A Beautiful Lie (Playing with Fire #1)(129)

Garrett knew he was being an *. He heard the words as they left his mouth, but there was nothing he could do about it. He finally found out where Parker was, and now the Gestapo at the nurse’s station wouldn’t tell him what room she was in.

Olivia stepped off the elevator in the middle of Garrett’s rant and walked over to her co-worker Rhonda in an attempt to help her out. They had to deal with angry family members from time to time; it was just part of the job. Olivia was always better at handling them than everyone else and the look of relief on Rhonda’s face as Olivia rounded the counter was evident.

“Excuse me, sir? What seems to be the problem here?” Olivia asked as she removed her coat and clipped her ID badge to the front of her scrubs.

“My name is Garrett McCarthy. I’m just trying to find out what room my girlfr…my frien…my….I just need to know where Annabelle Parker is,” Garrett stumbled.

He felt like a fool. He didn’t even know what to call Parker. They’d been through so much together and everything changed between them in such a short time. They’d gone from best friends to lovers in the blink of an eye. He knew she loved him, but he had no idea if she still felt that way, if what she went through changed things, if his not being there for her these past two months changed everything. Garrett wouldn’t know anything until he saw her.

“Rhonda, could you excuse us for a minute?” Olivia asked softly.

Rhonda was more than happy to leave. Olivia watched her grab a clipboard and head to one of the patient rooms before turning to face Garrett.

This was Parker’s mystery man. The one whose name she had called out in the middle of the night every single night. When Parker left the hospital two days prior, Olivia tried to get her to open up one last time and asked her about the man who haunted her dreams and caused her to wake up crying.

Even through the quickly hidden pools of tears in Parker’s eyes and the wall that slammed down over her features, Olivia knew this man was special to Parker.

“So you’re Garrett,” Olivia stated, looking him up and down. “Parker’s mentioned you.”

Garrett let out a sigh of relief. At least he was finally getting somewhere.

“She’s okay then? Where is she? Can I see her?”

Olivia let out a small, forced laugh. “Slow down there, cowboy. I said she mentioned you. I didn’t say she wanted anything to do with you.”

Olivia watched Garrett’s face fall and his shoulders slump in defeat. She felt a little bad about deceiving the guy and making him think Parker was still there. But she needed to make sure he was a good guy before saying anything. The look on Garrett’s face right now told her all she needed to know.

“She didn’t really mention you. She cried out your name in her sleep. Every night,” Olivia told him.

The anguish on Garrett’s face was heart-breaking.

“I wanted to be here. It killed me not to be here,” Garrett replied sadly.

“It killed her not having you here,” Olivia told him softly. “I’m not telling you this to make you feel worse; I just want you to know what state she’s in. Physically she’s doing well. She made a quick recovery considering the trauma she endured. But mentally, she’s struggling.”

Garrett rested his palms on the counter and bowed his head.

“I tried to be her friend. I did what I could to let her know I was there for her and she could talk to me, but I could never get through to her. Every day I watched her body get stronger while at the same time I watched her mind and her heart get weaker. I don’t know what happened to her, but I know it was bad. I know she feels insurmountable guilt about something and that it’s eating her alive. She was supposed to stay here for another week but she discharged herself two days ago.”

Garrett’s head whipped up and he looked at Olivia questioningly.

“Before you even ask, I have no idea where she went. She promised to call me when she got settled, but I haven’t heard from her yet.”

Garrett closed his eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, and then reached across the counter to pull the nurse into a hug. He thanked her for being there for Parker when he couldn’t. He promised her he would take care of Parker even if she hated him now.

With just one phone call to Brady as Garrett made his way down the elevator he was able to find out exactly where she was headed. Thankfully, his best friend always used the same passwords for everything. Brady was able to hack into her credit card information within seconds.



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Parker should have been exhausted after the day she had: a one hour flight from D.C. to New Jersey, then a three-and-a-half hour flight from New Jersey to Manchester Township, and finally an hour drive in a rental car to the house. As she stood in the middle of the living room staring at the lounge chair in the corner, she didn’t feel exhausted. She just felt numb.

Subconsciously she knew what she had been doing wasn’t healthy. She knew trying to bury the memories and the pain was only going to make things worse. Every ounce of grief, anger, guilt, and shock piled themselves on top of her day after day, hour after hour, until she felt like the weight would crush her. Week after week, sitting in the back of those post-traumatic stress groups, she heard the counselor instruct everyone that if they didn’t talk about what was wrong, if they didn’t face their fears and confront their demons, the nightmares would never go away.