“How is she?”
“She’s well, but she misses you. She said I should tell you she loves you.” The words caused an ache in my chest. It felt like I’d be crushed by the weight of it. It reminded me of the countlessI love yousshe’d shouted as she got out of the car when I dropped her off at school. I sucked in a breath. This couldn’t be true. There was no way this doctor went all the way to another city to see my daughter.
“Your sister is well too. They’re hurting, but they’re coping.” He stared at me, and I let my eyes rest on my lap.
“What’s in the safe room, Alyssa? Is whatever is in there the reason you won’t speak? Is that why you did it?”
I said nothing. How can he know about that? Even the investigators failed to find it. There was no way anyone could uncover that.
“Alyssa, talk to me. I’m trying here, and if you think I am letting the fact that I know about the safe go, you’re wrong.”
I discovered the safe in much the same way I stumbled upon everything else that was wrong in my life—by accident. I tried to forget about it, and now Luke was rehashing it all, and I actually hated him for it. Why couldn’t he be like the rest of the world and not give a shit about what happened to me here? I didn’t ask for him to get so involved in my life. I asked to be left alone. The deeper he dug, the worse off I’d be.
I turned to the window, stared out, and heard him sigh.
“Can I go?”
He nodded, and I left the room.
Nobody was supposed to know about the safe. Why did he have to go snooping around in things that were not his business? Was his behavior even protocol? Visiting a patient’s family in another city and searching their home didn’t seem normal. Luke was my doctor, not my attorney or even an investigator on this case. Rage filled me, and I wanted to lash out at him, but I wouldn’t. This was supposed to be the one place where I was meant to be safe, but the closer Luke got to the truth, the harder it would be.
“You okay, honey?” Nurse Jones asked. She was the nurse allocated to me on night duty. She was kind and didn’t mind my silence. I even willingly started to nod or shake my head at her questions recently. She told me she was forty, unmarried, but taking care of her sister. She was in a relationship for a few years, but it ended because she finally had the strength to walk away from his abuse.
Nurse Jones was new and enjoyed working with the patients. She lived locally, which meant she didn’t have to use the hospital accommodations.
I shook my head, tears streaming down my face. For some odd reason, I trusted her, despite the fact I’d been burned.
“I-I need to deliver a message to my sister,” I whispered.
She smiled. “I knew you’d find your voice,” she said, looking at me kindly. She nodded, and I walked over to my desk. I knew there were cameras, so I jotted my note to Meredith, ensuring I was facing away from the cameras. I tore the sheet off and folded it.
“The address is inside.”
“You can trust me,” she told me, and I did, for the first time in a long time.
ChapterEleven
Luke
Last night, I’d met my friend, Elliot, for a beer, which turned into a few. He had flown in from London and was at my disposal for the rest of the week. I hadn’t been in touch with my friends, even those who lived in the same country since the whole situation with Audrey. I didn’t want to answer those uncomfortable questions, but I needed perspective, and he was the one guy who was great at that, and he’d been away from the situation for a while.
“How have you been, man?” After an hour of talking about his life in London and small talk, he finally asked me what he had probably been meaning to ask me all night since I told him Audrey and I had separated. “I haven’t seen you in a while, not since…” he trailed off. The last time he saw me was at my wedding.
I was grateful he didn’t throw an I-told-you-so in my face because he definitely tried to warn me against marrying Audrey. He’d told me she was opportunistic, and I never did understand what he meant by that. I supposed now I did.
“Okay, I guess,” I lied, taking a sip of my beer and watching as the condensation gathered then dripped down my glass.
“Well, in my opinion, it’s about time you and Audrey called it quits. You haven’t been yourself since you married her. I haven’t seen you nearly enough.”
“I know. It was a hard pill to swallow. I’ve filed for divorce at least.”
“Good on you, man. You should be celebrating.”
“Audrey isn’t the problem.”
I filled him in about Alyssa and the last few months. The thing about Elliot was he always said what was on his mind, and after much psychoanalysis, he shook his head.
“You’re falling for her, Luke.”
