An Affair of the Heart (6 page)

She had ranted
and raved. She had torn the letter, and quickly phoned them all up
and ranted at them for real. They hung up on her. She ranted some
more. Finally, she had cried.

Soon she was
stood at the door. They couldn’t put the phone down on her when she
was standing face to face with them, she thought, putting on her
coat. She was visiting her daughter at the hospital like usual
anyway, so she would see Rachel first, and then she would seek out
the cowards who thought it was more beneficial to throw her and
Rachel to the wolves.

She had opened
the front door, and there he was, hand raised, ready to knock.

He was a
handsome looking man in his late thirties. He had dark hair and
eyes and a sort of boyish grin.

“Miss Gina
Carter?” he asked, questioningly. He had an American accent. “I’m a
lawyer, sorry, I mean a solicitor. I believe I can help you.”

Gina was caught
off balance. She hesitated before replying. “We haven’t got any
money,” she said, simply. “I can’t pay you.”

He smiled at
her again. “That’s alright,” he said. “I don’t want any fancy fees.
I’m offering my services for free. No strings.”

Gina’s
expression grew harder. “Why?”

He glanced up
an down the road as he replied. “Call me a humanitarian, call me a
White Knight.”

“I’m going to
call the police if you don’t answer me straight!”

His grin
returned briefly. “Okay,” he said. The smile quickly fading. “My
name is Robert McCord. I worked for Alex Williams for a while and
we had a disagreement. Now I hate him, and I want to get even. You
need help, and I need a weapon to hurt him with. Are you going to
invite me in?”

“As far as I
see it,” Robert was saying as he drove Gina to Wythenshawe
hospital, “Your case stands or falls with the first hospital, the
MRI. It’s there that the mistake was alleged to have been
made.”

“But it was a
mistake,” Gina said, irritably. “Everybody knows that.”

“Do they? Fine.
Give the heart back to Williams.”

“What?” Gina
was surprised. “I thought you said that you were going to help
me?”

Robert shrugged
his shoulders as he answered. “I can’t help you if you just give
in. That’s the point, you see. It’s a simple case of proving
ownership. So if it was a mistake, and the heart was wrongfully
removed from Sarah Williams, you lose. But if it wasn’t a mistake,
if authorisation was given, then it’s yours, and Williams can go
whistle.”

“So what do I
do?”

“First you have
to recognise who your enemies are and where the real fight is going
to be.”

“What do you
mean?”

“Well, Williams
is suing the MRI for damages to the amount of a million pounds. You
might think that the MRI is in the same boat as you, and that
they’re on your side, but they’re not. I’m certain that the MRI
will settle near to the date of the court case. They’ll offer less
money, but Williams will take it, no matter how small the offer.
That hurts you.”

“Because
they’ll be admitting their mistake?”

“That’s right.
That’s what Williams really wants from them. He’s not interested in
the money. That’s just persuasion. With the error proven, you’ll be
next.”

“But what about
Wythenshawe hospital? He’s suing them, too.”

“Yes, that’s
right. Williams was originally suing both you and the hospital for
the return of the heart. That kept you on the same side. But not
anymore. Now that he’s dropped the return of the heart from his
suit against the hospital and just made it for punitive damages,
that divides you. Because now that it’s only money, and not even
that much, about a quarter of a million, it invites the hospital to
distance themselves from you, and the much stickier dispute over
the ownership of the heart. That’s why you got that letter this
morning. The hospital can now fight its own case on its own
grounds. They weren’t involved with the selection of the heart, and
they transplanted it in good faith. So they’ve got a good case, and
they’ll fight, and this time Williams will back down.”

“It sounds so
complicated.”

“Not really,
not if you realise what’s going on. Williams has got himself a
solicitor called Helen Worthington. I’ve never met her, but I’ve
heard of her. She’s a smart bitch, and mean with it. She’s doing
all the preparation work, carefully manipulating everyone to suit
her purposes as she gets ready for the main event. You see,
Williams is only interested in getting his wife’s heart back. He
doesn’t care about anything else. Not the money, not what people
might think of him, nothing. So there’s really only one court case
that’s going to count, and that’s the one between you and him. All
the rest is just clearing the way. And if we don’t stop him, and
soon, he’ll have won the case before you even get to court.”

