Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 341

Chapter 341

Panic climbed up my throat, and I looked at Dominic with burning eyes. “What if something has happened to her? I will never forgive myself if I could have done something sooner and was too selfish to see it.”

Dominic took my shoulders. “Calm down. Is there anywhere else we can look for her?”

I shook my head. “Her apartment, maybe. But she barely uses it now that she has accommodation at Helix.”

“Then we check the apartment.” He was already steering me back toward the car. “I will take you. Let us go and see about Pat.”

I stared at him, guilt flooding my chest. “I am sorry that on such a special day…”

He pressed two fingers to my lips. “Shhh. Saving Pat is more important right now. I will drive, and we will pick up your car later.”

I nodded and climbed back into his car, and I gave him Pat’s address. As he pulled out of the parking lot, I told him everything, including how humiliated I had felt when I was arrested, so humiliated that I had threatened his bodyguards to keep it from him. He reached across and patted my head.

“I am sorry I was not there when you needed me most.”

I shook my head. “No. I’m the one who’s sorry for trying to keep it from you when I know how much you care about me.”

The apartment building was dark when we arrived, the windows of Pat’s unit black and empty. I was out of the car before Dominic had fully stopped, hurrying up to the door. I rang the bell and got no answer, and when I tried the handle, it would not turn. I called Pat again and froze, because this time I could hear the ringtone, faint and muffled, coming from inside.

My blood ran cold.

I remembered that Pat used her birthday as the password for nearly everything, and I tried it three different ways before the lock finally clicked open. I turned to Dominic, who stood right behind me, and let out a breath I had not known I was holding. Then I hurried inside.

Pat was on the living room floor, pale and sweaty and barely moving, lying in a pool of blood that had spread across the floor. Her phone lay on the couch, just out of reach, as though she had tried to get to it and failed.

“Pat!” I dropped to my knees beside her, and the blood was warm and wet through my dress. “Pat, what happened to you? Pat!”

She did not answer.

Tears spilled down my face as I tried to lift her, and Dominic was there, easing her out of my arms and into his, carrying her to the car. He laid her gently across the back seat and got behind the wheel, and I climbed in beside her, holding her bloody hand between both of mine, telling her over and over that she would be fine, everything would be fine, even though I was not sure she could hear me.

The guilt made it hard to breathe. If anything happened to Pat, I would never forgive myself.

Dominic drove to the best hospital in the city, and he had already made calls along the way, because when we pulled up, the staff and doctors were waiting outside with a rolling bed. They took Pat from the car, placed her on it, and wheeled her straight through the doors.

We followed, but a nurse stopped us in the corridor and asked us to wait outside so the doctors would not be

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distracted. I held it together for about three seconds before I broke down, the tears coming hard and fast, my voice cracking as I repeated that it was all my fault, all my fault. Dominic pulled me into his arms and held me tightly until I finally went quiet.

We waited a long time before the doctor came out.

My head whipped up the second I saw him, and the word tore out of me. “Pat…”

“She will be fine,” he cut in, and I sagged with relief so sudden it left me lightheaded.

“We found traces of misoprostol in her system,” the doctor continued, his voice calm and clinical. “She experienced substantial blood loss, severe pain, and dehydration. Her blood pressure was very low when she was brought in, but the good news is that she will be fine in no time.”

I nodded, relief washing through me, but something in the back of my mind snagged on the word. Misoprostol. knew that name, but I could not place it.

The doctor turned to leave, and I called after him. “Hold on, doctor. What exactly did you say caused my friend’s condition?”

“Medication abortion.”

My eyes went wide, and the world tilted.

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