Love In Slow Motion (Love Beyond Measure #2) - E.M. Lindsey Page 0,114
moments with Ilan could not be him walking out. “I’ll be there soon,” he said to his son.
“Okay. I’m on my way to the airport with Archer right now. His brother got us a jet. I don’t know how long it’s going to take, but…”
“You should wait until we know something,” Fredric said weakly, and Julian laughed bitterly in his ear.
“Would you?”
Fredric couldn’t argue with that. “Listen, I’m sure he’s fine.”
“Maybe,” Julian said, “but he’s been acting so weird lately. He’s been dodging my calls, and when he does pick up, our conversations have been like two minutes long. He’s never been this vague with me, and I’m worried, Dad. He just uprooted his life after I left. I didn’t even think me going would matter to him, but maybe I…”
“This isn’t your fault,” Fredric interrupted, then squeezed his eyes shut and laid his forehead against the glass. “I promise this has nothing to do with you moving.”
“Do you know what’s going on?”
“Yes, but I can’t talk about this on the phone right now. I need to focus,” Fredric told him, because he felt like he was going to go mad not knowing what was going on.
“Okay,” Julian said, his voice a lot calmer than Fredric felt. “Just breathe, Dad. I’m going to be there as soon as I can, and when you get to the hospital, they’ll have answers.”
Fredric let out a breath that felt like a sob, then he cleared his throat. “I know. Thank you.” The car started to slow to a crawl, then Agatha turned, and he knew they were in the parking lot. “Listen, I’m here now. I’ll send you a message the moment I find out what’s going on.”
“Thank fuck,” Julian said. “We’ll be in the air in less than an hour, okay? And I’ll see you soon after that. I love you.”
“I love you too,” Fredric answered, then let the line go dead as Agatha jolted the car to a stop.
“I’m at the ER entrance. Can Bas get you to the check-in?”
“Yes,” Fredric said. He felt momentarily off kilter and lost. Panic was setting in, and he needed to focus, so he forced himself to take three slow breaths and compartmentalize. Sitting out here in the car waiting for someone to take the lead wasn’t going to get him answers any faster, and it wasn’t going to make Ilan okay.
He stepped out of the car, took the harness in his hand, then commanded Bas to get him through the doors. It was only a few steps to the desk after that, and Bas nosed his hand toward the top of the counter.
“Sir, how can I help you?” came a voice through the glass.
Fredric swallowed thickly. “My son got a call from a nurse. An Ilan Nadav was brought in, and we don’t know why.”
He heard the sounds of typing. “Are you family?”
“No, I…”
“I’m sorry, I’m not able to give you information on him.”
Frustration welled in him, and his eyes went hot. He was mortified when a tear slipped out, and he swiped it with his hand. “He’s my partner.”
The woman let out a breath. “Are you married?”
“No,” Fredric said through clenched teeth. Not yet. But he’d be damned if this ever happened again. “My son is his emergency contact.”
“And is your son here with you?” she asked.
Fredric swallowed against a lump in his throat. “No, he’s flying in from Paris right now, and he won’t be here for hours. Please, he doesn’t have family. Just…just me.”
He heard the sounds of the keyboard again, and then she let out a breath. “There’s not a lot I can do, sir, but I can let Dr. Howard know you’re here. He’s one of the best surgeons we have in the OR today, alright? And he can come out and speak with you when he has a moment.”
“Surgeon,” he breathed out. The word rattled around his brain, and he felt hot panic slipping up his neck, threatening to steal his ability to reason. “He’s in surgery? What for? What…”
“I’m going to make sure he knows someone’s waiting,” the nurse said. “Do you need assistance?”
“No,” came Agatha’s voice to his right, and Fredric almost let a sob slip out. “We’ve got it. Thank you.”
Fredric let her take his hand, and they found a quiet corner of the room. The seat beneath him was hard and unforgiving, and he felt like he had ants crawling under his skin. He wanted to rush the doors, to run through the halls,