“You do not get to hold her right now. You do not get to order Eli out. You do not get to act as if a lab report restored you to some position you never earned.”
His face hardened.
“You are exhausted and emotional.”
“Yes,” I said. “And correct.”
Dana made a sound that might have been a cough.
Eli looked down.
Ryan’s eyes went cold.
“You’re going to regret humiliating me.”
The sentence entered the room like smoke.
There it was.
Not concern.
Not grief.
A threat.
Dana stepped toward the door just as two hospital security officers appeared.
“Everything okay in here?” one asked.
Ryan looked at me, waiting.
Waiting for me to protect him.
Waiting for me to smooth it over, to say we were fine, to perform wifehood the way I had performed it for years.
