Читать книгу Born of Darkness - Rita Vetere - Страница 12

Chapter 6

Tom Janzen sat in his air conditioned office on the fifth floor of the medical center, staring absently out the window at the pedestrians on the street below. A moment later, he swiveled back to face his desk, and looked again at the file folder containing information about the patient he’d just finished with, Melody Wynn. Mrs. Wynn’s husband had been transferred to Tampa from Atlanta. In the last trimester of her pregnancy, she had asked for a referral to a good obstetrician in the area and had been given his name. Wasting no time, she’d booked her appointment with him immediately upon arriving in the city, and he’d just finished his examination of her.

His hand trembled as he closed the folder. Seeing Mrs. Wynn had shaken him up badly. Something about the woman—her hair, the lilt in her voice when she greeted him, something—had made him feel like he’d seen a ghost. An old wound had been re-opened, causing almost-forgotten pain to return with a vengeance. All because she reminded him of another woman, one whom he had loved deeply. One who had chosen someone else over him.

He thought he had dispelled the aching memory of Lilli long ago, but as the past came rushing back at him like a train wreck, he realized some feelings could never be erased, only buried. He remembered the sad look on her beautiful face the day she told him she was in love with someone else…

“I’m so sorry, Tom. I never meant to hurt you. I didn’t mean for this to happen, but it has. I love Charlie. He’s asked me to marry him…and I’ve said yes.”

He wants to tell her that this man who had taken her from him will never love her as much he does. He wants to yell, or punch a hole through the wall to dispel some of the anger that has sprung up in him. In the end, he does neither. Because he loves her. He knows he loves her because he wants only for her to be happy.

“If this is what you want, if you’re sure he makes you happy, marry him.”

After she leaves, he takes the engagement ring he had planned to give her from his bedroom dresser and looks at it long and hard before putting it away, knowing exactly what he has lost.

Having lost her to another man had been bad enough. But in a cruel twist of fate, three years later, she had returned to him, seeking his help. For all his trying, he’d not been able to stop what had happened to her. She died. And a part of him had died with her.

He sat with his elbows propped on the desk in front of him, his head resting in his hands, remembering how tormented Lilli had been the last time he’d seen her, the morning she’d arrived on his doorstep seeking help...

One look at her wraith-like figure when he opens the door tells him something terrible has happened to her. Her heartbreaking beauty is still apparent, only slightly diminished by the gaunt look of her face and her too-pale skin. Yet, it’s her eyes he notices the most. The eyes that once sparked emerald fire stare at him, flat and emotionless.

Haunted eyes.

The shock must have registered on his face because, in a quiet voice, she says, “I know what I look like.” Lowering her head as she stands on his doorstep, she asks if she can come inside.

“Lilli,” he stutters. “Of course. Come in.”

When she’s settled in the comfortable chair in his living room and sipping on the glass of water he brings to her, she says, “I know I have no right to be here, Tom, but… I need help. I’m so scared.” Her voice cracks on the last word and the glass of water shakes in her trembling hand.

“Tell me what’s wrong.”

Her face becomes calmer when she hears his words. Then she turns those haunted eyes on him and says, “Do you believe in evil spirits, Tom?”

He practically jumped out of his skin when Adele buzzed him to say his three o’clock appointment, Ms. Amodeo, was settled in room four.

Still wrapped up in the memory of his last encounter with Lilli, a premonitory feeling rushed through him. Too much time had gone by since his last excursion downtown, and he resolved to go soon, tonight, if possible. Shaking off the dark shadow of apprehension that had fallen over him, he walked out of his office to see about Patty Amodeo, who was due to deliver next week.