Chapter 1
“It’s the fifth day,” Linda said. “They’re planning to discharge you tomorrow.”
Lily lay propped against the hospital bed, pale beneath the thin blanket. The room had gone dim with evening. Outside the window, the city was reduced to scattered lights and the occasional red flare of traffic moving below. Inside, the monitors kept their quiet vigil. The heart monitor traced its green line. The IV pump clicked at measured intervals. The air smelled of antiseptic, warm plastic, and the fading flowers someone had brought two days earlier.
Linda sat in the chair beside the bed with her hands folded in her lap.
She had sent Jen to the cafeteria for food. Jen had objected at first—she had not wanted to leave Lily alone—but Linda had insisted. She needed a few minutes without anyone else in the room. She needed to say what she had been carrying without seeing her daughter watch her say it.
“Because of what happened with Judith,” Linda continued, “the hospital wants you to see Monica again. Or find another therapist.”
Lily’s eyes shifted toward her.
Linda knew what that look meant. Not agreement. Not refusal. Only exhaustion.
“We haven’t talked much about what comes next,” Linda said. “Not really.”
Lily could not speak. Her jaw was wired shut beneath the swelling and bruises. A pale line of tape held the edge of the bandage against her cheek. Her ribs were cracked, and even the movement of breathing seemed to cost her. A notebook rested on the tray table beside the bed, along with a pen she had not yet reached for.
Linda looked at it, then back at Lily.
“You have choices,” she said. “But first, I need to be honest about where things are.”
She spoke slowly, keeping her voice gentle.
“The doctors expect your jaw to stay wired for another six weeks. The doctors don’t want you flying before the wires are removeed. Your parents are on their way. They should arrive late tomorrow.”
At the mention of them, Lily’s eyes closed.
Linda waited until they opened again.
“You can come back to the apartment with me,” she said. “I can help you get to appointments. Jen can help when she’s not at work. Or I can take you to the mansion in Martin. Jen will go with you if that’s what you want. You’d have space there. Quiet. Someone to help you.”
The word mansion seemed too large for the room. It carried old rooms, long corridors, locked doors, and all the things they had not yet managed to name.
“Or,” Linda said, “you can stay at the hotel your parents reserved and wait for them.”
Lily watched her without blinking.
Linda lowered her eyes to her own hands.
“If you don’t want to return to the apartment, we’ll go our separate ways. I won’t make you come back. I won’t make the choice for you.” Her voice caught, and she had to pause before continuing. “You know what I want. I have told you. But it has to be what you want.”
For a few seconds, there was only the machine’s soft beeping.
Then Lily reached for the notebook.
The effort made her wince. Her ribs pulled sharply beneath the hospital gown, and her hand shook as she brought the pen to the page. Linda rose halfway from her chair, ready to take it away, to tell her she could write later.
Lily gave the smallest shake of her head.
She bent over the notebook and began to write.
