Chapter 22

Randy groggily began to open his eyes, at first; all he could focus on were the bright lights and shadows of bodies standing around him. He heard muffled voices all around, but really couldn't make out what they were saying. He blinked a few times, trying to make sense of where he was. As his senses began to focus, he realized that he must be at the hospital. Dr. Adams, he's awake. "Sir, can you tell me what your name is?"

"Alanna? Where is my daughter?" Randy tried to sit up, but the mass of doctors held him down.

"Sir, calm down, your daughter is the operating room. She has a broken rib that has caused a small tear in her liver. They are working on it now. She's lost a lot of blood, but she's currently stable."

"Please let me up, I need to see her." Randy tried to get up again but the doctors used more force to push him back down. Randy knew he was stronger than all of them and no amount of force was going to keep him from finding Al.

"Sir please lay down; we are trying to assess your injuries. You could have a concussion or worse."

"I'm a professional wrestler lady, I know what a concussion feels like and I don't have one. I'm not going to stop until you let me up!"

"Fine! Let him up!"

"Dr. Adams?" The doctors looked at her confused.

"I said let him up! But you have to promise you'll let us run our tests when you calm down"

Randy nodded as the doctors released him and let him sit up. "I want to see my daughter."

"Sir, you…"

"Randy, my name is Randy."

"Hi Randy, I'm doctor Leslie Adams. You can't see your daughter, they already have her on the operating table. The last update I received was that she had sustained a decent amount of internal bleeding due to a punctured liver caused by a broken rib. But, I'm guessing that's not enough information for you is it?"

Randy shook his head as the tears began flowing down his face. "Please doctor…"

She sighed, "Ok, come with me. I'll see what else I can find out. But after that, you're getting some tests run."

He nodded as he followed her out of the room. As he began walking, his body began screaming at him. Every muscle in his body was sore, especially his lower back. He followed her as far down the hall as she would let him go. "Ok, wait here while I go and check on her. What is her name?"

Randy barely whispered "Alanna" before breaking down into tears again. Dr. Adams sympathetically looked at him, "Randy, she's going to be fine. You just need to be strong. Do you need us to call your wife?"

At the mention of the word wife, anger began to pulse through Randy's body. "No, I'll call her." She guided him to the nearest phone. "You can call her from here. I'll be back as soon as I check on Alanna's status."

Randy dialed Sam's cell and again it went straight to voicemail. He looked around for the nearest clock and saw that it was now past 2 AM. There was no way the movie was running this late. "Sam, its Randy…where the hell are you? Me and Al were in a car accident and we are in the emergency room at Kindred. Al's currently getting operated on…" He started crying, but continued on, "She has a punctured liver caused by a broken rib. I'm waiting to get an update on her now. Please get here as soon as you can."

He paced back and forth until he saw Dr. Adam's making her way back to him. He eagerly walked up to her. "Well, how is she doing?"

Dr. Adams smiled, "She's fine Randy. They are closing her up right now. We are going to put her in a recovery room and as soon as we run some tests on you, we'll put you in the same room as her." She pulled a spare wheel chair over and gave him a stern look. "Now, sit down. I want to run a full body CT scan on you…including that head of yours. We need to make sure that laceration on your forehead is the extent of the damage to your brain.

Trish paced around the hotel room. She hadn't received a text message from Randy yet and it was going on 2:30. He should've been home sometime around midnight. He could've simply forgotten to text her, but that doesn't seem like him. She thought about sending him a text, but hesitated…what if Sam would see the text? That wouldn't help his cause. She stared at her phone for a few more seconds…Screw it, I'm texting him. Sam will just have to deal with it.

Randy sat next to Alanna's hospital bed and watched her sleep. The fear and concern that he felt began to subside with the steady beat of the heart monitor. An intern walked into the room carrying two charts with her. "Mr. Orton, hi I'm Dr. Anders. I have your test results with me and I'm also going to check on Alanna's vitals."

Randy nodded and shifted his attention to the doctor. He could tell she must've been an intern. She looked young, and nervous…like she was new at this. He chuckled to himself and he watched her fumble with his chart. "Ok, it looks like everything seems to check out fine with you, other than the gash on your forehead, in which case we'll just have to get those stitches removed when it's time. The police spoke with us about the accident and the car that hit you actually hit directly on the back passenger side, which explains why Alanna's injuries were more serious."

Randy cringed just remembering the accident. The intern then began looking at Alanna's chart. "Is your wife on her way? We haven't seen anyone in the waiting room yet."

He nodded and looked down, "Yeah, I tried to call her but I haven't been successful in reaching her yet."

The intern nodded, still looking at Alanna's chart. Her face crinkled slightly, becoming perplexed. "So how long have you had Alanna?"

Randy looked up confused, "What do you mean?"

"I mean, how old was she when you adopted her?"

Randy gave the intern an unsure look, "We didn't adopt her…she's our biological daughter."

The intern's eyes grew wide upon what she had just discovered. She looked up at Randy and quickly tried to hide the surprise on her face.

Randy picked up immediately on the stunned look she had given. "What?"

The intern began to get worked up, "It's nothing. I just…um, I just read the chart wrong, that's all."

Randy stood up from his seat and walked over to her and grabbed the chart out of her hands. "No, something you see isn't making sense to you and I want to know what it is. Please, tell me."

The intern looked at him unsure. "Um, ok…well…" she hesitated and took a deep breath before continuing, "It's just, I noticed on your chart that your blood type is AB+…which makes you like the ideal plasma donor…" He gave her a look to continue. "I just mean, your blood type is extremely rare."

Randy looked at her expectantly, "Yeah, and?"

