“Florentia!” a voice gasped, one that she recognized immediately. “You’re...oh my God. You’re awake! Florentia!” The hand squeezed tightly, and another came to rest on her shoulder.
Her eyes took a moment to adjust to the room; it was dark, but the fire in the hearth provided a soft light. Her room, she realized, and she was in bed. Still, she couldn’t remember what had happened or why, but she managed to turn her head slightly, not surprised to see Hudson sitting beside her.
“Hudson...” A weak smile slowly crept over her lips. “I thought that was you.”
“Florentia!” He moved to throw himself over her but stopped before he did so, grimacing with anxiety as he looked her over, seeming to realize that maybe she wasn’t ready for such things. “You are awake...I cannot believe...I did not know if you...”
There was something different about him, and it took her a moment to understand what. She squinted up at her husband, still the same man she knew well, only...there was a change in him. It was the tears that rolled down his cheeks, she decided, the smile on his lips too. She had never seen him taken by such emotion.
“How was your trip?” she asked, her voice hoarse.
“My trip?” he frowned. “What are you...Florentia, I was gone for but a day. I should never have left you. I am so sorry—I know that nothing I say can make things right, but I pray you understand how sorry I am.”
Her head throbbed painfully. She was having a hard time thinking through what was going on. The last thing she remembered was Hudson leaving for his business trip, an actwhich had signaled to her mind how little he cared for her. Only now, it appeared, something had changed.
“What is going on?” she asked. “I hate to play catch up but...” She tried to sit up but there was no strength in her body, and the pain she had felt earlier was now concentrated in her stomach. It made her wince.
“Don’t move,” Hudson said immediately. “I will send for a doctor.” He went to stand but she held onto his hand.
“You’re going?”
He paused, half standing. “I need to get help, Florentia. We did not know...” He sniffed but did not wipe the tears away. “We did not know if you would ever wake.”
“What...what do you mean? What is going on?”
“You don’t remember?”
She touched her head to try and stay the headache. “I remember you leaving me. And then...” She tried to recall the best she could but was unable. “No, I do not...what is going on? Hudson. Speak plainly.”
Hudson considered, caught between going for help and staying with her. But she looked pleadingly at him, and he relented, sitting back down. “I should never have left you. Dammit, Ishould never have...you have no idea how sorry I am, Florentia. For everything.”
“This is not your fault,” she said weakly.
“We do not know that,” he sighed, his large shoulders sagging. “If I had been here, this… whatever it is. It would not have happened.”
“So, we do not know what happened? My memory….”
“Nobody knows,” he admitted. “The staff found you on the floor four days ago, passed out. And you have no woken since.”
“Four days ago?” Florentia gasped. “How did you...”
“I came back the day after I left,” Hudson said quickly. “That was three days ago now. We thought....” He sniffed again. “We thought you might never...” His body began to shake.
Florentia frowned at her husband as she slowly put the pieces together. Despite the pain, despite the confusion, she could not help but smile as she came to realize something. “They sent for you? That is why you returned?”
He shook his head. “No, that is not...” He was already holding her hand with one of his hands, but he reached over and wrapped his second about them. Then he looked into her eyes, letting her see the redness, the tears, the pain and sorrowand the misery he was feeling. “I was wrong, Florentia. About everything.”
“What...” Her heart began to race, which hurt, but she ignored it. “What do you mean?”
“When you told me two weeks ago that you...” He grimaced. “That you loved me, what I said to you...” He looked away. “I cannot believe I said such things.”
“You might have to remind me.”
He shook his head in shame. “My entire life, you must understand, has been a lie. I want to blame my father. I want to blame my upbringing. But those are mere excuses used to hide behind. You know me as a cold, callous, heartless...” He considered.
“Monster,” she offered him.
He chuckled and squeezed her hands. “That is not the real me. It is a role I have played because I thought I must. But you...” He pulled her hand to his lips and kissed it. “You saw through who I was pretending to be. You...you found the real me. Somehow...” He smiled finally and it reached his eyes and touched at her heart. “Somehow you made me understand who I could be...who I really am. You made me see what that was like, and while I ran from it because I was scared, you need to know that I am no longer that man.”
