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“Good.” Letting me go, she slung the bag over her shoulder and sighed heavily. “Quick healing, Aslan. See you next week.”
She rushed out the double doors.
Patients in the rows of beds paid me no heed as I locked down my pain, calmed my panicking heart, and put one foot in front of the other.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
*
Aslan
*
(Heart in Hindi: Dil)
SUNLIGHT TOUCHED MY FACE AS I MARCHED with purpose, doing my best to hide my pain. The warren of hospital corridors had leached what strength I had left, and the faint dullness of morphine was giving way to sharp slicing discomfort.
The sooner I was home, the better.
The sooner I was in Neri’s arms, the sooner I could breathe.
I stepped outside.
I was free.
An elderly man pushed a white-haired woman in a wheelchair. The fear in his eyes held aching concern from a husband for his wife. A mother ducked past me with a screaming boy in her arms, and a young woman brushed away tears as she darted toward the ER with a tea-towel wrapped around her bloody hand.
So many maladies.
So many people.
But no one stopped me.
No one cared who I was or that I was leaving without being discharged.
I stood outside the hospital and fought the urge to crumple with relief.
Neri.
My entire nervous system screamed to see her. Anxiety roared through my veins. Impatience cracked my bones.
I moved farther away from the yawning entrance of the hospital.
A silver SUV pulled up in the drop-off zone as I followed the footpath, glancing around the many vehicles for Jack’s Wrangler. Four men in black suits stepped out, official and stern.
Instincts prickled to move out of their way, and I cut to the left, scanning the parked cars, wishing I had my phone so I could call Jack and find out where he’d parked.
Is he even here?
Where should I wait if he isn’t?
One of the suited men caught my gaze as he headed toward the hospital doors. Dark-brown eyes, neatly styled blond hair, and lips that were so thin they seemed drawn on with a pencil. Our stare held then broke as I continued on my way, and he followed his colleagues toward the sliding doors.
The sound of their footsteps suddenly stopped.
Whispers rose from behind me.
It’s nothing.
