The other woman

Hearing his voice

She nodded, she knew he was right but it was hard when she kept picturing Soren with a pitchfork in his back. But she'd been desperate to escape, desperate to take the chance that Christian had given her and also desperate to stop Soren beating him to a pulp.

The door opened a nurse walked in carrying a couple of slices toast that Alex knew were for herself. Food was the last thing she felt like having right now, all she wanted was for either Gisela to show up and take her home or for Seb to call, to just be able to hear his voice would mean everything.

"You need to start eating Miss Van de Berg so that you can start to build your strength back up." The nurse held the plate out to her, "You're quite underweight and understandably weak after what you've been through, eating little and often will help to build up your appetite again."

"Isn't anyone here to pick me up?" She asked as the plate was placed on her lap.

"I'm afraid not but you at least need to stay in for a couple of nights, you've got cracked ribs that we'll need to X-ray again tomorrow."

"What about Seb, is there anyway I can contact him? I've lost my phone and it had his number in it,"

The nurse checked her IV lines and then picked up her notes from the end of the bed before she answered, "his home number is down as your emergency contact but his wife said she couldn't come here."

"Maybe I can try calling Aston Martin back in England, see if I can get anywhere?" Christian suggested.

She shook her head, "the best they can do is maybe pass a message on. My sister tried to get my number and they wouldn't give it to her but they got a message to Britta."

"What about your sister then? You should have your family with you at a time like this." He leant to one side and pulled out his phone, "do you know her number?"

"It's a long story which I won't go in to but no, I don't have her number and I don't want it. I'm not in touch with my family and don't want to be." Alex picked up a slice of toast and examined it, knowing that she ought to make an effort to eat it.

"Oh," he looked surprised but knew not to press her on it any further, he didn't want to upset her, right now they were both alone and only had each other for company.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Doha.
"Van de Berg..... V, A, N...D, E...B, E, R, G, first name Aleksandra, spelt with a K and not an X..." Seb paced around his hotel room, growing more and more impatient with the man on the other end of the phone, "she's my trainer, she's been in the media, you must know who I mean!"

He stopped at the sliding glass doors to the balcony, huffing in exasperation, tapping his foot on the carpet a couple of times and then digging his toes in to it, "yes! That's her! I need to know how she is, I'm her boss..." he hated saying the word but knew that their secret couldn't come out just yet, "she's got no one else apart from my wife while she's in the country, do you know if Gisela has been in? Has anyone visited?"

He turned and leant back against the glass as he listened, Gisela hadn't been to the hospital at all but someone was with Alex, a man who was also taken to hospital but refused to be checked by medical staff. It made an unwelcome, unsettling feeling swirl in his stomach; who could this man be? Was it Soren? Was she still in his clutches? Or was it someone else, someone who he didn't know about? "Can you tell me what condition she was in when she was bought in and how she is now?"

This was painful, he felt like he was getting nowhere and he was close to dealing out the don't you know who I am card, something that he loathed and had never done before in all of his years in F1. "Well can anyone tell me?" He asked, banging his head back against the glass and trying hard not to raise his voice. "Then can I speak to Alex? Can someone get a phone to her? Please, this is important, I need to speak to her."