“But why is he
doing all this in the first place? Why does he want the heart
back?”

“Because he
believes he owns it, like he believed that he owned Sarah, his
wife. He was wrong then, and it’s up to us to prove him wrong
now.”

“So what do we
do?” Gina asked him again. “How do I fight back?”

“Williams is
suing the MRI for a million, so we sue them for ten million, or
even more. We make it high enough to force the MRI to fight. And we
don’t settle, not for anything. You’ve got a lot more to lose than
Williams. Sarah’s already dead, and this case is not going to bring
her back. But your Rachel is alive and well. In fact she’s doing
real fine on this heart. Taking it out will put her life at risk,
even if you could find another heart that was just as good. That’s
all worth a whole lot more.”

Gina eyed him
carefully. “You were having an affair with this Sarah, weren’t
you?” she suddenly accused him.

The boyish grin
briefly returned. “I wondered how long I could keep that from you.
Is it so obvious?”

“Does he
know?”

Robert nodded.
“Of course. Sarah was leaving him to come to me when she was
killed.”

Gina became
quiet for a moment, thinking. They had arrived at Wythenshawe
hospital. Robert drove into the car park, found a space, and
parked. With the engine off there was silence in the car.

Robert undid
his seat belt and turned towards her. “Do you still want my help?”
he asked her.

“You’re both
mad, you know,” she said to him, staring straight ahead through the
windscreen. “Both of you fighting for her heart even after the poor
woman is dead. If I had the choice, I wouldn’t trust you for a
second. But I don’t have the choice. All I want to do is help my
Rachel. I don’t want anything to hurt her. If I had to, I’d sell my
soul to the devil to protect her.” She turned to face him again.
“And by having you on my side, I think maybe I have.”

Robert glanced
around the car park. “Do you want me to proceed against the MRI, or
not?” he asked, not looking at her.

“Yes,” Gina
replied. “Do what you have to do. Fight him, and that woman he’s
hired. Make him suffer like he’s making me suffer. We’ll soon see
if he doesn’t care what people think. Drag everything out into the
open. I want everybody to know what kind of a spiteful bastard he
really is.”

Robert looked
at her again. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll get things moving today.”

Gina stared him
right in the eye. “But remember this, Robert McCord,” she said,
sternly. “I might be a single mother, living in a council house in
Northenden, with no money, and not much of a future, but I’m deadly
earnest. I might have sold my soul to the devil, but if you cross
me, and if Rachel gets hurt because of something you do, then I’ll
make sure you go straight to hell with me. Do you understand? I’ll
stick a carving knife in my handbag, and I’ll seek you out, and
I’ll kill you. And don’t even think that I wouldn’t do it.”

Gina got out of
the car and slammed the door shut. It shook the car. Robert sat
back in the driving seat and watched her walk across the car park
towards the hospital. The outcome to this battle was going to be
far more interesting than he thought.

When he had
first heard that Sarah was dead, Robert had been too shocked to
take it all in. At first he had thought that Alex had murdered her.
But he quickly realised that Alex was far more likely to have
murdered him rather than his wife. He found out about the accident,
and learned all he could. And after that, her death had slowly sank
in. He would never see her again, or hear her voice, or hold her in
his arms. All the best laid plans...

And then he had
heard of the lawsuit. Sarah’s heart was still beating in the chest
of another young woman. And now Alex wanted it back. It was like
Alex had said on the phone, that day when Sarah had died. How he
said that he didn’t care about anything except getting Sarah back.
But now it was just her heart that Alex wanted back. But Sarah’s
heart didn’t belong to Alex; it belonged to him. And Robert McCord
was going to do his very best to make sure that Alex, and the whole
world, knew just that.

Rachel was
sitting up in bed wondering why her mother was late that morning
when Gavin Smedley came in pushing his trolley full of books and
magazines.

“Hiya, Rachel!
Still beating, is it?” he said with a smile.

