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)
Allegra’s eyes narrowed.
Wrong thing to say, apparently.
“You shouldn’t have to apologize for anything she did. Our child is perfect.”
I wanted to laugh at that.
Our child was anything but perfect. She was exactly like Allegra, and that sucked.
“Actually, there was something to apologize for. Excuse me for another minute.”
I turned my back on Allegra, which pissed her off even more.
And that was when I made my mistake.
I completely missed the anger on Allegra’s face, but I would be feeling it, even months later.
***
Present day
“Well, I don’t want you here.”
Where had I heard those words before?
My memories drifted away from that god-awful day.
That was the day that Allegra had found out about Hannah, and the last time that I ever willingly said anything to Allegra about Hannah.
The bitch was always in my face, and the moment she heard about Hannah and me, it was like the gloves had come off.
It would take me a while to see what Allegra was doing, but eventually, I’d caught on.
And now, I hated her even more.
“What do you mean your hours were changed?”
Hannah looked away.
“I got back to work, but since I wasn’t there the last six weeks, they decided that they wanted to change up the hours. I’m only working half the day now.”
Hannah’s words, although soft and unconcerned, were something concerning to me.
“Apply at the hospital in…”
Hannah was already shaking her head.
“I can’t,” she said. “That’s too far. I don’t want to work twelve hours, at least not yet. I can make it.”
I knew she could make it. I would make sure she could make it. But to do that, she’d have to give Reggie less…or likely herself since she wouldn’t allow Reggie to suffer.
I wouldn’t allow that.
“Did they tell you why the changes?” I inquired.
She looked away.
“Hannah?”
She shrugged.
“Hannah,” I snapped. “What is it?”
Hannah opened her mouth to say something, but then a patient pushed through the door.
Hannah waved me off and went to the man who was clearly struggling to breathe, and I was left with TJ in my arms, wondering what in the hell had happened.
It didn’t take me long.
As soon as Hannah left, the receptionist, Daneen, sidled up.
She was a middle-aged woman with graying brown hair, a quick smile, and a love for Hannah that made me happy that she had someone in her corner like that.
But with that came the fierce protectiveness.
“It was the woman with the black dress.”
My brows went up.
“What woman?”
Daneen looked at where Hannah had disappeared, and then back to me.
“A woman came in two days ago. She expressed her willingness to donate to the clinic. I only heard a little bit before the doctor disappeared with her into his office, but it was enough for me to hear that ‘some changes would have to be made’ before she invested.”
Chapter 6
Napping together is my kind of date.
-Hannah’s secret thoughts
Hannah
Present day
The turning point in mine and Travis’ relationship was the day that his sister was in the accident that killed her brother’s wife and children.
It was hard to believe that it’d already been a year.
In all honesty, I was glad that it passed as fast as it did.
They say that time healed all wounds. And my hope that was one day, time would heal Dante’s wounds.
Seeing him that day, so broken and so obviously hurting, had been something that made me realize two things.
One, that life was not guaranteed. Two, that I needed to get my head out of my ass when it came to Travis. If I wanted him, I needed to do something about it. I needed to cross that line I’d drawn in the sand.
The one that he’d been toeing since the moment I put it there.
What had started the beginning of the end for us was me hearing about the tragedy.
***
366 days ago
“Did you see that the firefighters blocked off the entrance to the street?”
I nodded. “Yeah, what happened?”
Wednesday looked like she was going to be sick.
“There was a wreck. A woman was in an accident. She ended up killing every single person in the car but herself.”
My belly tightened. “Oh, no. What happened?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know, to be honest. What I was able to find out came from Gallagher. He was behind the woman before she wrecked. Since he was so close to work, they let him through instead of holding him at the scene since they blocked off two blocks. They think the woman was under the influence of either drugs or alcohol. She was life-flighted out of here.”
“How many people were in the car?”
While we spoke, I pulled the med cart over and started to count the pills, double-checking that number with the number we had in the system.
The system that Hostel’s small clinic had was outdated at best and desperately needed to be updated. However, with little to no funds, it was very hard to accomplish much of anything. We were lucky that the government paid us what they did at this point.