Sally shook her head again. “I don’t know. No one knows.”
“But there was a guard on her door,” Elijah said stepping towards the door. Regardless of him being allowed here or not, there was no way he was leaving until he knew where she was.Fuck Michael, Elijah thought angrily.
“They don’t know what happened, they think she slipped out sometime between her husband leaving and Jack arriving.”
“Who the hell is Jack?” Elijah snarled angrily.
“The guard, the security guard,” Sally rushed out. From somewhere in her pocket her cell phone began to ring. The soft melodic voice of a singer Elijah didn’t know echoing from her pocket. Sally’s eyes widened. “It’s Taylor, it’s my son.” She pulled the cell out and stared at the lit-up display, her own dread filling her. She licked her lips before answering. “Hello?”
Elijah cracked the door open and looked back out. The hallway lights were in full now. Every dark corner evaporating so there was no hiding place for Delores. His dread turned to anger, thinking of Michael and how he had blocked him at every turn, stopping him from getting to Delores. Stopping her from getting healthy. Causing her this pain.
She was here because she’d tried to kill herself, he reasoned, what if she tried again? He squeezed his eyes closed.
Sally hung up. “I need to go,” she said breathlessly, her voice quivering as tears filled her eyes. “I need to go.” Her chin trembled. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t help more.” She pulled out Elijah’s cell and handed it to him. “I’m sorry,” she said again and pulled open the door and left.
The door clicked shut and Elijah was alone again in the stairwell. He breathed out his annoyance, his grief, and his worry.
“Where are you, Delores?” he whispered to himself.
A noise sounded out from above again, and he cast his gaze upwards. Hospital security would check in here soon, he thought. The police would be called if she wasn’t found in the next thirty minutes.
This might be it.
The final thing that either kills her or gets her locked up.
Chapter Forty-Four.
Delores.
The warm breath of wind washed over her face.
Delores closed her tearful eyes and allowed herself to get lost. Inside her head, she swam with the wind. A brightly colored mermaid’s tail flipped as she dove through the clouds, the warm rush of air wrapping her in its warm embrace. She folded herself into it, escaping into the mist that surrounded her.
Her arms open wide, the wind threaded itself around her body.
Delores opened her eyes and stared out into the dark night sky. It was a sky like this where she had said goodbye once before. She had thought of her father and her mother. She had thought of her children and Michael. She had apologised a thousand times. She had accepted her guilt, The heavy weight of her crime. She had accepted her punishment.
She deserved this. She knew it to be true.
She didn’t need to say her goodbyes this time.
This time it would be over quickly.
Just.
One.
Small.
Step.
Her nightdress wrapped around her too thin calves, clinging to her in trembling fear as the breeze shook through it.
Her fingers twitched, an invisible beat playing on her fingertips. The throb of her heartbeat said its last goodbye.
She cast her eyes downwards, to the black asphalt below. To the darkness that would swallow her whole.
This is right,she told herself.This is just. This is the end.