“You’ve got a
nerve,” Rachel replied. Gavin asked the same cheeky question each
morning. She could report him, of course, but she knew that he was
only trying to cheer her up. She often wondered what bad taste
remarks he made to other patients. “What have you brought me this
morning?” she asked him. “And it better be good, or I’ll tell my
mother you tried to take advantage of me while I was sleeping.”

“Oh, God!
She’ll flatten me!” Gavin replied, and quickly began to root
through the books and magazines on his trolley. “How about this
weeks Hello Magazine?”

“Nah! I just
get jealous of all the posh houses and pretty women.”

Gavin put the
magazine down and held up a book instead. “How about a thriller by
Tom Clancy? Or John Grisham?”

“What? With my
poor, weak heart?” she said, putting a hand to her chest and
pretending to be shocked.

“Oh yeah, I
forgot! We wouldn’t want our star celebrity keeling over.” He
tossed the book back on the pile and rooted around for another.

“What do you
mean?” Rachel asked with sudden interest. “Why am I a star
celebrity?”

“Because of the
court case,” Gavin replied, holding up another book for her to see.
“Danielle Steel?”

Rachel waved it
aside. “Never mind that,” she said. “What court case? What are you
talking about?”

“Don’t you
know?” Gavin asked. He seemed surprised and began to look slightly
worried. “Oh, maybe I shouldn’t have said anything, then.”

“Well, you
have! So now you had better tell me everything, or you’ll be
wearing that trolley, not pushing it!”

Gavin thought
for a moment before quickly going to the door and glancing about.
Coming back to Rachel, he reached under his coat for the rolled up
newspaper he always kept jammed into his back pocket. He quickly
hid it under the bedclothes and then grabbed his trolley and began
to pull it back out the door. “I’ll pick it up at lunch time. But
if anybody finds it, you didn’t get it from me, okay?” were his
parting words.

Rachel waited
until the door was closed before fishing out the newspaper. She
unrolled it, and the headline caused her heart to miss a beat.

‘MAN SEEKS
RETURN OF DEAD WIFE’S HEART,’ it said. There were two pictures
underneath. Just faces. One was of a beautiful woman with a radiant
smile. ‘Sarah Williams,’ it said underneath. It looked like a
portrait photo. The other picture was of a thin faced, unshaven,
dark haired man. His hand was outstretched towards the camera,
causing the photo to be a bit lopsided, and not very clear. What
was clear in the photograph were the man’s eyes. They looked very
sad. ‘Alex Williams,’ it said underneath the picture. Further down
was another, smaller, headline. ‘Woman Facing Second Op.’ She saw
her name, and that of Dr Jones. Her heart began to beat faster as
she read the whole of the front page. She had just turned to page
three where the story continued, when the door began to open, and
she quickly stuffed the newspaper under the sheets.

Nurse Kaye came
into the room. She smiled at Rachel and went to check the monitor
at the side of her bed. “Your heart’s beating rather fast,” she
said. “Are you feeling alright?”

“Yes,” Rachel
replied in a shaky voice. She could feel her heart beating like
mad, and knew that Nurse Kaye could see how fast it was beating on
the monitor. She wanted desperately to calm it down. She forced
herself to relax, to not give herself away.

“Are you sure
you’re alright?” Nurse Kaye asked her again. She looked concerned.
“It’s just that your heart rate went up such a lot so quickly, I
wondered if something had upset you.”

Rachel
swallowed. “No, I’m fine,” she said more firmly. “I hadn’t noticed
the time, that’s all, and I wondered where my mother had got
to.”

Nurse Kaye
looked at her watch. “Yes, she is a bit late. But don’t worry. I’m
sure she’ll be along in a minute.”

“Anyway, what
else could upset me, sitting here all on my own?” Rachel dared to
ask.

Nurse Kaye
paused. “Nothing, as far as I know,” she replied, slowly.

Rachel was
growing calmer. Her heartbeat was almost back to normal again. She
felt back in control. “Well then,” she said. “I’ll just have to
wait here worrying about my mother until she finally decides to
turn up.”

Nurse Kaye
plumped up Rachel’s pillow, and tidied her bed. For a moment,
Rachel thought the nurse would find the newspaper and her heart
beat began to increase again. But this time Nurse Kaye didn’t
notice as she quickly finished fussing with the bed, and headed
towards the door.