Shocking Sapphires - Ann Omasta Page 0,6

locked onto mine, I nearly stumbled backwards. It was as if time began moving in slow-motion, despite our hectic surroundings as I stared into his gorgeous, startlingly blue eyes.

When he was wheeled headfirst onto the elevator, his gaze remained focused on mine as his lips made a movement in an effort to speak.

“What?” I asked, leaning into the elevator, frantic to know what he was saying.

“Ma’am, we need to get him up to surgery,” an angry voice alerted me.

I tipped back on my heels to allow the doors to slide closed and stared with an open mouth as my favorite movie star croaked, “My baby… Take care of my baby.”

5

Molly

Dani looked as stunned as I felt when she asked, “His baby? Did he say his baby?!?”

“I think so,” I answered as I fell back into the wheelchair.

The nurse began slowly pushing me back toward the curtained area that served as my exam room. “Sorry about that. It’s not usually this crazy around here.”

I could tell by the bewildered way she muttered the words that she had no idea who had been on that gurney. She motioned for a large man in scrubs to come assist her. Once they had me settled comfortably on the bed in my area, they hurried out and the nurse pulled the curtain shut behind her.

Dani whirled on me. “Did Grant Chandler truly just ask you to watch over his baby, or is my mind playing tricks on me?”

“It really happened,” I confirmed in a faraway voice––not quite able to believe it myself.

Dani worked through the strange scenario out loud at the same time as I was processing it silently. “So, he dropped the baby off at the fire station, but evidently changed his mind and was racing back to retrieve him when the accident happened.”

It was the same conclusion I had drawn, so I nodded and said, “I think so.”

Max’s loud, worried voice from the open pit area of the emergency room interrupted our hushed conversation. “Molly? Dani? Where are you?”

Dani hurried over to peek out of the curtain to get Max’s attention. He rushed into the semi-private enclosure. “Molly, are you okay?”

His features were drawn with worry, so I quickly reassured him that I was perfectly fine before adding, “They are just keeping me here overnight in an over-abundance of caution.”

Max’s gaze darted to Dani’s. When she gave him a confirming nod that her medical opinion agreed with that assessment, the concerned lines on his face began to ease.

“Thank God,” he breathed out before pressing his lips to Dani’s temple and engulfing my hand with his. After a brief moment, he asked, “Have you checked on the baby?”

“We did,” Dani assured him. “He was quite annoyed about the equipment they were hooking him up to, but he appears to have escaped relatively unscathed as well.”

Frightened to ask, but needing to know, I looked up at my brother and said, “We saw Grant Chandler being wheeled up to surgery. He looked dreadful.”

Max’s expression turned grim, which made my heart seem to jump into my throat. “It doesn’t look good for him. When the building caved in, it crushed the car onto his lower half. If he somehow manages to survive the surgery, I’d say there’s almost no chance he’ll ever walk again.”

The dire prediction hung heavily in the air as the three of us stared solemnly at each other. The many mental images I had of the healthy, vibrant movie star didn’t align with the broken, crushed soul that I had seen wheeled into that elevator. The thought of him being permanently injured––or possibly dying––made hot tears burn behind my eyes.

My guess was that, even if he survived, losing the use of his legs would devastate the cocky actor. His ego probably wouldn’t allow him to adjust to the change.

Would Hollywood turn on him if he was in a wheelchair? I knew fame was fickle, but Grant Chandler had been the golden boy since his debut movie when he was seventeen. I couldn’t imagine him not being the star of nearly every major movie, but this was the type of thing that might actually ruin his career––despite how unfair it was.

Dani was the first to think about the current repercussions. “When word of this leaks out, the paparazzi will show up and make his life miserable.”

She was right. The press would be all over this story, and they would hound him relentlessly. We had to make sure that didn’t happen. He was going to have