‘No thanks to you! Look how shallow his breathing is. You’ve killed him, you know, you with your sarcasm and nasty comments. You’ve killed him!’ her voice rose shrilly.
‘Don’t get hysterical, Lauren,’ Alex ordered harshly. ‘That’s the last thing we need right now. Call an ambulance. We have to get him to hospital as quickly as possible.’
‘He’s going to die, I know he’s going to die! It’s all your fault. You—’ Her words came to an abrupt halt as Alex struck her hard across one cheek, tears of pain welling up and cascading down her cheek. ‘You swine!’ she choked.
‘For once I don’t give a damn what you call me. Get an ambulance here, Lauren. Now!’
She picked up the telephone immediately, not sure afterwards how she had managed to give the relative information to the woman on the other end of the line. But somehow she must have done, because it seemed only seconds later that the ambulance arrived.
‘Are you travelling with him?’ one of the ambulance men asked her.
She looked anxiously at Alex. He was Laurence’s nearest relative, no matter how much he wished he weren’t. ‘Alex …?’
‘You go with him, Lauren.’ He sounded strange, not at all his usual arrogant self. ‘I’ll follow in the car. We’re going to need transport back later.’
‘All right,’ she grabbed her jacket. ‘My God—Steve! He’s upstairs in bed. I—I can’t just leave without telling him what’s happened.’
‘I don’t know who this Steve is, love,’ the ambulance man remarked. ‘But if you want your dad to get to the hospital alive we have to leave now.’
‘Oh, but he isn’t—’
‘Leave it, Lauren.’ Alex pulled her after the men carrying the stretcher. ‘Let’s just get Laurence to the hospital,’ he said raggedly.
‘You do care,’ Laurie said dazedly. ‘Then why—’
‘It’s become a habit to hate him,’ he answered harshly. ‘Get going, Lauren,’ and he bent to kiss her hard on the mouth. ‘I’ll see you at the hospital.’
Laurence seemed very still and grey to her, she felt sure he must already be dead. ‘Is he—is he—’
‘He’s holding on, love,’ the man travelling in the back of the ambulance with her assured her.
‘Thank God!’ She swallowed hard.
‘Don’t worry, we’ll soon have him there.’
It felt very strange to be travelling at high speed in an ambulance furiously ringing its bell. God, she thought, Laurence looked ill! She was relieved when they at last reached the hospital and she could once again let Alex take control.
‘Oh, Alex,’ she collapsed against him as they waited to find out how Laurence was. ‘This is just awful!’
‘Yes. Did—did Laurence regain consciousness at all?’
She shook her head. ‘They were giving him oxygen most of the way.’
‘So he had no chance to speak to you?’
‘No. Alex, why did he collapse like that?’ she quavered. ‘I know the two of you were arguing, but it—it didn’t seem any worse than the last time I saw you together.’
‘To Laurence it was,’ he said grimly.
‘But he—’ They both looked up as a nurse came towards them, but she walked straight past them. ‘I hate this waiting about,’ Lauri shuddered.
‘I’ll get us some coffee from the machine over there. Just sit down, Lauren, and stay calm.’
She sipped gratefully at the hot liquid that tasted like a cross between coffee and tea but was distinctive as neither. ‘How long will they be, do you think?’
‘Still worried about Steve?’ he sneered.
Angry spots of colour appeared in her pale cheeks. ‘That’s a foul thing to say!’ she snapped. ‘I just wondered how long it would be before we knew—either way.’