Dear Bridget, I Want You(71)

“Yeah. I don’t have to go in until tonight. We’re going to just miss each other’s shifts by like an hour, I think.”

“You can catch up on rest today then, stay hydrated.”

“I intend to.”

God, I hated this façade.

After she left for the hospital, my mind was racing. Calliope had warned me I could probably get in trouble for contacting Gina Delmonico directly because I was a party to her lawsuit. I’d watched enough Law & Order reruns to think she was right—but I needed to talk to her privately before telling Bridget anything at all. That way I could go into that inevitable conversation armed with information. As much as it made sense, I dreaded calling the woman. I just wished all of this were a bad dream.

Wandering around the quiet house aimlessly, I stopped into Brendan’s room. There was a framed picture of his father atop the chest of drawers. It was in a baseball-themed frame.

I lifted it and spoke to him. “What the fuck were you thinking…messing with that broad when you had Bridget? If you weren’t already dead, I’d fucking kill you, you know that?”

This situation was causing me to completely lose my marbles; now I was talking to a dead man and threatening his life.

“Alright, maybe I don’t mean that, because you’re Brendan’s dad. But I’d definitely rough you up a bit, maybe make you watch while I fucked your wife nice and good right in front of you. Although, maybe you’ve been seeing us from where you are. If so, then you’ve already bore witness to that. Serves you right.”

I looked up at the ceiling before talking to the photo again.

“Thanks a lot for leaving me to clean up your mess, mate. You’d better hope this little girl’s not yours. Get to work…talk to some people up there and bloody fix this.”





Gina agreed to meet me at a coffee shop on the East Side of Providence. Bouncing my knees up and down and surrounded by Brown University students and their MacBooks, I sipped my coffee and anxiously awaited her arrival. The only thing pleasant about this was the smell of cinnamon wafting from the baked goods shelf.

I hadn’t told Gina the exact reason for my wanting to speak with her. All I’d said was that I had some information that she might be interested in, making it seem like meeting me would provide some benefit in regards to her case against the hospital. I feared she might not have come if she knew the real reason I needed to confront her.

When she appeared, I waved to her from my seat in the middle of the packed café. She lifted her index finger then pointed to the counter to signal that she was going to order something before joining me.

Five minutes later, Gina placed her coffee down on the table and sat across from me. Her chair skidded.

“What did you want to see me about, Dr. Hogue?”

Needing to cut to the chase, I came right out with it. “My girlfriend is Bridget Valentine—Ben’s wife.”

Gina froze in the middle of sipping her coffee. Her expression turned to one of fear. She slowly nodded but said nothing as I continued.

“I was dragged into the deposition because I happened to be on shift in the ER the night of your accident. I didn’t know Bridget then. We’ve only gotten together over the past several months. The fact that the driver turned out to be Ben was a very unwelcome surprise.”

She blew out a long breath. “I can imagine.” Gina was nervous, looking around and fidgeting in her seat.

“Look, I’m not here to judge you. But I can’t keep this information from Bridget. I have to let her know what I’ve discovered. But before I say anything, I need to make sure that I’m not misrepresenting the facts. This is going to gut her no matter how I present it.”

She was wearing bright red lipstick, similar to the shade I loved on Bridget. On Gina, it just seemed dirty and unappealing.

“What do you want to know?” she asked.

I figured I’d tread lightly rather than skipping right to the most important piece. I needed her to feel comfortable opening up to me so that she didn’t feel the need to hide anything.

In the least abrasive tone I could conjure up, I said, “You indicated you carried on an affair with Ben for about a year…”

“Yes. We never meant to hurt anyone. I had a boyfriend at the time, too. But Ben and I…we just connected. It started as an innocent flirtation at work, just emails and text messages and what not. Then we ended up on the same business trip once and well, you know…”

“Unfortunately, I do know, yes.” My blood was boiling. “Did he ever…talk about why he was cheating?”

She shrugged her shoulders. “He loved his wife. There was never any doubt in my mind about that. He never spoke negatively about her. They’d just been together for so long, and I think their relationship lacked excitement in certain areas.”