The Secret That Broke Us novel · Chapter 10 of 32

Chapter 10: The Lobby

Nate texted me at 4:12 that afternoon.

Come down to the lobby. Please. Bring Lena. I'm not asking for me.

It was the first message from him in three weeks that didn't beg.

Anders was asleep in the clear bassinet beside my bed.

I had been a mother for thirty-one hours.

I let the nurse help me into a wheelchair, and Lena put my son in my arms, and we rode the elevator down.

The hospital lobby was a big bright room with a gift shop and a coffee cart and a row of chairs along the window.

There were a few dozen people in it.

A volunteer in a pink vest at the information desk.

A security guard by the doors.

A man holding a balloon on a stick.

Families on their way out, with car seats.

Nate stood in the middle of the floor with a clear zipper bag held in both hands.

His face was wet.

He wasn't hiding it.

"I found these," he said, when I stopped the chair in front of him. "I need you to look at them. Please."

I took the bag.

It was heavy with small glass bottles.

I turned one over and read the tape.

J, night 9, round 3.

It was in Kristin's writing.

I had seen that writing on a hundred birthday cards.

I read the printed label under the tape.

Sterile saline. For injection.

Something went through me, cold and clear, from head to foot.

Lena had read it over my shoulder.

"Oh, my God," she said.

"Where did you get these?" I asked.

"Her bag," Nate said. "She was washing her hands. She..."

The doors from the elevator hall opened.

Kristin came across the lobby fast, with her coat open and one shoe untied.

Behind her, a step slower and out of breath, came a small gray woman in a cardigan.

Kristin's mother.

She had come to take Kristin home.

"June," Kristin said, high and sweet. "Nate's confused. He's very tired. He hasn't slept."

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