Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN WHO KNEW BEFORE I DID
The next morning, I showed up with coffee.
Then remembered she could not have caffeine before one of her tests.
I stood there holding two cups like an idiot.
Sophie looked at them.
“Good start, Colonel.”
“I panicked.”
“You invaded a hospital with lattes.”
“One decaf.”
She almost smiled.
Almost.
I threw both away.
That became our rhythm.
I showed up.
Badly.
I brought the wrong socks.
Forgot her phone charger.
Bought soup she hated.
She told me the hospital pudding tasted like drywall paste.
I tried it.
She was being generous to drywall.
There were no dramatic reconciliations.
Some mornings she barely spoke.
Some afternoons she asked me to leave.
I left.
Then returned when she asked.
Dr. Lena Morris explained the diagnosis to me only after Sophie gave permission.
A rare ovarian tumor.
Treatable.
But complicated by previous procedures and abnormal cells near surrounding tissue.
“Are you saying she’s going to die?”
Dr. Morris looked directly at me.
“I’m saying we’re treating her.”
I hated that answer.
Sophie touched my wrist.
“Don’t interrogate her.”
“I’m asking.”
“You’re doing the Army face.”
“What Army face?”
“The one where you look like somebody misplaced a helicopter.”
Dr. Morris laughed.
I did not.
Later, Sophie fell asleep during an infusion.
Her hand rested near mine.
I wanted to hold it.
I did not.
Then her fingers moved in her sleep.
They found my hand.
I stayed completely still.
For twenty minutes, I barely breathed.
When she woke, she noticed.
Neither of us mentioned it.
That evening, a woman was waiting outside Sophie’s room.
Early forties.
Red scarf.
Sharp eyes.
She looked at me like she already disliked me.
“You’re Ethan.”
“Yes.”
She extended no hand.
“I’m Rachel.”
I knew the name.
Sophie’s coworker.
The one she had mentioned years ago.
Rachel looked through the window at Sophie.
Then back at me.
“You’re the man who deleted the voicemails.”
There are introductions.
May you like
And then there are indictments.
