Chapter 1 - THE HAND ON MY ARM
Henry’s fingers closed around my bruised forearm, directly above the tape holding my IV in place.
“Stop the drama, Amy. Get up and cook for my mother’s birthday.”
He pulled before I could answer.
Pain ripped through my ribs and down both legs. The casts scraped against the sheets as my body slid toward the edge of the hospital bed. The monitor beside me quickened into sharp, urgent beeps.
“I can’t even stand,” I gasped. “And you still only care about her?”
Henry tightened his grip.
“I’m not wasting another dollar on your useless breakdowns.”
Nurse Jenna stood near the door with a medication cup in one hand. Her eyes moved from Henry’s fingers to the stretched IV tubing.
“Sir, let her go.”
Henry ignored her.
My mother, Kathleen, had been standing beside the daylight window. For three weeks she had helped wash my hair, argued with insurance representatives and brought my eight-year-old daughter, Emily, to visit after school. Now she pressed both hands over her mouth.
Henry pulled again.
The metal bed rail struck my hip. My breath caught around a broken rib.
I looked directly at him.
“Take your hands off me before my father sees this.”
Henry gave a humorless laugh.
“Your father doesn’t scare me.”
The door swung open behind him.
My father, Eric Carter, entered wearing the wool coat he had left home in that morning. Snow clung to one shoulder. His expression was calm, but I knew that calm. He had worn it when doctors told him my injuries might keep me from walking normally for months.
Henry released me.
Jenna stepped between us and reached for the call button.
Eric did not shout. He looked at the marks forming beneath Henry’s handprint, then at the monitor, then at my husband.
“Hospital security is on its way,” he said.
Henry backed toward the medical tray.
“This is a family misunderstanding.”
“No,” Jenna said. “I witnessed an assault.”
Henry turned to me as if I had arranged the entire scene.
“You’re really going to let them do this?”
I held the bed rail because my hands were shaking too hard to rest in my lap.
“You came here after twenty-one days and tried to drag me out of bed.”
“I came because your bills are destroying us.”
Eric removed a folded document from his coat.
“That isn’t why you stayed away.”
Henry’s face changed.
Dad placed the document on the tray beside him. It was a copy of the police supplement from the hit-and-run investigation.
May you like
“The car that struck Amy was found yesterday,” he said. “It belongs to your mother.”
Henry looked toward the hallway before security had even arrived.
