Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
I smiled. “I know.”
He turned, leaned against the cabinet that he’d just washed his hands beside and asked me, “How did you know?”
I wondered whether to tell him or not. Then decided…fuck it.
“For the past ten years, I’ve done nothing but run for mine and my daughter’s lives,” I started, then went on to tell him the entire story from beginning to end. “When I first arrived at the circus, there was a fortune-teller there, her name was Val, short for Valhalla.”
He blinked. “A girl named Valhalla?”
“A girl named Valhalla,” I confirmed. “Anyway, when I got there, she asked me if I wanted her to read my lifelines and read my fortune. Thinking that I needed to make a good first impression on them all, I went ahead with it. Then she told me that my lifelines were good, but there was going to be a small break between them. That my life had a little blip in the road that would be a small break from the one that mattered most. Later, when Kobe came back into my life, I took that ‘small break’ to mean the year that we were apart.”
“What else did the fortune-teller named Val have to say?” he asked, sounding intrigued and a little bit odd.
Like he knew something about Val that I didn’t.
“Well,” I said, “Val went on to read my tarot cards. She said that there would be a dramatic event in my life that would leave someone that I loved very hurt.” I looked over to the bed. Kobe lay there, looking picture perfect except for the bandage once again wrapped around his head, covering his left eye and most of his left cheek. “She said that my person would survive, but it would be a very long road to recovery.”
“It’s going to be,” he told me. “One hundred and fifty percent, it’s going to be.”
That actually made me feel good.
“Which circus did you say this was?” he asked.
I felt like maybe I was saying something wrong by telling this doctor the circus name, but decided…fuck it.
He was a great guy. He’d done a hell of a job working on Kobe.
And this couldn’t be a coincidence. If the doctor knew her…what were the odds that I’d tell him about Val? I mean, that was the vibe I was getting from him. That there was some unfinished business there.
He hadn’t outright said that he knew her, but the way his body seemed to vibrate at the mention of her name…there was no doubt in my mind.
And it also somewhat made me want to laugh, thinking about the very stoic and mysterious Val getting the surprise of her life when she watched the doctor walk in.
Speaking of doctors…I didn’t know the man’s damn name. He’d saved Kobe’s life, and all I could call him was “doctor” in my head.
“What’s your name?” I asked him curiously.
His lips twitched as he studied me before saying, “I’m fairly sure that I said it when I met you.”
I was already shaking my head. “You really didn’t.”
Chuckling, he leaned back into the counter before saying, “My name is Felix Kent.”
“Felix Kent,” I nodded. “I like that name. It’s simple yet different all at the same time.”
The corners of his lips turned up, but he sobered just as fast as his eyes drifted over to Kobe.
Kobe, who I’d been trying very hard not to look at since the doc had come in the room.
I wasn’t one-hundred-percent sure I could look at him again without crying. Not that I didn’t fully trust the doctor, and he’d probably witnessed his fair share of crying women, but I just didn’t want to lose it in front of anyone.
I hadn’t done it yet, and I didn’t plan to do it where anyone could witness it.
“I have to make rounds on two more patients,” he said after a while. “If you need anything, hit that button, and a nurse will be able to come help you.”
I smiled, even though it didn’t reach my eyes. “Thank you.”
He half smiled, then walked out of the room, leaving me completely alone with him all over again.
I felt the tears coming.
Felt the welling at the back of my throat, letting me know that the tears were imminent.
“You know,” I said to Kobe, even though he likely couldn’t hear me. “I made it all this time without crying, but hearing that you’re probably gonna make it, even though I knew it in my heart…now all I feel like doing is losing it.”
He didn’t reply, and that seemed to hurt even worse.
“I’d like you to know that I’m also checking all of your work emails, and I accepted a job for you.” I swallowed past the lump that wouldn’t go away. “This one is a case that is eerily similar to that girl, JonBenet Ramsey.” I pulled up the case file I’d already started for him. “Would you like to hear about it?”