AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Just past 8:00P.M., an ER nurse bangs into the tray by the bed, and I jolt awake.
I blink, disoriented. I’m curled in a chair, bone-cold under a thin, hospital-issued blanket. My body aches, and my head throbs. My wrists still hurt from where I’d been handcuffed hours before.
“Oops!” the nurse cries as she scuttles about. It’s a woman I recognize—Wendy somebody. I think she used to be in the cardiology department, assisting on Greg’s surgeries. I may have even seen her at Greg’s funeral. I wonder if she was one of the women whispering about me.
I stretch, wishing I could have stolen a few more moments of sleep, then immediately feel guilty for that wish. I glance at the immobile shape at the head of the bed. “How is he?” A single, dim light shines on my father’s cheek. I can’t tell if he’s breathing.
Wendy checks his monitor. “I just came on shift, but he seems stable.”
“When is someone going to tell us what’s going on?”
She smiles tightly. “I’ll check.” She clicks something on the computer monitor that stands near the door and is gone.
I turn to my daughters. Sienna looks awake, though perhaps it’s from all the coffee she’s drunk. She’s tapping on her phone. “Who are you talking to?” I ask.
Sienna looks guilty. “Raina. She was worried about Grandpa... and you.”
I feel a pinch of irritation, now knowing all of Raina’s secrets. But maybe, in the grand scheme of things, Raina is the least of my worries. Then again, what’s themostof my worries? Dad? Willa? Patrick? I suck in my stomach, thinking of Patrick’s surprising wrath. My heart feels flattened. How could I have been so stupidagain?
“I’m going to go down to the cafeteria for more coffee,” Sienna adds. “Want some?”
I’m about to say no, but then I shrug. I might as well stay awake in case a doctor comes in to explain what the hell is happening with my father. As Sienna leaves, I call out, “Honey, wait.”
Sienna turns. I want to say something to her about the e-mail scheme she concocted—I haven’t forgotten, and we haven’t had a proper talk about it. Yet Sienna looks so guilty right now, almost like she’s readying herself for a blow. Maybe now isn’t the time.
I sigh. “Grab me two stevia packets, okay?”
She nods and disappears. Then I turn to Aurora in the corner. I expect her to be asleep, but her eyes are open and haunted, unblinking. I shift closer to her. “Hey. It’ll be okay.”
Aurora nods like she’s trying to convince herself. But she’s chewing hard on her lip. Her knee is jiggling crazily. Her gaze shifts to her grandfather, then back to her lap again. “I just... there’s no chance of you going back to jail, right?”
I shake my head. “No. I don’t think so.”
“Are yousure?”
When I heard about the murder weapon being found in our garage, hidden behind some drop cloths, I thought,Well, maybe Ididdo it. Maybe it wasn’t Patrick... or Ollie... or anyone else.
I sat in the filthy holding cell, awaiting my time in front of the magistrate, and decided to come to terms with what I’d done. Crazier things had happened than a woman stabbing her unfaithful husband in the kitchen, right? Maybe Greg had gotten violent with me, or maybe he’d snapped in the same way Patrick did in the woods. I’d felt such revulsion for Patrick, and shame in myself for trusting him implicitly. Coupled with disappointment because I was supposed to be a smart, careful, protective person, and there I was, believing in the wrong person once more. Those feelings were startlingly similar to how I’d felt about Greg when I’d been made aware of those e-mails. Maybe violence isn’t so difficult to imagine.
But then, just as I was beginning to take ownership over my rage, a female officer rapped on the bars. “Your bail hearing has been canceled.”
The officer unlocked the cell door and gestured for me to walk toward her. “Turn of events.” Her expression gave nothing away. “Forensics found a print on the murder weapon—but it’s not yours.”
Ollie’s, I’d presumed—especially after Willa told me what she’d figured out. I should probably be more emotional about the fact that my husband fathered a child with another woman... but, well, it’s all too much on top of everything else. I feel like nothing in my world,nothing,is in the place where I left it. I wouldn’t be surprised if I opened up my wallet and found another name on my driver’s license. If I opened my eyes and saw a different man than my father lying in the bed.
An hour ago, another strange turn of events: Detective Reardon called to say that, yes, there was a print on the knife, and yes, it wasn’t mine. But it wasn’t Ollie’s, either. It was a print thatisn’t in the system at all.I had them check on Patrick, who’d been fingerprinted for his job—nope. Sowhose,then?
There’s a murmuring sound from the bed. My dad shifts on the mattress, his eyelids fluttering, his lips making small, fleshy, popping sounds.
“Dad?” I rush over to him. “Dad?”
He squinches up his eyes, smacks his lips, but then drops back into sleep.
I glance at Aurora, who flew to his bedside, too. She looks so shattered. “It’ll be okay,” I say softly, patting her arm. I need to be the strong one for once, even though I’m reeling.
I study my father’s eerily gray skin, the white stubble on his chin, and the tubes running into his veins and nostrils. I’ve barely seen him sick, but hours ago, he’d collapsed to the floor as though made of glass. The paramedics worried he was having a heart incident. They gave him a sedative to bring his heart rate to normal levels. His body gave out because of what Willa did, I’m guessing. Because she’d ruined his school. Or maybe it broke because of what happened to her.
“Kit?”
