214 Wills novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Okay

At seven the next morning a nurse called my cell.

"Mr. Ferren? Ms. Troyer is asking for you. She says by yourself."

I was in the hospital elevator in nine minutes.

Callie was propped up on two pillows with her leg raised on a wedge.

The room was empty. No Rob, no coffee cups, no navy suit.

"He went to find me a real toothbrush," she said. "He'll be a while. The hospital shop is on the other side of the building."

"Cal."

"Sit down. Please. I only have a few minutes of courage."

I sat on the edge of the chair and took her hand.

She let me.

Her fingers were cold, and her left wrist had a thin pale scar that I had kissed a hundred times.

"I told you I spent my early twenties taking care of my mother," she said.

"You did."

"I didn't. I was in prison."

I did not move.

"I was nineteen," she said. "I went to a party with Rob. I drank too much. I woke up in the front seat of his car, behind the wheel, in the middle of a street, with glass in my hair."

Her voice was flat, and she kept her eyes on the blanket.

"There was a man on the crosswalk. He was sixty-one years old. He was walking home from a night shift at a restaurant."

"Cal."

"I killed him. Rob told me. I don't remember any of it. I remember the party, and then I remember the glass."

She breathed in, and it shook.

"I pled guilty. They gave me three years. My mother died in my second year, and they let me go to her funeral in handcuffs."

I held her hand with both of mine.

"Rob came every month. He was the only one. He told me it wasn't my fault and he'd wait. He's the reason I didn't stop eating in there."

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