“This isn’t over,” he said.
“No,” I whispered. “It isn’t.”
They escorted him out.
The door closed behind him.
For three seconds, I held myself together.
Then my body folded.
Not dramatically. Not like in movies. No wailing, no hands thrown to the sky.
I simply bent forward and broke.
Dana was at my side immediately. Eli stepped back, as if unsure whether comfort from him would be too much now that everything had changed.
But I reached for his hand.
He came.
“I’m sorry,” I said through tears.
Eli frowned. “For what?”
“You shouldn’t have been dragged into this.”
His fingers closed gently around mine.
“Claire, I drove you to a hospital. That’s not being dragged. That’s being a neighbor.”
“No,” Dana said from the other side of the bed. “That is being a decent human being. Sadly rare enough to confuse people.”
