Chương 5
He took it badly.
“You cannot keep me from my wife.”
“Your wife has requested no visitors except her designated support person.”
“That’s me.”
“Apparently not.”
Ryan stepped closer.
Evelyn grabbed his sleeve.
“Stop.”
He shook her off.
“This is my family.”
The officer’s face did not change.
“Then act like it.”
Ryan froze.
For a second, Evelyn appeared almost embarrassed for him.
Then the elevator doors opened.
A tall man in a gray T-shirt stepped out carrying a duffel bag.
Daniel saw Ryan before Ryan saw him.
He stopped.
Everything Claire had ever worried Daniel might do seemed to gather in that pause.
Ryan finally turned.
Daniel walked toward him.
Evelyn whispered, “Oh, God.”
Ryan squared his shoulders.
Daniel stopped three feet away.
His eyes went over Ryan’s suit, the loosened tie, the faint stain from red wine near one cuff.
Then he looked at Evelyn.
“Happy birthday.”
Evelyn’s face crumpled.
Daniel turned back to Ryan.
“My sister alive?”
“Yes.”
“My niece?”
“Yes.”
Daniel nodded once.
Then he walked past him.
Ryan grabbed his arm.
“Where are you going?”
Daniel looked down at the hand.
Ryan released him.
“To see Claire.”
“She won’t let me in.”
Daniel’s expression changed so slightly that only Evelyn noticed.
“That sounds like a decision.”
“She’s drugged and emotional.”
The security officer took one step forward.
Daniel did not.
He simply looked at Ryan for a long time.
“You should hope that’s all she is.”
Then Daniel pressed the elevator button and waited while Ryan stood behind him, angry enough to speak and frightened enough not to.
The elevator doors closed between them before Ryan found anything useful to say.
Daniel stood alone beneath the fluorescent lights, staring at his own reflection in the brushed metal wall.
His hands were shaking.
He shoved them into his pockets.
By the time he reached Claire’s floor, he had arranged his face into something he hoped would not frighten her.
Nora met him at the nurses’ station.
“You’re Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“She asked for you.”
His shoulders dropped by half an inch.
“How bad is it?”
Nora studied him before answering.
“She’s stable, but she’s had surgery, significant blood loss, and a difficult delivery.”
“And the baby?”
“In the NICU.”
“Can Claire see her?”
“Soon, if her vitals stay where we want them.”
Daniel nodded.
Then he glanced toward the hallway behind Nora.
“Her husband?”
“Downstairs.”
“That where he’s staying?”
“As long as Claire wants him there.”
Daniel rubbed the back of his neck.
“Good.”
Nora gave him a look that was not quite approval.
“Your sister needs calm more than she needs anyone winning an argument tonight.”
Daniel looked at her.
“I know.”
“You sure?”
“No.”
That earned the smallest smile.
“Room 418.”
Claire was awake when he entered.
For one terrible second, Daniel did not recognize her.
Her skin looked gray against the pillow, and there was a swollen heaviness around her eyes.
A clear tube ran beneath her nose.
Machines stood on either side of the bed.
He stopped in the doorway.
Claire looked at him.
“You tied your boots wrong.”
Daniel looked down.
One lace hung lower than the other.
“Good to see you too.”
Her mouth trembled.
He crossed the room in three strides.
Claire reached for him, and Daniel bent carefully over the bed, terrified of hurting her.
She pressed her face against his shoulder.
Neither of them spoke.
Daniel felt her crying before he heard it.
He held the back of her head the way he had when their father died, though she had been twenty-eight then and had complained afterward that he had messed up her hair.
This time she did not complain.
“I almost lost her,” Claire whispered.
Daniel stared at the wall.
“But you didn’t.”
“I could have.”
“I know.”
“I should’ve called sooner.”
He pulled back.
“No.”
“I waited after he left.”
“For how long?”
“I don’t know.”
“Claire.”
“I kept thinking maybe the pain would stop.”
Daniel swallowed.
“She’s alive.”
Claire looked down at her hands.
“That doesn’t erase what happened.”
“No.”
The answer came quietly.
That was what she needed from him.
Not reassurance.
Not a promise that everything would be fine.
Just someone willing to leave the terrible thing where it was without trying to make it prettier.
She looked toward the door.
“Is he still here?”
“Yes.”
“Did you hit him?”
“No.”
“Really?”
“I’m growing.”
Claire gave a breath that might have become a laugh if laughing did not hurt.
Daniel pulled the visitor chair closer.
“I considered it.”
“I knew it.”
“Then I remembered you’d probably make me apologize.”
“I would.”
“Exactly.”
He sat.
For a minute, the only sound was the soft mechanical hiss near Claire’s bed.
Then she said, “He grabbed your arm?”
Daniel glanced at her.
“How do you know?”
“Nora.”
“She’s efficient.”
“She likes me.”
“She threatened me with emotional regulation in the hallway.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“Good.”
Daniel leaned forward, elbows on his knees.
“What happened before the ambulance?”
Her eyes opened again.
He immediately regretted asking.
“You don’t have to tell me now.”
“I asked him to take me.”
Daniel stayed very still.
“He said I was being dramatic.”
The muscles in his face tightened.
“I got on my knees.”
Daniel looked away.
Claire watched him.
“Danny.”
He focused on a plastic cup beside the sink.
“I’m fine.”
“You look like you’re about to eat the furniture.”
“I said I’m fine.”
“He left anyway.”
Daniel’s jaw worked once.
“Did he know you were bleeding?”
“No.”
She hesitated.
“But he knew about the pain.”
“And your blood pressure.”
“Yes.”
“And what the doctor said.”
“Yes.”
Daniel rubbed both hands over his face.
“When did the bleeding start?”
“After he left.”
“That matters.”
Claire’s expression hardened.
“Not enough.”
“No.”
He looked at her.
“Not enough.”
A nurse entered to check the monitor and inspect Claire’s IV.
May you like
The interruption gave them both somewhere else to look.
She introduced herself as Tasha and asked Claire to rate her pain.
