Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 72196 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72196 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
In our haste to leave the house earlier, not one of us had taken our phones with us, so there was no way for me to get into contact with Hannah to make sure everything was all right.
Though, I had a feeling that it was bad, but not that bad.
Alex was lucky.
At least that was what I kept telling myself the entire drive to the hospital.
“No running!”
I didn’t listen to the old woman behind the desk as I ran up to her.
“My daughter…”
She lifted a single finger. It was obvious that she was used to being obeyed.
I didn’t obey anyone, however. I was always a rebel, and right now, I was a rebel who wanted to know how his fucking daughter was…forty-nine minutes ago.
“Young man, you’re going to have to go back and walk.”
Surely, she was joking.
I was not a child. I was a fucking concerned parent.
“Alex Hail. She’s eight. Came here by Life Flight likely about half an hour ago. She was in a car…”
“Young man.”
“I’ve got this,” came a terse reply. “Sir, my name is Tru. Your daughter came in a little over twenty-five minutes ago. They’ve taken her to CAT scan to assess any damage that was dealt to her by her expulsion from the car. She’s on the second floor right now. Your wife is with her, in the room. I can take you to where the room is, but you won’t be able to enter until they’re finished with the tests, okay?”
I nodded mutely.
She led the way, not saying another word.
We took the stairs, thank God, and arrived at the closed door that said, “CAUTION RADIATION” on it.
“Here’s where you’ll stand. They’ll come out in about five to ten minutes. Please, don’t get in their way. I don’t want to get into trouble with my supervisor for leaving you here, okay?”
I nodded.
She patted me on the shoulder. “I’ll just be down here if you need anything. Her room number is room twenty twenty-three. Very back corner, last door on your right, at the end of this hall, okay?”
I looked where she was pointing, and nodded. “Yeah, Got it.”
She nodded and left, leaving me to lean against the white wall and look down at the white tiled floor.
There were a lot of things that I’d thought about when my eyes opened today.
One of those thoughts was that I wished Alex were there to see Michael, Nikki, and their kids. They’d seemed to hit it off the last time they were around—even if Michael and I hadn’t.
The second thought was that I hoped that Michael didn’t kill me for what I’d put Hannah through.
He hadn’t done it yet, but I knew the threat was always there.
The third was that I wished Hannah, Alex, Reggie, and our son got along better than they did.
I wanted my entire family together when we were having a family dinner. Everyone was there but Alex, and the bad feeling had continued to grow all damn day long.
I wondered if it was a sense of foreboding. A sense of unease that was crawling down my throat and making my stomach buzz with nerves.
For the next five minutes, I tried to think of anything but murdering my ex-wife, and didn’t succeed. I was working on the perfect plan that involved shoving her into traffic when the door opened, and Hannah came out.
“Travis!”
I hugged her to me close, and buried my face into her neck.
“How is she?”
She patted me on the back just as a little voice said, “Daddy?”
I dropped Hannah to her feet, let her go, and moved around her to rush to my little girl’s side.
She was bruised, no longer had the thing on her neck to keep her immobile, and had her arm wrapped to her chest so she couldn’t move it.
Most of the blood was gone, wiped away likely by Hannah, and she was staring at me with wide, fearful eyes.
“Hey, baby.”
She smiled a wobbly smile, and threw her arm up at me.
I took the hint and leaned down, pressing my face against the pillow next to her head.
She wrapped that tiny arm around me, and it felt like she tightened a fist around my heart.
***
Four hours later, I walked out of my daughter’s room, my jaw stiff.
I just spent the last hour holding her down while the nurses started an IV on her. I also held her still while the nurses wrapped her arm in plaster, plain ol’ white because they were out of all the pretty colors.
I listened to her cry and tell the ‘nice policeman’ about what happened with her mom. It wasn’t very clear. From a child’s point of view, who was intimidated by all the people in the room, she wasn’t very informative.
She did happen to say that her mother ‘drank a lot at a party while she sat in an empty room and watched TV.’