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Chapter Sixteen

Madelaine reached for the doorknob She gave a last sidelong look at Lina, ouldn’t aze, then pushed the door open

Sounds came at her, sounds she’d heard a million times in her life—the whoosh-wheeze of the ventilator, the steady electronic drone of the cardiac , those noises that were as fa, but suddenly in the confines of this small, shadowy room, they were obscenely loud

Taking a deep breath, she closed the door and went inside, circling around to the far side of the bed so that she wouldn’t have to disturb the curtain

He lay in the narrow, metal-railed bed, the covers tucked up to his slack chin, his ar invaded his , the other providing a steady drip of fluids Bottles and bags hung fro into his wrists, throat, and chest A huge, discolored layer of gauze hid half his face

The rooht from the streetlamp outside He looked completely calm and serene, as if he couldn’t have cared less that plastic tubing stors

She was so unsteady, she had to cling to the rails to keep fro down Finally she reached out, brushed a lock of hair froe Beside her, the ventilator wheezed and dropped His chest rose and fell, rose and fell

She wanted to believe in a ht now, to believe that she could take his hand and lean close to his ear and help hiht so many patients spoke of

But she’d been a doctor too long His EEG was stone-flat He’d had no reaction to the pain tests Nothing There was no life inside him anymore

He would never sirl

At the thought, the grief she’d been holding at bay welled up inside her, spilling everywhere, streaking down her cheeks in hot, wet tears

She reled up on her couch to watch a ether, all the times she’d held his hand in hers She leaned over and pressed a kiss to his warm cheek

And waited breathlessly for hiirl you didn’t think it was real, did you?

But he didn’t answer, didn’t h a machine

Without realizing what she was going to do, she lowered the bedrail and cliently around his chest, staring at the side of his face that was unharmed