Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 95453 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95453 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
Thinking of her goes a long way toward calming the worst of what’s raging in my soul. How can I sit here and think along these lines when she has suffered so much? What would she think of me if she knew the fantasies that run through my head almost constantly?
Colt said in his email he told her I was only away, so she won’t be too shocked if she wakes up and finds me in her room. I’ll do everything I can to make sure she doesn’t, though, because then there would be the matter of what happened to my face. I couldn’t explain that without having to explain a lot of other things I’m not sure she could handle—not to mention the time it would take. I need to see her for myself. That’s all. After so much time, all the years thinking she was gone forever, I want to see her again. To be in her presence. Maybe the broken, evil part of me will heal somehow.
And maybe I’m a child who still believes in fairytales. Maybe I don’t even deserve the comfort of her presence.
The hospital won’t be fully staffed at this time of night, meaning it should be easier for me to slip in unnoticed. That’s how I managed to escape my hospital in the first place, sneaking out at night when the floor was only half-staffed, if that. I don’t understand why hospitals are like that. Do they think people won’t have emergencies at night?
Whatever. Right now, it fits my needs. I park a few spots down from any other vehicles and get out with the lilies in hand, my hood raised, my chin tucked close to my chest. In a pair of jeans and nondescript shoes, I could be anyone. There’s no way of identifying me on any camera that might pick me up.
One thing I learned when I was a John Doe: act like you know where you’re going, and nobody will pay attention to you. That doesn’t mean I’m not careful—using the side entrance to the cafeteria to get inside the building rather than going through the front doors, where the security person on duty would definitely ask why I’m here.
It’s dead down here, the cafeteria closed, which is another thing that sort of baffles me. What, people don’t get hungry or thirsty during the night? What about the doctors and nurses? Don’t they deserve to eat?
Whatever. It works for me now as I walk quickly down the hall, my shoes soundless against the linoleum. The elevators further down the hall lead straight up to the various floors, giving me the opportunity to bypass the front desk. I’m glad Colt remembered to tell me where she is. He’s known all along I would have to see her. It doesn’t matter how much time we spend apart. He knows me too well.
The ICU floor is quiet, with a single nurse currently on duty at the desk and another couple of people in scrubs going from one room to the next. All it takes is waiting for the phone to ring and the girl to turn her back. I dart down the hall, Mom’s room number running through my head, not coming to a stop until I’m inside and behind the curtain that gives her at least a little privacy from the people walking by.
There she is. Sleeping, the TV on with the volume turned down low. Some random 24-hour news station is playing—without thinking about it, I find the remote on the table next to her bed and change it to something she’d like better. There’s an old movie playing, one of those black-and-white romances she used to watch sometimes. I leave the flowers beside the remote, knowing somebody will probably take them away but hoping she’ll see them before they do.
She looks good. Better than I imagined. What did I expect? Tubes coming out of her, a respirator, that sort of thing. But no, she’s breathing on her own. There are thin streaks of gray in her hair—she would’ve hated that, would’ve colored it the second her roots started showing. I want more than anything to reach out and stroke her hair, but I know better than to wake her up.
As it is, every second ticking by on the clock is one second closer to being discovered.
But she does look good, clean and cared for. Not that I had any doubts about that. Colt would kick the shit out of anybody who dared not treat her like a queen. At least he was here to do that for her if I couldn’t be.
“Welcome back,” I whisper to her, listening to her slow, soft breathing. Dad couldn’t kill her. She’s too strong for that. She knew she had something to stick around for: her sons, one of whom is standing at her bedside and doesn’t look much like himself anymore.