Chapter 2

The day I was discharged, New York got hit with a blizzard the likes of which it hadn't seen in decades.

Otis parked the car outside the hospital.

He spent the whole time on the phone, buried in work.

He never got out to help me.

Wrapped in a thin down jacket, one hand pressed to the dull ache in my lower belly, I dragged myself into the car.

My body had nothing left in it.

The heater was running, but I was so cold my teeth were chattering.

I looked at the cold man beside me.

And I couldn't help asking myself,

where had that boy gone, the one who used to fret for ages just because I furrowed my brow?

We were halfway home.

His phone rang.

"Otis! Someone's following me! I'm so scared… where are you, save me…"

Madeline's voice was shot through with terror.

Otis went pale and slammed on the brakes.

I couldn't brace in time. My head cracked against the window and the world spun.

"Don't be scared, Madeline! Find somewhere with a lot of people and stay put, I'm coming right now!"

He turned to look at me, and there was nothing in his eyes but irritation.

"Agnes, Madeline's being followed. It's dangerous."

"Get out and grab a cab home on your own."

I stared at him, not believing it.

"Otis, there's a blizzard out there, we're on the overpass, and I just got out of the hospital…"

"How hard can it be to catch a cab? Do you have to be so precious right now?"

He shoved open the passenger door, leaned half his body across, and pushed me out without a shred of mercy.

The engine roared, and in the blink of an eye his car vanished into the snow.

Leaving just me, like the whole world had thrown me away.

I stood at the side of the road for a long time, holding out my hand for a car. No one would stop.

My whole body was frozen stiff.

My vision kept going black, the ache dragging down through my belly.

But all I could do was inch, step by step, toward home.

My shoes and socks were soaked through, my feet numb with cold, every step like walking on knife blades.

A stretch of road only a few miles long took me over two whole hours.

By the time I got home, my face was ashen and my lips had gone blue.

When the housekeeper opened the door and saw me, she screamed in fright.

"Ma'am, how did you end up like this!"

I didn't even have the strength to speak. I collapsed straight onto the couch.

The housekeeper rushed to wrap me in a blanket, then called the private doctor we knew to come over.

My arms were bruised purple from falling in the snow, so battered they couldn't even find a vein.

The doctor had no choice but to put the needle into the top of my foot.

Cold fluid dripped, drop by drop, into my broken, ruined body.

And all at once I felt that these seven years of love had come to nothing at all.