Shocking Sapphires - Ann Omasta Page 0,12

to be alone to mope myself to death.” Grant’s words came out flat, which made me believe they were sincere.

I ignored him. Scout was napping in the Pack ’n Play I’d talked the nursing staff into allowing me to bring in Grant’s room, so I used the free time to Google the stages of grief on my phone. Grant had already gone through the denial and anger stages, so we should be coming up on bargaining. But it felt like he was jumping straight to depression.

Glancing up, I realized that he was staring out the window with lifeless eyes. Yep, we were definitely in the depression phase. When I researched how long that would last, the answers were inconclusive, but it looked like we might be in for a long road before making it to the final phase of acceptance.

My Google search of what to say to someone who recently found out they were paralyzed came up dry, so I decided to wing it. As much as I’d enjoyed having him relatively to myself, I was sure that there must be people from his inner circle who were worried about him.

Clearing my throat to pull his attention back inside the room, I asked, “Are there any family members or friends I can call for you? They must be worried sick about you.”

He slowly shook his head before saying, “It must be all over the news and no one has bothered to show up.”

“Oh, no… I hope I didn’t make a mistake, but I contained the story.”

When I saw him glaring at me, I brushed my hair behind my ear, feeling nervous that I might have somehow managed to make this worse for him.

“What do you mean you contained it?” he practically spat the words out.

“Well, umm, I didn’t think you would want the paparazzi to run with the story, so I put the word out to everyone not to let the news about your accident leak out.” My tone sounded squeaky because the way he was scowling at me was incredibly intimidating. I now knew how the actor who played the opposing counsel felt when playing opposite him in the hit movie, Disbarred.

His face scrunched up with disbelief before he asked, “There aren’t any news crews waiting outside?”

I shook my head to silently answer him.

“What about guards posted outside my door to keep fans from sneaking in?”

For some strange reason I turned to face the closed door before answering, “Nope.”

“The story hasn’t leaked at all?”

“No,” I answered him before asking, “Did you want it to?”

“Well, no,” he said, still sounding perplexed, “But it’s impossible that it hasn’t spread––especially after all this time has passed. Too many people saw what happened. The whole world must know by now.”

“No, nobody outside of our little corner of coastal Maine knows,” I reiterated, since he didn’t seem to be able to believe it.

“Am I in the Twilight Zone?” he asked.

I knew he was being facetious, but I answered him anyway. “Nope, you’re in a hospital just outside of Brunswick Bay Harbor. We do things a little differently here, and we take care of our own.”

“But I’m not from here. How is it possible that not one single person has sold the story or pictures?”

His bewilderment was a remarkable improvement over his devastating depression, so I latched on to it. “Max, and his girlfriend, Danica, and I put out the word that everyone needed to close ranks and keep this between us.”

“And by us, you mean an entire town?” His tone practically dripped with disbelief.

“Three, actually. This hospital serves three small towns.”

He was looking at me like I had grown a second nose. “So, the three of you spoke to every single person in all three towns and asked them not to share the story of my accident?”

I laughed then. He really didn’t get how things worked here. “Oh heavens, no. We spoke to a few key people and asked them to spread the word around.”

“And that worked?” He half-shouted, obviously still not quite believing me.

“Well, yeah. The people here are some of the most down-to-earth, loyal, salt-of-the-earth types you’ll ever meet. I’m surprised you’re so shocked. I mean, all of the medical professionals are bound by patient privacy protection laws anyway.”

“That wouldn’t stop anyone in my world. They would be falling over themselves to sell the story.”

He seemed to truly believe that. I shook my head as I pondered a place where no one could be trusted before saying, “That sounds absolutely awful.”

He looked