Page 106 of The Light to My Darkness (The Light to My Darkness 1)

I heard Penny's mom start to cry.

"Mr. Hunter, we need to have a word in private." He nodded down the hall.

"What does that mean exactly?" I asked as I followed him. "Did some of her organs shut down? Is she breathing on her own?"

"There is no easy way to put this, so I'll be frank with you, Mr. Hunter," he said as he came to a stop, out of earshot of my family. "There were high levels of poison in her blood. We pumped her stomach, but we're not sure how long it's been in her system, or what the extent of the damage is. We sent some lab samples out. We should hear back shortly."

"Poison? What are you talking about? Did someone poison my wife? Why aren't the police here? Why aren't you telling them this?"

"Mr. Hunter," he said and put his hand on my shoulder. "Nine times out of ten this is an intentional thing."

I stared at him. "Exactly. Someone intentionally poisoned my wife. We need to call the police."

The doctors eyes softened. "I meant intentional on her part. Suicide," he added, when I had no reaction. "There's no reason to suspect foul play."

I shook my head.

"Have you noticed any signs of depression or..."

"No." I shrugged his hand off my shoulder. "I need to see my wife."

"She's unresponsive. She's not awake, let alone speaking, and..."

"I need to see my wife," I said again, cutting him off.

He nodded. "We just moved her to room 502 of the ICU. She can only have one visitor at a time."

"When is she going to wake up?" I had already started walking toward the elevators.

"It's not a question of when, Mr. Hunter. It's a question of if. And I don't have an answer for you."

I slammed my fist against the button with an up arrow.

"Mr. Hunter?"

I tried to ignore him and hit the button again. The doors slowly opened.

"Some of the damage is irreversible. We had to remove..."

I stepped on. The dinging of the doors closing blocked out the rest of the sentence. I didn't care what they had to remove. I didn't care if they amputated her fucking leg. I just needed her heart to still be beating. I needed her to be in my arms.

As soon as the elevator doors opened, I ran down the hall. "Room 502," I said to a nurse standing at a desk.

She pointed down the hall.

I continued to run until I saw the room marked 502. I pushed through the door and froze. Penny. Her face was pale. She had as many tubes and wires as my son had. But this time I felt something. Agony. An ache in my chest. I closed my eyes. This isn't happening.

Suicide, my lawyer had said. Intentional, the doctor said.

I walked over and put my hand on top of hers.

Ice.

The side of my face twitched. My wife had always been so warm. Her skin. Her soul. Come back to me. My tears stung my eyes and I dropped her hand.

"Is it true?" I said into the silence. "Did you want to leave me? Did you hate our life that much?"

I needed to hear her voice. I needed to see her smile. I placed my forehead on her hand. She didn't even smell like my wife. She smelled like hand sanitizer and death.

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