Page 168
“You’re welcome. I did want to add that your chest might be sore from compressions. You went into cardiac arrest twice in the ambulance, then again on the table.”
Cardiac arrest? My heart stopped?
“Okay.”
She smiles. “If you need anything else, just ask, okay? I’ll be back to check on you in a bit, but I’d settle in for a little while. I’d like to keep you for at least forty-eight hours for observation; then we can reassess after that.”
I nod, so she taps the end of the bed, then turns to leave the room.
Taking a deep breath, I close my eyes for a moment, trying to process everything she said.
I died.
Three times.
“Were you with me in the ambulance?” I ask, opening my eyes and turning my head toward Maverick. Part of me hopes he wasn’t so he didn’t have a front row seat.
He nods.
“I’m sorry.” I don’t know what else to say. My eyes fill again, emotions all over the place.
“Stop apologizing,” he says. “Don’t apologize for anything, Sadie.”
“If it were you who died, I—” I can’t even continue the sentence. Not without completely losing it. Just the image of him lying on that floor will haunt me for the rest of my life.
“It wasn’t me. And it wasn’t you. God brought you back to me, Sadie. You’re here. And I will spend the rest of my life showing you just how grateful I am that you are.”
“Me, too.”
He smiles. “I met Samuel.”
“Samuel?” I question, mind still groggy. But then the image of that man on the bus bench comes back. “The same one?”
He nods. “He was in the hospital chapel.”
“But how is that even possible?”
Maverick kisses my hand again. “I’m learning that there is nothing God can’t do.”
“Come in,” I say at the soft knocking on the door.
It swings open, and Captain Leopold walks in, wearing a dark suit. Lines of exhaustion mar his face, but he offers me a soft smile when he sees me sitting up in bed. Maverick is still in the chair beside me, his hand up on the edge of the bed, holding mine.
“How are you feeling?” he asks.
“Better,” I reply. The rest of the fog has lifted, and while I’m certainly feeling the soreness Doctor Malorie said I would, I’m so grateful to be alive.
“I’m glad to hear that. I was hoping I could get a statement from you? I already got Maverick’s.”
“If you’re feeling up for it,” Maverick adds.
“Of course,” Captain Leopold replies.
“I am.” I squirm a bit in the bed, so ready to put this whole thing behind me.
“Great. Can you tell me what happened? Start at the beginning.”
I clear my throat and pick at the blanket with my free hand. “I was upstairs, waiting for Maverick. He’d gone downstairs to make coffee. It was taking a while, but I just assumed he might be putting stuff away after Bella and—” I stop speaking, unable to even say his name.
