The Billionaire's Wife

  “No, I mean, I am happy. Nothing’s wrong that I haven’t made up in my silly head anyways. Aiden’s just been really busy at work lately and I’m feeling a bit lonely.” I heard all of that come out of my mouth and instantly felt like the biggest whiner on the planet.

  “Aw, did you talk to him about it?” Rose asked. I could tell that Myra hadn’t mentioned my panicked phone call the other night. I had known she wouldn’t, but confirmation of her holding my confidence was nice to have anyways.

  “I did talk to him, and he’s really doing his best. He’s been very stressed over this big project they’re working on and also having to replace his assistant right in the middle of it all. I can tell that he’s doing his best to be completely present when he is home. I shouldn’t be such a whiner. We just miss him.”

  “Of course you do. You and Eric need him there. Aiden’s too young to be working so much, honey. It’s not really my place to say so….but when is enough money enough?”

  I’d had the same thought myself. I’m no financial wizard, however. I had to tell myself that was Aiden’s department and leave the business and money matters to him.

  “I don’t think it’s about the money any more. He’s got a lot of employees and clients and I know he feels a big responsibility to them. He’s not ignoring us, Rose. He’s doing his best. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

  “Of course you should have and if you ever need to talk to anyone, ever…you call me. I didn’t mean anything derogatory towards Aiden. I love that boy.”

  I smiled at her, “I know that, Rose. I appreciate your support so much. Thank you.”

  Eric said something in his high-pitched baby talk. Rose turned her attention to the baby and began talking back to him in her own version of baby talk. I watched them with a smile. Rose had never had any children and I found that to be both a blessing and a shame. She’d been in a miserable marriage for a lot of years, and I respected her for not wanting to bring a child into the middle of that. At the same time, I thought she would have been a wonderful mother. When my own mother wasn’t emotionally present for me, Rose had always been and I would always be grateful to her for that.

  I smiled and thought about how lucky in life I had really been. I had nothing to whine about at all really. As soon as I had that thought, things began to happen that would lead me to wonder about the strangeness of life later on. One second you’re content and everything is right in your world, and the next minute it’s turned completely upside down. Joe yelled out the window at Rose, he needed her in the kitchen. At that same moment, I realized that Eric had dropped one of his shoes. Rose got up and headed to the kitchen and I sat down the cup of coffee the waitress had just poured for me on the table. As I always did, I made sure it was out of Eric’s reach. Then, I bent down underneath the table to pick up the shoe. As soon as I did, I felt the sharp movement of the table like someone had bumped into it…and I heard my baby begin to scream.

  I pulled my head up quickly and saw a tall, thin woman with long, dark hair standing next to the table, things were upside down and spilled out on the table top and my poor baby, had hot coffee splashed all over his little arms and chest.

  “Oh my God!” I screamed and grabbed him out of the high chair. I started pulling the shirt off of him to get the hot coffee away from his skin and once I’d gotten it off, the dark haired woman, stuck her hand in one of the water glasses and pressed ice on the baby’s arm where the red marks were. Everyone in the restaurant was staring at us and a few of them had gathered around to see if they could help.

  “I’m so sorry! I tripped and fell into the table,” the woman was saying. “That cup of coffee was so close to him…I hope he’s going to be okay.”

  “Holly! What happened?” Joe and Rose were suddenly there too. Rose had a wet towel in her hand which she used to wipe the crying baby down. I inspected his skin. He had some dark red spots on both of his arms but his chest was fine and so far he didn’t seem to be blistering.

  “He got hot coffee spilled on him,” I said. “I need to take him to the hospital.” I could feel my heart racing. There was nothing worse than to hear your child cry out in pain.

  “I’ll go with you,” Rose said. “Let me just grab my purse.” I looked back up at the woman who had “tripped” into the table again. I wasn’t sure why, but I got the impression that she wasn’t really sorry at all. Something about the look on her face was smugger than it was remorseful.

  She said again, “I’m so sorry, the poor baby,” in a monotone voice. She didn’t even look at Eric when she said it. It was like she was saying it for the other observers’ benefit. Then she said, “That’s why I would never leave a cup of hot coffee so close to my baby. It was sitting right next to him. You really should be more careful. You never know what’s going to happen.” At that point she seemed to be lecturing me rather than genuinely offering an apology. I was appalled. Eric was still crying so I scooped another handful of ice to put on his little arm and then I looked back up to tell the woman what she could do with her lecture but she was gone.

