What Child Is This? by Karen Young

Author:Karen Young
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-05-30T00:00:00+00:00

KEELY HAD BEEN LOOKING forward to leaving work on time that day since, for once, she and Luke were on the same schedule. Then ten minutes before she could escape, a suicidal college student was admitted. He’d been coaxed down from a ledge outside the window of his seventh-floor dorm room by a seasoned cop and transported to the hospital. Keely was trying to calm him when the admissions clerk hurried into the treatment cubicle.

“Dr. Hamilton, you’re wanted at the nurses station,” she said.

“In a moment, Wendy.” Without looking at the clerk, she took a scrap of paper from the distraught student. “I’m going to call your parents, Jacob. Since they’re in Florida, it’ll take a while for them to get here. Until they do, we’ll admit you and someone will be in to talk to you about this.”

“They’ll kill me.”

“Our counselors don’t kill patients, Jacob,” she said dryly.

“I mean my parents. They’ll kill me when they find out.”

“So you were going to jump out of that window to keep them from killing you?” She smiled gently and squeezed his hand. “Isn’t there something wrong with that plan?”

“You don’t know them,” he said glumly.

“Flunking out isn’t the end of the world. You’ll have next semester to make up those grades.”

“My dad’s a Phi Beta Kappa and my mom belongs to Mensa. They’ll never understand.”

“They love you, don’t they?”

He shrugged. “I guess.”

She patted his hand. “Well, then...”

“Dr. Hamilton?” The clerk met her eyes anxiously.

“In a minute, Wendy.”

“The day-care center called. It’s about Matthew.”

“Matthew?” Keely’s fear was a knife stab all the way to her heart. My God, had Billy Long managed to get to Matthew in the day-care center? “Has he been kidnapped?”

“No, there’s been an accident.”

Now her heart completely stopped. The image of Matthew battered and broken flashed into her mind. “Is it? What...what happened?”

“I’m sorry, Dr. Hamilton. I didn’t talk to them. Dr. Jamison did.”

“Luke?” She put a hand on her throat.

“He asked me to find you and tell you not to rush over there. He’ll call you and give you a report.

A report. No, she wanted to see Matthew for herself. She was almost out of the room before remembering her patient. Forcing herself to calm down, she went back to him. “Jacob, Wendy will stay with you until someone comes to take you upstairs.”

“It’s okay. I’ll be all right. I’m sorry about your little boy. I hope he’s not hurt too bad.”

Murmuring something, she headed for the nearest exit. Driving would be quickest, she thought, punching the elevator button to take her to the garage. The day-care center was on the hospital grounds, but it was all the way on the other side, set apart in a separate building. She danced impatiently, waiting for the elevator, and when it pinged and slid open, she lurched into it, almost colliding with Randall.

“Matthew’s hurt!” she blurted out, the panic inside her weakening her knees.

“Is it Billy Long?” he asked instantly, placing an arm around her shoulders.

“No. At least, I don’t think so.

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