As long as I stayed useful and obedient, he could pretend that arrangement was called marriage.
The instant I said no, he decided I deserved punishment.
I looked beyond him toward the open doorway.
The hallway appeared impossibly ordinary.
A supply cart rolled past somewhere nearby.
Someone laughed quietly near the nurses’ station.
A paper coffee cup rested on a counter beneath the bright ceiling lights.
People continued their normal routines only a few yards away, completely unaware that my husband stood over my hospital bed with another fist slowly tightening.
At that very moment, Emma was probably picturing her father standing beside me with flowers in his hands.
She was only nine years old and still believed grown-ups told the truth about the people they loved.
During our last phone call, she had asked whether Daddy was helping the nurses take care of me.
I had answered yes because I never wanted her to worry.
The lie had come so naturally.
For years, I had protected Caleb’s image, even from our own daughter.
Her drawing still hung on the wall beside my bed.
COME HOME SOON, MOMMY.
Those words carried a different meaning now.
Going home could no longer mean returning to the same house and living under the same rules.
Surviving the cr@sh would mean nothing if I brought Emma back into a life where she learned that love demanded silence.
I tightened my grip around the bedrail and remembered the twisted metal.
I remembered broken glass sparkling beneath flashing emergency lights.
I remembered opening my eyes beneath the operating-room lights and promising myself I would make it home to my daughter.
I had survived an impact powerful enough to break both of my legs and fracture my ribs.
I had survived surgery, endless sleepless nights, and the fear of never walking normally again.
I would not allow Caleb to pull me from that bed simply because my recovery was costing him money.
He pulled his arm back once more.
The monitor scre:amed.
His fist started driving toward me and the silver handle on my hospital-room door suddenly began to turn.