Chapter 6: What The Test Said

Lily slept for fourteen hours.

I sat beside her bed in the children's unit at my own hospital, in a plastic chair, holding the rabbit.

My charge nurse had cleared the floor without being asked.

Two coworkers I'd known for years brought me coffee and said nothing, which was exactly right.

Around midnight I went out to the hall and found Giacomo Orsini sitting in a plastic chair of his own.

The most feared man in New York was holding a stuffed bear from the gift shop.

It was lavender and almost as big as he was.

"I haven't gone in," he said, when I sat beside him. "I didn't want to frighten her."

"She won't be frightened."

"I'm sixty-three," he said. "I have never bought a stuffed animal. The girl at the counter told me I had to choose a color."

"It's a good bear."

"It was the only one that didn't look like it was judging me."

I laughed.

It came out of me.

He took my hand and held it, and neither of us said anything else.

By the next afternoon Lily was awake, cranky and asking for pancakes, which the doctor said was a very good sign.

I was standing at the nurses' station signing a form when the elevator opened.

Colin stepped out.

He wore a good navy suit and carried white roses.

His face was arranged into relief.

"Marlena." He came forward with his free hand out. "Thank God. When I heard, I..."

"Stop there."

I didn't raise my voice.

I didn't need to.

Four nurses, a respiratory therapist, a mother with a clipboard and a security guard had all stopped what they were doing.

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