“Young lady,” calls the woman in the cot across from me, “you’re close with that girl. Can you find out if that young man has a brother?”
I ignore her, focused on my thoughts.
I heard you fell down the stairs.
Shawn said that line loudly, like he wanted the entire room to hear. Like he was intentionally planting seeds in everyone’s minds in case someone asked questions.
“Hey.” The granny in the cot next to me frowns and waves to get my attention. “She’s talking to you.”
Kelly never mentioned having a husband. Not once. And sure, we’re practically strangers who met three days ago when she was admitted, but Kelly is a talker. Pretty much an open book. I know about her dad and her mom and her younger sister. I know she used to be a model and she majored in early childhood education with an eye to teach children with learning disabilities how to read.
There’s no way she would have kept the fact that she had a loving husband at home a secret.
Unless she didn’t really have a husband.
Or, more accurately, she didn’t have alovinghusband.
“Young lady, don’t be rude,” another patient complains. “I know you heard?—”
Without a word, I scoop up my laptop and hurry out of the hospital room.
Kelly didn’t ask me to intervene or to pry, but it’s not like I asked to be sick. Life isn’t fair. We can’t always get what we want.
My slippers smack the back of my heels with every urgent step. There’s an empty hallway with the best Wi-Fi signal in the hospital right around here.
A few more steps…
There.
I sink onto a bench in a not-so-busy hallway and hack into Kelly’s phone.
It’s time to trade a secret for a secret.
Chapter Four
J
It’s really,reallyeasy to get remote access to someone’s camera and mike, especially if they’re on a public network.
Like say…
The hospital Wi-Fi.
I take control of Kelly’s phone like I’m ordering pizza. With a few taps, my screen expands with footage of Kelly and Shawn. To be more accurate, it’s the underside of Kelly’s chin and Shawn’s jaw. Fortunately, she has her phone out and not in her pocket or I wouldn’t have any visuals.
Kelly’s eyes are on the ground, her chin tucked to her chest as if she wants to roll completely into a ball the way an armadillo does when it feels threatened. She’s biting down on her bottom lip, and I can tell, even from the crappy quality of the phone’s camera, that she’s trying not to cry.
I slip in my ear buds to spy on their conversation.
“Did you tell anyone that I hit you? Huh? Did you?”
Kelly shakes her head and whimpers when Shawn grips her arm and shakes her.
“I don’t want to hear you spreading any lies about me. Do you understand?”
My blood boils. Who does he think he is to put his hands on his wife?
“It was your own fault for pissing me off. I give you everything you could ever want, and you’re still so ungrateful. Do you know how many women would kill to be in your position?”