  “You ready?” Rose asked from behind me.

  I didn’t have time to worry about a clumsy, hateful woman now. I had to get my baby taken care of.

  “We’re ready,” I told her.

  On the way to the hospital as Rose drove, I called Aiden’s cell phone. He didn’t answer it and I didn’t want to leave this news on a voicemail and scare him. I hung up and called his office. A young man’s voice answered.

  “Thank you for calling Aiden Scott’s office, this is Ryan, how can I help you?”

  “Hi Ryan, this is Holly Scott, Aiden’s wife. I need to speak with him, urgently.”

  “I’m sorry, Mrs. Scott, he stepped out for lunch. Have you tried his cell phone?”

  “Yes, I just did. Will you ask him to call me, or just to meet me at Memorial Hospital in the ER? Tell him there was a little accident with the baby, but not to worry, he’s okay.”

  “I sure will, ma’am,” Ryan said. “I hope everything will be alright.”

  “Thank you. Ryan, are you new there?” I asked him, thinking about Aiden telling me he was going to hire some lady from Scarsdale.

  “As Mr. Scott’s assistant, yes. I just started this week.”

  “Oh, do you know what happened to Mrs. Lange? I think she was being considered for the job. She worked for one of the executives who was retiring?” He probably wondered why I was asking such an odd question.

  “No ma’am. Mr. Scott promoted me from within. I’ve worked here several years and I don’t know a Mrs. Lange.”

  “Oh, that’s strange,” I said, more to myself than to him. “Anyways, if you’ll give Aiden the message for me, and again, please make sure he knows that Eric is okay so he doesn’t worry too much. Thanks, Ryan.” Why didn’t a guy who had been in the administrative assistant pool with Aiden’s company for years know a woman who supposedly was too? Eric started crying again and snapped me out of my thoughts. I didn’t have the time or the inclination to think about any of that right now. Eric was all that was important. I filed it away and I would ask Aiden about it later. I’m sure he had another good explanation.

  Rose drove quickly but safely and we made it to the hospital in minutes. I took Eric inside to the ER while Rose found a parking space. They took him straight back once they heard it was a burn and while the doctor was checking him out, a social worker interviewed me about what happened.

  “How did he get burnt?” she asked.

  I told her what had happened at the café and she said, “So there were witnesses?”

  I knew that they had to be sure the child who couldn’t speak for himself wasn’t being abused, but it still made me feel like I’d done something wrong.

  “Yes, there were a lot of witnesses,” I said.

  “There’s one right here,” Rose said, walking in then. The social worker asked a few more questions and I could tell that Rose was really indignant about it.

  When she
left, Rose said, “The nerve of that woman, you’re the best mother that I know.”

  “I think it’s just protocol. I don’t really care, as long as they’re taking good care of Eric.” One of the nurses passed by then and I asked, “Will the doctor be in soon?”

  “Yes, he’s on his way now,” she said.

  The doctor was a nice older man with a calm tone of voice and he was really good with Eric. He distracted him with his stethoscope and other medical instruments while he examined him. When he’d finished, he told me that Eric’s burns were technically just “scaldings” and that they would treat him here and then give me some silver sulfadine cream to keep them soothed and cool and he would be fine. I was so relieved I wanted to cry. Eric had stopped crying and now seemed to be enjoying the special attention that he was being shown. Two nurses were slathering the cream on him and he seemed to be flirting with them with his eyes. He was so much like his handsome father, I thought with a smile. As if I’d thought him up, Aiden rushed in right then.

  “What happened?” He was on the verge of panic when he saw his son lying on the table.

  “He’s okay,” I told him in a calm voice. “We were at the coffee shop and a lady bumped into the table. Eric got splashed with my hot coffee…”

  He turned away from Eric then and coming inches from my face he said, “Are you crazy? You don’t leave a hot cup of coffee close enough to a baby for it to get spilled on him!”

  I was taken aback right away by his tone, and even more so when I saw that the nurses had stopped what they were doing to look at us and Rose was wearing a shocked expression.

  “I didn’t leave it close to him. I bent to pick up his shoe that he’d dropped and when I did, I made sure the coffee was far enough away that he couldn’t reach it.”

  He glanced at Rose whose face didn’t look happy about the things he was saying or the tone he was using. Then, he looked back at me.

  “Or maybe you were too busy chatting up your old friends to pay attention to our son?”