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“She was scared you weren’t coming back. She started freaking out. Crying and yelling.” Laura shook her head as though trying to dislodge the memories. “She convinced me to go after you. I was halfway out the door when she collapsed.”

Before Cassie could respond, a nurse came up to them. “Mr. Quinn?”

He stood immediately. “Yes?”

“Your wife is fine. You can go see her now.” When Cassie and Laura stood up, she shook her head. “One at a time for right now, okay? She’s tired and sedated. We don’t want to overwhelm her.”

Walter squeezed his daughters and kissed them each on top of their heads. “I’ll be right back.”

Laura sat back down, but Cassie watched as he walked through a pair of doors and down a hallway into the bowels of the hospital. Cassie felt stronger now—strong enough to keep the hospital’s crawling fingers at bay—but she could feel them waiting in the wings, hoping for her to let her guard down.

Laura waited until their dad disappeared before turning to Cassie. “You freaked me out earlier.”

Cassie put her face in her hands. “I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry. Things got kind of intense.”

Laura lowered her voice. “Did the Senator do it?”

“I don’t think so.” Cassie sat back in her chair. “But something weird is going on. Either way, he’s going to jail.”

“Wait, really? Why?”

“Insider trading.” Cassie shook her head. “He didn’t even try to deny it. But he was adamant he didn’t kill his kid.”

“And what was that when you first got here? You looked like you were about to pass out.”

Cassie gestured to the room around them. “It’s overwhelming for me.”

Laura followed her gaze, but she would never truly know what Cassie experienced. “Will you tell me about it?”

Cassie quirked an eyebrow in her direction. “Do you really want to know?”

“Yeah, I do.”

Cassie sighed. “How many people do you see?”

Laura did another quick scan of the room. “Maybe fifteen?”

“I see twice that.” She pointed to a young couple on the opposite side of the room. “That woman’s mother is sitting beside her, with her hand on her stomach. I’d say the woman is pregnant and doesn’t know it.” She pointed to an older woman and her son. “That lady’s husband follows her wherever she goes. My guess is that her time is close, and he’s just waiting.” She gestured to a young mother and a pair of kids. “There’s a man hovering around her. Not sure who he is, though. He keeps looking at the kids like all he wants is to be alive again.”

Laura took a moment to ingest everything Cassie said. “Wow.”

“But it’s so much more than that.” Cassie closed her eyes and defocused her mind. She could feel the hospital all around her. It had its own heartbeat. It pulsed with the spirits of the dead. “So many people have died here. Some moved on and some stayed, but they’ve all left an imprint. If I concentrate hard enough, I can feel every one of them. I have to work to ignore it. I have to actively turn them away when they reach out to me. It’s exhausting and horrible and overwhelming.”

Laura looked close to tears, but she let Cassie ramble.

“And there’s a woman sitting across the room. She keeps looking at me. She’s not here with anyone else. I’m not sure how long it’s been for her. Maybe a few days, maybe years. But she looks just like Mom.” Cassie let the tears spill down her face. “And I keep wondering if it’s her, if something happened, and they didn’t tell us. And even if it’s not her, someday it might be. What if I have to watch her stand by Dad’s side until it’s his turn? Or you? What if I get a few extra days or months or years with one of you, and then one day you stop showing up? How am I supposed to

say goodbye to you twice?”

Laura pulled Cassie into a hug and let her cry into her chest. “I’m so sorry that this chose you.” She stroked Cassie’s hair. After a minute, she forced Cassie to look at her. “I know it’s not fair. And I doubt it’ll ever be easy. You’ve lived through so much already.”

“Is this supposed to make me feel better?” Cassie’s joke was halfhearted, but it made Laura chuckle anyway. “Because I don’t think it’s working.”

“You’re incredible. And I don’t always think you know that.”

Cassie made a disgusted face, and Laura laughed even harder.

“It’s true. You’re special, as cheesy as that sounds, and I’m always going to be here to remind you of that, okay?”

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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