CHAPTER 11

It took some minutes for Ryan to get hold of himself. He requested for audience with the nurse who was in charge the night Haera was admitted.

"Please can I talk to the nurse who was on duty last night?" Ryan asked the nurse.

"I don't know who it was sir but I'll take you to the head nurse, she should know about it." The nurse replied to Ryan.

"Okay thanks. Please I'll appreciate it if you take me to her or him please." Ryan replied.

"Okay sir, come with me." She replied him as she left the room after changing the drip of Haera.

They left the room after Haera had fallen into deep sleep which was thanks to the anaesthesia that she was given.

They went into the nurses' chamber as Ryan filled the nurse. She went into a room that had a strange corridor which led to a floor of rooms. On reaching the last floor, there was another bend with conjoining floors. They took the bend at the center and headed to a courtyard.

They met the head nurse in the courtyard with other nurses.

"Good day ma." She greeted the head nurse.

"Good evening Millie." The head nurse replied back her greeting.

"Someone is here to see you ma." Millie, the nurse informed her.

"Good day sir." The head nurse greeted as she saw the man standing with Millie.

"Good evening, I suppose you're the head nurse." Ryan greeted.

"Yes I am, how may I be of help to you please?" She asked, getting all interested in speaking to him as she beamed all over with smiles.

She looked as though she was in her late forties, she had some folds under her skin as a sign of old age. She had pink lips which were red with the help of lipstick.

"Ma, he said he wants to see..." Millie started to tell her why they've come to see her but the head nurse shut her up.

"Come on keep quiet! Am I talking to you?" The head nurse reprimanded he rudely.

"I'm sorry ma." Millie apologized as she stepped back and bowed her head in respect.

"You better be!" She replied Millie as she eyes her up and down.

"Yes handsome man, you said you wanted to see me and oh, my name is Jacinta." She replied as she stood up and rearranged her uniform.

"What are you looking at? Will you leave here?" The head nurse, Jacinta scolded Millie as she moved backwards.

"Ma, he doesn't know the way out so I'm waiting to take him back to the ward." Millie politely replied.

"I'll take him out myself if he doesn't have eyes like you." She replied as she chased her away.

"Yes please. I want to know who was on duty last night." Ryan told her.

"Oh, in that case, we need to go to the room " She replied as she stood up, pushing her body towards Ryan as she adjusted her uniform severally.

"Sorry....you seem not to have heard me well... report..not room..." Ryan tried to make himself clear to her.

"Yes sure...I keep all the records there. Oh don't worry...it's my office and not a room." She chuckled as she left into an inner room, with Ryan following her behind.

"Oh gentle man, have your seat please." Jacinta said to Ryan.

Ryan looked around the room in search of a chair just incase there was an invisible one as he didn't see any chair.

Jacinta noticed this and laughed out.

"The bed...you can seat on it." She said to him.

"Oh, never mind. I'm in a hurry please." He replied.

"I see..." She replied as she stared at him, sucking her lower lip.

"Please who's the person?" He asked again, getting more serious.

"Oh come on, let me go and get my record book." She replied as she shoved him away with her fingers.

"Isn't it here?" He asked her.

"Its in the next room." She replied.

"What?" He asked.

"My bad..." She replied as she left the room sluggishly to get the book.

She returned as she watched him from the door. She admired his faith, his body and his skin. She licked the door wall as she kept touching her body slowly and making undue noise.

Ryan was tired of waiting as he put his hands on the table to support his stand. She came behind him and held him on his waist from the back, wrapping her arms around him.

"What are you doing? Please stop!" He raised his voice at her as he remembered bed her hands from his body.

"Oh come on...let me just feel you." She said to him as she blinked her eyes severally and drew him into the bed.

He was already infuriated and her actions made him more angrier. She forced herself on him, unbuttoning her uniform and trying to kiss him when he slapped her and pushed her hard against the bed and got up.

"I'm going to report you to the senior head nurse if you don't respect yourself! I want to have an audience with the nurse that was on duty yesterday!" He barked at her in a more threatening voice.

"Her name is Linda. Linda Joseph." Jacinta replied, feeling ashamed of herself as she buttoned up.

"So you knew who it was even without having a file in your hand and yet you decided to waste my time!" He yelled at her as he stormed out to the room.

On his way out, he didn't see a young lady who was coming in from the entrance as he was making it to the exit door when they collided.

"I'm sorry sir." She apologized as she bent down to pick the file she was holding when Ryan saw her badge with her name inscribed on it.

"Linda?" He calls and she nodded with a smile.

"Yes sir, that's me. I'm sorry about the accident...I didn't see you on time." She replied as she apologized for the little accident that just happened.

"No it's fine... actually I'm here because of you." He said to her.

"Because of me? Is there a problem?" She asked him as she was alarmed.

"Yes, I want to speak with you please." He replied back, trying to be calm as possible so that she won't be frightened.

"Let's talk over there." She replied as she pointed to a garden just outside the courtyard.

"Linda Joseph, that's you right?" He asked again, just to be sure it was her and not another Linda.

"Yes that's me." She replied.

"Were you on duty yesterday night? Did you attend to a patient in ward 049?" He asked her and she nodded.

"Yes. A Ms. Haera." She replied.

"Yes, yes." He confirmed her statement as he rubbed his chin.

"What about her?" She asked him.

"She was with a child yesterday and I was told that you were the one who took the baby from her or something like that." He tried to remind her if she was the one.

"Yes that's true sir." She confirmed.

"Why did you do that and where's the child?" He asked her with a serious tone.

"I didn't take the baby sir, child services did." She replied innocently.

"What are you taking about? Why child services? Don't the baby has a mother? What nonsense are you saying?" He yelled but on seeing how scared she got, he tried to cool down and reduced the tempo of his voice.

"I'm sorry for raising m voice at you but I need to know where the child is and why you did that." He said to her politely, trying all his best to suppress his anger in his fists.

"The people who came with her said she wasn't well mentally as they suspected and gave us the baby which we couldn't keep as it wasn't legal.

They said she was a careless mother who wanted to take her life and leave her child to suffer all alone so she didn't deserve to be with the child. I had no other choice than to hand the baby to child services after getting the approval of the management." Linda explained.

"Do you know you can be sued? Did you ask after the family members of the child or mother? Why take decisions into your hands?" He asked her with every anger in his voice.

"I didn't do it on my own, the hospital did and if you have any problem with that, you should go to them and not me. Please excuse me." She said to him and walked away.

He stood there for sometime to think over everything she just said before he left the courtyard. He went back to the ward but Haera was still sleeping.

He left the hospital in a hurry and went to child services center to get back her child before she wakes up.