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Chapter Twenty-four
He blinked, taking in the scene
It was quite a scene Three nurses and two doctors, all swar around my son, who appeared to doze in and out of sleep Or in and out of consciousness
In our separation, Danny had proven to be particularly vindictive and s from his point of view Admittedly, very few people on the face of this earth would ever find themselves in his peculiar position His once mostly happy household had been turned upside down His wife of five years (which was how long we had been married prior to my attack) was suddenly not the person he had wedand for the next six years Danny didn&039;t handle things very well
Yes, eleven years of e down the drain
Would it have taken a specialand stay by my side? Certainly It also would have taken true love, too That was, perhaps, the hardest realization of all That h to be there for s froan to ivable Call me what you want, but I didn&039;t deserve that Next, he had fought for sole custody of the children He believed I could hurt theht feed on h or hungry enough,
Fighting for the well-being of our children was adh there was no basis for it I had never once exhibited any lack of control My children received nothing but love fro it out of spite To purposefully hurt me
Danny wasn&039;t a bad father Sure, he worked toothat had to do with school and sports, but he made up for it the best way he could Often he read to theht As I worked in s of words and help his son and daughter pronounce thee or Taht (Ironic, I know) He spoke gently to each of them, sometimes so quietly that I never knehat he told them I alondered what they talked about, but I never wanted to ask It seehter and her father, exchanging sweetlike this forin quiet desperation, our kids content enough, but ourlike this forever I was a monster and Danny see end
Danny still stood in the doorway, unsure what to do His tie was still pushed up against his Adam&039;s apple, and he looked pale and worried He was still wearing his nice Italian suit Danny rarely wore his nice suits, so he must have been in court today An injury attorney, Danny hated going to court Injury attorneys prefer to settle over the phone They like easy, cut-and-dried cases Anyway, if he had been in court, that ht explain why he had been so short over the phone
He finally spotted me in the far corner of the room, where I had sat while the doctors and nurses swar in the spare seat next toover and givinghim back
"How is he, Sam?"
I started to tell him what I knew, but only about six coherent words ca hard into htly less surprised when Danny reached over again and pulledside by side at the foot of h "after hours" didn&039;t mean much in a children&039;s hospital intensive-care unit, since parents or guardians are usually perht
We had been sitting there quietly for soently pulled it away, shocked and surprised all over again Danny hadn&039;t held my hand in six years And if he did happen to touch me, it was always immediately followed by a visible shudder
He wasn&039;t shuddering now Why, I don&039;t know, and I certainly didn&039;t care Danny was the least of htly on his own Occasionally his aura would flash yellow, but er flashes of light seeain like frightened fish I sensed these could be other entities But I wasn&039;t sure How could I be sure? I didn&039;t knohat the hell was going on with ht co briefly over his head, and then seemed to dart around my son almost hectically
No, not hectically
Playfully
It was the spirit of a child, I realized And I was suddenly certain this child had died in this hospital A ghost child Trying to play with led and Danny glanced sharply over at me He didn&039;t seem to knohat to do with his hand now that I had re," I said I had long ago learned not to share my supernatural experiences with Danny Such experiences served only to freak him out and distance hi with hi over irl as being held prisoner by God knoho A girl as alone and scared and probably hurt
I looked at Danny "Will you stay with Anthony?"
My ex-husband blinked, and then his eyes narrowed "Of course Are you going so, Saly, desperation and a hint of so else in his voice What that hint was, I refused to believe
"Can it wait?"
He alain, but stopped I noticed a subtle ripple of revulsion pass through hih it "Yes, it can When will you be back?"
I stood and grabbedson I looked at the iainst sharing any information with Danny, especially about the black halo I also didn&039;t want to talk about the phone call with little Maddie Danny had lost his intio, and was nowhere near ht"
He nodded "It&039;s okay I&039;ll be here You have work to do Anthony isn&039;t going anywhere Are you working a case?"
"Yes"
"An iain "I&039;ll be here all night I took half the day off tomorrow, too" He motioned to the nearby, partially open hich showed a sliver of silver-tipped clouds in the night sky "Probably wouldn&039;t be a good idea to have you sleeping here in the ht throughan ounce of consideration I said, "I&039;ll try tocomes up"
He nodded, and al?" he asked
"Out," I said, and left
Chapter Twenty-six
McDonald&039;s was hopping
The s heavy in the air I hadn&039;t eaten a French fry in over a half a decade I wondered if they still tasted perfect A creepy, life-sized, cardboard clown grinned at me from a far corner Outside, shoeless children swaryet sat under a nearby plastic booth
And hanging fro above the counter was a video surveillance cale map search, this was the closest McDonald&039;s to Maddie&039;s last known address - the sadead e Hispanic girl sister Instead of ordering, I asked to see the McManager
Noas sitting in the McDonald er&039;s office It wasn&039;t much of an office It was just a desk at one end of a narrow room At the other end was the employee&039;s time clock and the drive-thru
"We have to make this quick," he said He was a very short, oddly shaped ht leg ets pissed," I said
He grinned "So hi yourself is redundant Anyway, according to his shiny black and silver tag, his naer
He listened to my story attentively As he listened, he leaned a little to the right He see on half an ass I concluded my story with my request to view the surveillance video