The Wife He Buried Alive novel · Chapter 5 of 32

Chapter 5: On the Hospital Steps

By noon there were forty reporters on the hospital steps.

Security wanted to take us out through the loading dock.

"No," I said. "Juliet already told them I'm sick and I'm begging. I'm not going to hide in a freight elevator."

Bev put Milo's coat on him in the doorway of his room.

"I'll keep him upstairs," she said. "Go say your piece, and say it short."

Winston walked out beside me.

The cameras swung toward us, and the shouting began all at once.

"Mrs. Garrick! Where have you been?"

"Linnea! Did you fake your death?"

"Is it true the child isn't Winston's?"

I stepped up to the microphones. My hands were shaking, so I held them against my coat.

"I did not fake anything," I said. "I went off the road on the Ridgeline curve on a stormy night in April. My brake pedal went to the floor."

The shouting dropped.

"I pumped it three times and nothing happened. I climbed out of the window before the river took the car."

"Why didn't you come forward?" a reporter called.

"Because a week later I watched my funeral from behind a tree, and nobody there was looking for me."

A murmur ran through the crowd on the steps.

"I'm not here for money. I'm here because my son is sick, and his father is the only person who can help him."

"Mr. Garrick," someone shouted. "Is the boy yours?"

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