‘Oh! I didn’t realise I would have to go home.’ Tears filled the girl’s eyes. ‘I thought I would be able to join my friends. We’ve been saving up for this holiday for months, you see, and now I won’t have a chance to enjoy any of it.’
Felipe sighed, although he couldn’t help wondering why the sight of the girl’s tears should have moved him. He wasn’t uncaring about the people he treated, but he’d learned a long time ago to distance himself. It puzzled him that he didn’t seem able to do so right then…
Unless it was that meeting with Rebecca Williams which had allowed his emotions to surface?
It was a deeply disquieting thought and he ruthlessly drove it out of his mind. ‘I feel that it would be far more sensible if you returned home as soon as you are discharged from the clinic, Miss Prentice. However…’ He held up his hand when Lisa started to say something and was unsurprised when she fell silent. Few people stood up to him, he’d found, although whether that was a good thing was open to question. Maybe he would be a better person if occasionally he had to bow to another person’s will? He couldn’t remember the last time anyone had contradicted him—apart from Rebecca Williams, of course.
It was an effort to hide his dismay as that thought slid into his mind, but hiding his feelings was something he was particularly good at. ‘However, I am prepared to review your case in a few days’ time.’
He shrugged when he heard the young woman’s gasp of delight, clamping down on the urge to smile at her because it wouldn’t be right to let her think that his agreement was a foregone conclusion. ‘If you continue making such excellent progress it might be possible to allow you to carry on with your holiday—with certain provisos, of course.’
‘Oh, thank you, Dr Valdez, and you, too, Dr Ramirez. That’s just brilliant news!’
Lisa was beaming when they moved away from her bed. Felipe sensed that Silvia was looking at him and glanced at her. ‘You disagree with my decision, Dr Ramirez? Please, feel free to say so if you do.’
‘Not at all,’ she said quickly. He saw a little colour touch her cheeks and sighed when it struck him what was wrong. Silvia was surprised because he’d changed his mind. Frankly, it was unheard of for him to go back on a decision once he had made it.
It made him wonder what was wrong with him that day and why he seemed to be acting so out of character. He had changed his mind about sending Lisa home once she was discharged and now he found himself wishing that he’d discovered what Rebecca Williams had wanted. It had seemed enough at the time that he’d been able to tell her what he thought of her, but all of a sudden he was beset by curiosity.
Why had she come to see him? He’d heard her telling the taxi-driver to take her to the airport so had it been a sudden whim that had made her spend her last few hours on the island visiting him, or had there been another reason behind it?
The question nagged at him for the rest of the day so that by the time he left the hospital he was tired of thinking about it. He made his way from the main building and followed the path through the trees until he came to a pink-washed villa. It was almost seven and the sun was sinking low in the sky, casting a burnished haze across the bay.
Felipe paused as he always did to admire the view, but that evening it didn’t soothe him. He felt too on edge and keyed up, a feeling of tension making his nerves hum. It had been years since he’d felt that way. The last time had been when he’d found out that his fiancée had been cheating on him.
He’d solved that problem by ending the engagement and hadn’t made the mistake of getting involved with anyone ever since. Any relationships he’d had in the intervening years had meant little to him apart from physically. If only he could apply the same objectivity to what had happened that day, but wondering what Rebecca Williams had wanted was eating away at him.
He let himself into the villa, bypassing the dining-room where his housekeeper had left his supper in the heated serving trolley. Usually he enjoyed her cooking but that night the smell of meat and vegetables made him feel sick, although not as sick as Rebecca had been that morning.
‘Madre de Dios!’ He slammed his hand against the study door, feeling pain shoot through his palm when it connected with the ornately carved wood. It stunned him to feel it and know that he was capable of such anger when he had always—always—been able to control his emotions before.
But this was different. This all had to do with Antonio, and there were too many emotions churning inside him. He felt guilt and anger, grief and pain, all laced with a deep contempt for the way that woman had used his brother when he had been so vulnerable.
Antonio hadn’t deserved to be treated like that!
Tears stung Felipe’s eyes but he blinked them away. In his heart he knew that he might be making a mistake, but he didn’t have a choice. He had to sort this out once and for all, bring everything to its rightful conclusion. Rebecca Williams must be made to pay.
He went to his desk and picked up the phone, his hand was rock steady when he dialled the number. It was the usual push-button service but he obeyed each command without experiencing his usual irritation until, finally, he was connected to an operator.
‘I wish to book a seat on the next flight to London. My name? Valdez, Dr Felipe Valdez.’
‘YOU’VE not got much of a suntan, I must say. Don’t tell me it was raining in Mallorca?’
Becky glanced round as her friend, Karen Hardy, came into the staffroom where she’d been making a cup of coffee. It had been a hectic morning on the paediatric intensive care unit of St Leonard’s Hospital, where she worked, and it was the first opportunity she’d had to take a break. She automatically reached for the jar of coffee and made Karen a drink as well.
‘It wasn’t raining, but I didn’t get much chance to enjoy the sun,’ she explained, handing her friend the mug.
She picked up her own cup, hoping that the hot coffee would help to warm away the chill which seemed to have invaded her since the previous day. She’d felt cold ever since she had got back from Mallorca despite the fact that the weather in London was surprisingly warm for the time of year. But maybe the chill she felt owed itself less to the outside temperature than to the frosty reception she had received at the Clinica Valdez.
Her grey eyes clouded as she recalled what Felipe Valdez had said to her. She had spent the night going over and over every cruel word, but nothing seemed to take the sting out of them. He honestly believed that she had used Antonio for her own ends. The thought still made her feel ill.
‘Hey, are you OK? You look as though you’d just swallowed something nasty.’ Karen sniffed her coffee suspiciously. ‘The milk isn’t off again, is it?’
‘No, it’s fine. Don’t worry, I’m not trying to poison you,’ Becky quickly assured her. ‘Here have one of these.’
She offered Karen the packet of chocolate biscuits which one of the doctors on the unit had given her in the hope that it would distract her from asking anything else. Karen was a good friend but Becky had deemed it wiser not to tell anyone too much since she’d taken the job at St Leonard’s. People would have been bound to gossip if the truth had got out, and that was the last thing she wanted to happen.
She’d told everyone the story that she and Antonio had decided upon—that she was a single mother, bringing up her nine-month-old son on her own. Whenever anyone asked about Josh’s father, she answered quite truthfully that he had died not long after the baby had been born.
Everyone had accepted it without question, and although she occasionally felt guilty about having to deceive them she