Chapter 1 - Behind the Curtain
The doctor said, “What you’re about to see may shock you.”
I thought she meant Garrett’s face would be bruised.
I thought perhaps there would be blood, stitches, or something damaged badly enough that I needed to prepare myself before seeing the man I loved.
I was thirty-one weeks pregnant, soaked from the November rain, and still clutching my phone in one hand while the other pressed against the hard curve of my belly.
Dr. Elaine Forsythe pulled back the emergency-room curtain.
My husband lay on the gurney beneath a white sheet.
His cheek was swollen. His left arm was bandaged. Monitor wires crossed his chest.
Then I saw the woman leaning over him.
Long blonde hair.
Black sleeveless dress.
One hand resting against his chest as though she had placed it there a hundred times before.
She whispered his name.
“Garrett…”
Not like a stranger.
Not like a coworker.
Like a woman terrified she might lose someone who belonged to her.
Garrett turned toward me.
His face drained of color.
“Natalie—wait.”
The woman straightened, but her hand remained on him half a second too long.
My phone began trembling in my grip.
I looked from her to my husband.
“You brought her here?”
Garrett tried to sit up.
The monitor began beeping faster.
“It’s not what you think.”
The blonde woman instinctively reached for him again.
That small movement destroyed whatever explanation he might have tried to give.
I stepped backward.
My vision narrowed.
May you like
Garrett’s panic sharpened when he saw me sway.
The last thing I remember was his hand reaching toward me while the hospital floor rose into view.
