“You asked what I wanted.”
He looked directly into her eyes.
“Go home to whoever would miss you.”
For once, Victoria Hale had no response.
The paramedics rolled her away.
—
Two hours later, Victoria lay in a private hospital room connected to enough equipment to make sleeping impossible.
Her assistant, Lauren Pierce, arrived shortly after midnight.
Lauren was thirty-six, relentlessly organized, and one of
perhaps four people on earth who could tell Victoria Hale she was being unreasonable without being fired.
She entered carrying two phones, a laptop, and the expression of someone prepared to declare war against cardiovascular disease.
“You died.”
Victoria looked up.
“Apparently briefly.”
“That is not funny.”
“It wasn’t intended to be.”
Lauren set everything down.
“The board knows you had a medical emergency, not the details. Communications drafted a statement. Your meeting has been canceled.
Dr. Sanders is flying here in the morning.”
Victoria stared toward the window.
Lauren followed her gaze.
“What?”
“The man.”
“What man?”
“The one who saved me.”
“Ethan Carter?”
Victoria turned.
“You know his name?”
“The airline filed the incident report.”
“Find him.”
Lauren paused.
“Victoria—”
“Find him.”
“He may not
want to be found.”
“Everyone can be found.”
Lauren gave her a look.
“Statements like that are why people think billionaires are villains.”
Victoria almost smiled.
“Please.”
That changed things.
Victoria Hale rarely said please.
Lauren opened her laptop.
“What do you know?”
“Ethan Carter. Traveling with his eight-year-old daughter, Mia. Middle seat in economy. Said he had medical training but wouldn’t specify.”
“Anything else?”
Victoria remembered Mia standing behind the curtain.
*You promised that you wouldn’t do this anymore.*
“Yes.”
“He used to work in medicine.”
Lauren typed.
“Age?”
“Late thirties, maybe forty.”
“City?”
“I don’t know.”
“Employer?”
“No.”
“Phone?”
“No.”
Lauren stopped typing.
“So essentially, find one American man named Ethan Carter.”
Victoria looked at her.
“He saved my life.”
Lauren sighed.
“Right.”
She resumed typing.
“Easy, then.”
—
Ethan and Mia reached his mother’s house just before sunrise.
