Chapter 5 - Waking Up
I woke to the rhythmic beeping of a machine and the smell of rubbing alcohol.
My eyelids felt like sandpaper.
When I finally forced them open, the bright hospital lights made me wince.
I wasn't dead.
The left side of my chest ached with a deep, bruised throb, and a tube was snaked under my nose, blowing cool oxygen.
“Leo?”
A soft hand grasped mine.
I turned my head slowly.
Claire was sitting by my bed, her eyes red and puffy.
Maya was asleep on a small cot in the corner.
“Claire?” my voice sounded like grinding gravel.
She let out a choked sob and pressed her forehead against my hand.
“Oh, thank God.
Thank God, Leo.
Don't try to talk.
You're safe.
You're in the ICU.”
I swallowed hard, my memory piecing together the agonizing pain, the fall, the total darkness.
“Where’s… Dad?”
Claire’s expression hardened instantly.
“He’s outside in the hallway.
I told the nurses not to let him in.
Not until you said you wanted to see him.”
I looked at the heavy door with the small glass window.
I could see the shadow of a man standing just outside.
May you like
The man who told me to stop pretending.
“Leave him out there,” I whispered.
