Page 47 of The Liar I Married

FORTY-THREE

I push down panic as the familiar smells of my hospital room increase the closer I get to the bed.

Each day, Maria wipes everything down with disinfectant as if I’m suffering from some incurable disease.

The sharp pine scent burns my nostrils as Alex lowers me gently to the bed.

I grip his shirt. “I need a drink of water.”

“Okay.” He scans the room and then gives me the water.

I drink, allowing the cool liquid to soothe my throat.

I hand the bottle back and curl up on my side, facing the camera.

Knowing it’s there soothes my nerves a little but my heart is still pounding way too fast. I breathe slow and deep in an attempt to calm it.

I need to center my mind on something nice and move my attention to the rose garden, and the sight is comfortingly familiar.

The color of the blooms vary from deep blood red, to a buttery yellow, and from this angle I can see the new blue variety that Grandma included last year.

Across the garden there are hundreds of flower heads spreading their petals in varying degrees to the sun and tight buds are evident all over, ensuring there are always blooms on display.

“Hey, is someone there?” Alex moves to the passageway and stops with one hand resting on the doorframe. He raises his voice. “I need help in here. I have Jessie and she needs help.”

Hurried footsteps come from the passageway and Dolly’s voice pierces the quiet like a sergeant major’s to the troops on a parade ground. I flinch but lie still. I must appear to be drugged or she will inject me with something horrible again.

“How did you get in here?” Dolly pushes her way into the room, dark eyes moving everywhere.

“Never mind. Jessie needs help.” Alex’s voice rises as he makes his point.

“She’s becoming more unstable by the minute and demanding to see her kids.

I didn’t know what to do. She just wouldn’t listen to me so I called the paramedics and they gave her an injection to calm her down.

They wanted to take her to the hospital and mentioned a psychiatric assessment.

When I told them that she was under home care, with her own nurse, they wanted to transport her here but I insisted I’d bring her here right away.

” He sighs. “You’ll be able to look after her, won’t you? ”

“Just how upset was she?” Dolly is standing so close to me I can smell the lemon hand lotion she uses.

“She was screaming and throwing things. She tried to steal my truck and she can hardly walk.” Alex shrugs.

“I’m not a doctor—she just went crazy—okay?

Look, I’m not able to care for her anymore.

She needs specialist around-the-clock care.

” He rubs his chin. “Why don’t you call her asshole of a husband to look after her?

I’m not responsible for her. I hardly know her. ”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have kidnapped her in the first place?” Dolly attaches wires to my chest and puts a blood pressure cuff on my arm. “I can take it from here. See yourself out—and if you show up again, I’ll call the cops.”

I see Alex from under my lashes. He gives me a long look and then nods.

As he walks away, fear of being alone with Dolly again grips me in waves of terror.

The claustrophobic feeling of being trapped inside my body comes back in a rush.

I fight to push down a tsunami of panic and the monitor goes crazy.

Just having Dolly close by terrifies me.

I know exactly what she can do. One apparent accidental overdose and all of Michael’s dreams will come true.

Right now, the will still stands. If I die, he gets everything.