Christopher
My heart pounds so hard it feels like it might burst out of my chest. My palms are clammy, my breaths too shallow, too quick. This cannot be happening. Not now. Not like this.
I pace back and forth in the cold hallway outside the padded room, the doctor’s words echoing in my head.
“She’s awake.” Awake. The word feels heavy, like a stone sinking into my gut. It’s one thing to hope Elizabeth is dead—it’s cleaner, final. But ordering her and her unborn child to be killed? That’s a line I can’t cross.
I can’t do it.
I won’t do it.
“Get it together,” I hiss under my breath, raking my hands through my hair.
My reflection in the small, smudged window of the door catches my eye. My tie is slightly askew, my shirt wrinkled, my face pale.
I look as shaken as I feel.
“Go in there