"Well, that means that your daughter should have either A, B, or AB blood types depending on your wife's type….but…" She stopped and looked up at him and took another deep breath. "But Alanna's type is O+."

Randy looked at her blankly, he knew what she was saying, but he simply couldn't believe it.

"This means, it's scientifically impossible for your blood type to be AB+ and your daughter's to be O+."

Randy nodded and sat back down, letting everything sink in. "I know what you're telling me…"

"I'm sorry, sir…that you had to find out this way…"

Randy looked up at her, the tears slowly starting to form in his eyes. "Can you leave us alone please?"

The intern nodded and practically sprinted out of the room.

Randy broke down into tears immediately after she left. Alanna wasn't his daughter. HE couldn't even think it, let alone say it out loud. He put his head down on the bed and began sobbing uncontrollably. He was so angry yet so heartbroken at the same time. This was the ultimate form of betrayal. It was bad enough he thought Sam was cheating on him, but to find out that she's been keeping this lie for 4 years, was unbearable.

He looked up at Alanna and held her hand. She was a victim in this vicious lie just as Randy was. She didn't deserve to have her real father taken away from her, just as Randy didn't deserve the false thought that she was truly his daughter. He began crying again.

Sam came flying into the room at that moment and saw Randy crying. She was a mix of emotions ranging from worry, confusion and anger. "Randy! What's wrong? Is she ok? Are you ok? What the hell are you doing home?"

Randy could feel his body burning with anger. It was going to take every ounce of strength he had not to slam Sam up against the wall and strangle her until her face turned blue. One thing he always prided himself in was that no matter how bad his anger got, he would never lay a hand on a woman. That notion changed today. Of course, he wouldn't truly hurt her, but his mind was certainly envisioning it.

"How long Sam?"

Sam looked at him confused. "What? Randy, what are you talking about?"

"Where the hell were you all night?"

Sam hesitated, "I was at a late movie with the girls. My phone was on vibrate and I didn't feel it in my purse. I also wasn't expecting you to come home."

Randy took a deep breath, trying to remain as calm as possible. "Stop lying to me. How long has this been going on?"

Sam looked at him, the tears building in her eyes. She knew she was caught. "A few months."

"Stop lying to me! I know Sam!" His stomach was doing somersaults, his head ached, and his whole body shook with anger.

"What are you talking about? You know what?"

"I know Alanna is not my daughter!" He screamed it, louder than he probably should have, considering they were in a hospital. Alanna didn't stir though, however she was still sedated from the surgery.

Sam looked at him with a shocked look before breaking down into tears. "I'm sorry! I swear it only happened once! It was a mistake and I know that! So when I became pregnant, I assumed the child was yours! I mean, our sex was constant so I assumed the odds were good."

Randy laughed sardonically. "You really are something! I want the whole story…who he is, when it happened, and where you were. And then I want to know all about your current lover, or should I say David."

Sam took a deep breath and sat down. She looked at Alanna sleeping soundly in the bed, she had cuts on her arms, and a few on her face as well. "I first met David five years ago. It was about two weeks after we had returned from our honeymoon. It was one of our random girls night out dates. I met David at Jack's Bar that night. He was in town for a business trip and was there with a bunch of his coworkers. Our groups hit it off and by the end of the night, he invited me back to his hotel for one final drink."

A tear fell from her face, "I was so confused after we had gotten married. I was having trouble dealing with the fact that my single life was over. At first, I thought maybe we had made a mistake. So, I was confused when I went back to the hotel with David. We had a drink at the bar, and the next thing I knew, we were in his room. I was drunk and didn't realize what I was doing."

Randy rubbed his temples…he wanted to hear everything, but he didn't realize how painful it was to listen to it all.

"About a month later, I found out I was pregnant and I just assumed it was yours, because like I said, it only happened one time with David."

"And now? I assume he's back in your life? Since he did show up at our New Years party."

"He moved to St. Louis about eight months ago. This has been going on with us for about four months."

"Does he know you're married?" Randy asked, already knowing the answer.

Sam nodded, "Yes, he does. He knew the first night we hooked up too."

"Does he know about Alanna?" Randy was keeping his cool, much to his surprise. But at this point, he felt completely numb.

She shook her head and whispered out, "No."

"Well, you need to tell him…he needs to know he has a daughter." Randy started crying again, thinking about Alanna and how drastically his life was going to change. Even though Sam didn't know Alanna wasn't his, she cheated on him many times…too many times to forgive and forget. He would never be able to trust her again. He knew what he needed to do.

Sam shook her head fervently, becoming hysterical. "No, I don't need to tell him. He doesn't need to know. We can just put all this behind us and move forward. Randy, you've been Alanna's father for four years now. Just because a test says that she isn't yours doesn't mean she still can't be yours. I'm so, so sorry for everything. But we can get through this." Sam got out of her seat and walked over to Randy, trying to pull him into a hug.

"No Sam." He pushed her away. He couldn't touch her, hell, even looking at her made him sick. "There is no way to fix this. You've been cheating on me for months now and turning the tables, blaming me for cheating on you! That's a new low, even for you. I'm sorry Sam, but this marriage was based on lies from the moment we said 'I do'. So I'm done with this… I want a divorce."

He started crying again, watching as the tears began to roll down her face. He looked at Alanna once more. "You better tell David about Alanna…cause if you don't, I will!" With that, he stormed out of the hospital room.

Trish dialed Randy's number. It was now close to four in the morning and she never heard from him. The phone went directly to voicemail without ringing. "Randy, it's Trish. I'm sorry for calling so late, but I'm really worried about you considering you were supposed to text me when you got home and you never did. If you get this, please call me back…I feel like something is wrong and…I just…I just want to make sure you're ok."