to Derek, but he’s not involved in the local community and I have no contact info. GaryM recalls that Lisa was causing problems back in the day when you topped her a couple of times. In fact, she kept pushing to have you involved in their regular play, but Derek refused. He could see she was not truly submitting and was trying to force the issue so they broke up, quietly. Derek felt bad but still wanted to warn others. Word got around to male Dominants in his network that she was not safe and so she had some difficulty finding experienced partners. The reason you weren’t informed was that you were already known as a soft Dom and would not be a match for someone like Lisa.