Page 40 of Liberating Lily

“Okay. Do you have any idea what’s wrong with me?”

“Not at the moment, baby. Hopefully, we’ll get some answers soon.”

He disappeared out the door, and immediately, she started to feel upset. It was ridiculous. She shouldn’t be so worried about him leaving her, or was it because she was on her own?

Maybe it was a bit of both, if she was really honest.

God, she felt so awful, as though she just wanted to itch her way out of her own skin.

When Harvey returned, an older woman was with him. She had dark brown hair threaded with gray pulled back into a bun. She was dressed in dark clothing and looked like she meant business. But as she came over to take Lily’s vitals, her hands were warm and soft.

“How are you feeling?” Michaela asked her.

“Okay,” she replied. She didn’t want to make a fuss.

Both Michaela and Harvey gave her incredulous looks, as though they couldn’t believe she just said that.

“That isn’t what you told me,” Harvey said. “Tell Michaela the truth or she can’t help you.”

Shoot, he was right. What was she doing? It was just that her mother had taught her not to make a fuss, not to speak up. She was used to making herself small, to taking care of herself when she was injured or ill.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t feel so good. My head really, really hurts, and I just feel all agitated, and my stomach feels a bit ill.”

“You poor thing,” Michaela told her.

Surprise filled her. She guessed she was so used to her mother brushing everything off that getting sympathy from anyone was a surprise.

“You’d feel a lot better if I could give you some fluids," Michaela told her. “Would that be okay? And if I took some more blood from you?”

She bit her lip. “I don’t really like needles.”

“You don’t have to look,” Harvey reassured her as he climbed onto the bed next to her. “Just turn this way and look at me.”

That’s exactly what she did, because who wouldn’t want to look at Harvey? He was gorgeous with that dark hair and those hazel-green eyes. He had a five o’clock shadow that she thought suited him.

He was wearing a T-shirt and some sweatpants. He looked rumpled, and a bit tired, and she didn’t think he’d ever looked as gorgeous as he did right now.

She felt Michaela touching her hand and placing something cold on her inner elbow, but she ignored everything she was doing.

“You have lots of tattoos,” she told Harvey. They went up above his T-shirt to his neck as well as down over his hands. “Not sure I’ve ever met a lawyer with so many tattoos.”

Oops, was that a bit judgmental? But all he did was smile.

“Well, I only really work for my family, so no one really cares about my tattoos.”

“Oh, that must be nice,” she said. Had he taken time off work in order to kidnap her?

She guessed he hadn’t factored in that she might get sick and he’d have to take care of her.

There was a prick in her skin, and she winced. He cupped the side of her face with his hand to prevent her from turning her head to look.

“You’re doing so well,” he told her. “You’re being such a brave girl.”

She wasn’t really. Who was scared of needles at her age? But she still lapped up the praise. She shouldn’t feel guilty that he was here taking care of her when he was probably meant to be working. After all, he was the one who had kidnapped her. But she also couldn’t believe how much he had done for her while she’d been ill. Patches of memories came back to her of him wiping her face with a cloth, holding her tight when she was scared, feeding her little mouthfuls of soup.

How amazing was that? She couldn’t really believe it.

“There we go. All done,” Michaela said, and Lily turned her head to look down at her arm. She now had an IV line in her hand, but it had been covered up by a large white bandage, so she couldn’t see much.