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I stepped out of the curtain space quickly and walked along the see boy A ed woman A man in traction

Then I saw her She slept, her dark hair tied up in a knot high on her head

I al into her istered on a en levels I tried to shake the vision of the NICU, but the noises were too similar, the wheeze of a ventilator and periodic beeps

I stu man What had happened? My stomach felt lined with rocks I sat on the bed and brushed back a wisp of hair fro at all withto knock her out Even the first two nights when she was sick, she would still shift around, so little sounds Now she was so flat to the bed

Like Finn had been after I’d signed the papers to disconnect him

Re up Walked out on her Gone to Mexico Possibly even fathered another child And here she was, barely holding on

"I’m so sorry, baby," I whispered

I shouldn’t be in her life at all She’d been doing fine until I ca her future

Now she was here

The monitors continued their steady sounds

I heard the nurse talking and panicked I would not leave her now The machines were to the left of the bed, so the nurse would probably approach there I ducked to the opposite side and folded tight into a ball, tugging the curtain in front of me so that I sat between it and the concrete wall

I couldn’t see anything, but the footsteps grew closer, paused, then faded away again Theon the concrete floor

When the rooain, I peeked out Corabelle had not e of the bed, and I shifted forward to lay o back to that first night at the astronomy star party, when Corabelle stretched out beside me on the roof, and we realized the world had pushed us back together after four years But I’d gotten angry, and taken off If I could just do that night again, I wouldn’t have left then either If we’d been better fro, she wouldn’t have walked into that da away