Page 47 of Unwell
With every mile I drove, a thought circled back.
Her Elijah. My Robert.
The peppery scent of him filled my nose, even in the car. His aftershave lodged inside me.Inescapable.
By the time the gates of Wellard appeared in front of me, my insides had knotted up. One giant anxiety pretzel.
I sat there for long minutes, staring through the windscreen at the ageing building. The heavy doors which closed behind so many souls.Souls who’d only ever leave in a body bag. Like the poor woman Marney had eviscerated.
Somewhere inside, Ginny waited. Had she had her baby?
But Robert lurked there, too.
I inhaled sharply, then drove ahead through the gate.
I swallowed down the cocktail of emotions threatening to make me vomit. I had no choice but to go back in.
For Ginny.
For the baby.
TWENTY-EIGHT
NANCY
Robert leaned casually against the nurses’ station, laughing jovially at whatever the pretty redheaded one said. To the outside world he looked relaxed. Like nothing had changed. But for someone who knew him as well as I did, the signs were there. The deepening of the bags below his eyes. The wrinkles on his shirt where he’d slept in it. His hair erring on the side of bacon grease. When his eyes found mine, his smile dropped.
I crossed the hall, forcing myself not to falter despite so many eyes turning to me. ‘Stay away from her.’
His brow twitched, feigning ignorance. ‘Who?’
‘You know who. Don’tgo near her again.’
Something ugly flickered in his eyes. But he smirked, as though humouring me. Like I was a child.
My cheeks burned as I turned, my bravery fleeing under the public gaze.
But my running was in vain. Robert cornered me in the supply room. His smell hit me first. Not the aftershave that lingered in Ginny’s delusions, but the sour and musty staleness of sweat. I wrinkled my nose and tried to create space between us.
‘You’ve had a few days to get over it,’ he muttered while moving closer, sweeping his lank hair back as if it would charm me. His hand brushed my hip. ‘We can’t go on like this.’
‘No.’ I pushed him away. Hard.
Robert slammed back into a shelf, sending rolled bandages flying. His surprise was almost comical. For the first time, I hadn’t just endured him. I’d saidno.
‘Don’t touch me.’ My voice quavered but held. ‘I don’t want you to ever touch me again.’
He narrowed his eyes, but I slipped past him before he could speak again. I listened for his footsteps as I walked back to the ward, but I didn’t look back.
Every step down the corridor, I braced for him to snatch at me. But he didn’t come.
My pulse thundered all the way back to the ward.
Leaning against a cold, chipped wall, my thoughts went back to Ginny. To her swollen belly, so tight and hot beneath my hand. To the life inside her that was still safe for now.
They’d never let her keep it. That much I knew.Wellard wasn’t a place for babies. No one left whole, not the patients, hell, not even the staff. And no one would allow a child to be raised among its walls. And I hoped that Marney and his ilk wouldn’t perform their gruesome experiments on a baby. Hoped, but held little confidence in it being the truth.
But maybe Ginny didn’tneedto keep it.
