Page 75 of Reclaiming Adelaide

There’d be no peace in the world.

I’d burn it down.

22

“Canyouhearme?”

White speckle paneled ceiling tiles met my vision, engulfing everything except my periphery.

“Hello?”

Bright lights stabbed my retinas with a red-hot poker, and my skin burned as the sheet rubbed against me. I rubbed my eyes, and something tugged my arm.

What the…

A sticky object clung to my chest like honey.

A sticker with wires?

Where was I?

I rotated my hand in front of my face and scowled. Clear tubing attached to a pink cap disappeared into my skin, followed by mounds of tape that stuck to me like it belonged there. The sticker on my chest irritated each movement, making my body vibrate with an undesirable itch.

What’s that noise?

A strangled beeping bore down on me, and the more I panicked, the faster it berated me.

Where was I?

The room reeked of sterility and commercial cleaning products—not the good kind you get at home, like Fabuloso or Pine-Sol—like a crime scene stripped of evidence.

I tipped my head against my crinkling plastic-covered pillow. The wooden headboard attached to the wall behind me contained devices, dials, and things I didn’t understand.

A hospital?

Right. That would explain the IV, but how?

My gaze moved across the room. A flat-screen TV attached to the wall sat above a long desk with a chair. To the left of that, a computer screen with a keyboard, most likely for the staff, and next to that, a blue couch with cream-colored flowers designed into the backrest.

Jake…

Jake, the man I loved with all my heart and soul, lay sprawled out on his side, covered in a white blanket. Dark circles pillowed under his eyes, his hair disheveled.

“He hasn’t left your side,” a voice whispered on my opposite side.

I jerked my head towards her, making the room spin.

A female nurse, wearing blue scrubs with a blonde bun, leaned over me and placed her chilly hands on my arm.

“Who are you?” I slunk away from her touch.

My heart rate rose, sending a furious beeping out into the quiet room, assaulting the silence.

“It’s okay. I’m your nurse, Maddy,” she said, rubbing my arm, sending ice shards of pain right up into my molars. “You’re lucky, you know?” she smiled as she checked my IV and then wrapped a blood pressure cuff around my arm. “If he hadn’t gotten you here when he did..” She leaned in close, eying Jake sleeping on the couch, then nodded. “You and your baby may not have made it.” Her gaze rose to Jake sleeping on the couch.

My throat tightened. I must have heard her wrong.

How could she slam me with such life-altering news? I’d only just woken up since who knows how long—the beeping reflecting my ticking tempo.

---