Without thinking, she moved her head.
‘Alice? If you can hear me, can you nod your head again for me?’
Go away, it’s too painful.
‘Alice, if you can hear me, I need you to make a sign.’
God, this woman is relentless.
Using every drop of strength she had, Alice nodded.
‘Fantastic!’ The pushy woman was almost singing with excitement. ‘Well done, my love. I’ll go get the doctor immediately. Just sit tight for me.’
Oh, because I’m really likely to be wandering off, am I?
It was surprising to hear her own thoughts again. How long since she’d been able to do that? What had happened to her? She tried to lift her head but it was too heavy. In fact, her entire body felt as though someone had filled it with lead.
‘Alice, my name is Mr Warring. I was your surgeon. Do you remember me?’
I’m tired, leave me alone.
Why did doctors always insist on trying to tell you things when you were half asleep?
‘Alice, I need to tell you some very important news, so I have to make sure you can hear me and understand.’
She forced her eyes open. One look at his face and everything came flooding back.
The operation.
Her face.
Sarah.
Alfie.
‘What happened?’ Her voice was so hoarse that if it hadn’t come from her mouth she would have sworn it belonged to someone else.
‘I’m afraid there were some major complications with the surgery.’
Oh God, no.
‘You lost an awful lot of blood and you went into cardiac arrest. We …’
He paused.
Why was he pausing?
Alice could feel the blood surging through her. Why was he looking at her like that?
‘We were unable to finish the operation.’
Her hands immediately flew to her face. There were bandages wrapped around her.
‘What do youmean?’ The nausea crawled up her throat, making it hard to breathe.
‘Unfortunately we had to abort the operation before it was complete. We think we managed to make some improvements, but we can’t be sure until you’re fully healed.’
He didn’t even have the decency to look her in the eye. Why was he talking to the goddam floor? Could he not stand to see the monster he’d failed to fix?
