Chapter 4 He knows where you are
451 Words
David didn’t call the hospital. He drove straight to St. Raphael’s because it was the only place Lena went when she needed to think, when she needed to disappear without leaving him.
He burst through the ER doors, divorce papers still crushed in his fist. “Lena Williams,” he told the nurse at the desk, voice rough. “Where is she?”
The nurse looked at his face and didn’t ask questions. “Third floor. Room 312.”
He took the stairs two at a time.
Down the hallway, he heard voices. Low, sharp, arguing. He slowed when he recognized one of them.
Ann.
He stopped outside Room 312. The door was closed, but not shut all the way. Through the crack, he saw it:
Lena, sitting on the edge of the bed, back to the door, shoulders shaking.
Ann, standing between her and the exit, arms crossed.
And on the floor, the glint of small medical scissors.
David’s blood went cold.
He pushed the door open.
Both women turned. Lena’s face crumpled when she saw him. Not relief. Not love. Guilt.
“David—” she started.
He held up the divorce papers. His hands were shaking. “You signed these?”
Lena didn’t answer. She couldn’t.
Ann stepped forward. “David, listen—”
“Don’t,” he said, without looking at her. His eyes were locked on Lena. On the red mark on her forearm where the scissors had pressed. “Were you going to—” He couldn’t finish the sentence.
Lena finally met his gaze. Her voice was barely there. “I was trying to save you.”
“By leaving me?” The papers tore in his grip. “By cutting yourself? By dying?”
“I didn’t—”
“You left a note.” His voice broke. “You said not to look for you.”
Ann cut in, desperate: “She’s not thinking clearly, David. The baby—”
“I know about the baby,” David snapped. He finally looked at Ann. “And I know it’s not mine.”
The words landed like a gunshot.
Lena flinched. She closed her eyes.
David took a step closer to her. His voice dropped. “What I don’t know, Lena, is why you’d rather die than tell me who the father is.”
Lena didn’t answer. She just stared at the floor, tears falling silently.
Ann opened her mouth, then shut it. For once, she had nothing to say.
And David stood there, holding the divorce papers she’d signed to leave him, looking at the woman carrying another man’s child, wondering which one of them she was trying to save him from
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