He Let Our Daughter Die, I Became A Tycoon's Bride novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Where She Went

Hattie came out of surgery at four in the afternoon.

The surgeon pulled off his cap in the corridor and said the word I had been praying for since the crash.

"Clean."

I sat down on the floor of the Leacrest General hallway and cried.

At nine Hattie was asleep with Biscuit under her chin, and Cillian was in a conference room down the hall with his board and a closed door.

I sat by her bed until midnight and watched her chest rise.

Then I did what I had put off for six years.

I wrote a note on the back of a medication chart.

I need tonight. Stay with her. I'll be back before she wakes.

I propped it against the water jug.

The pilot on the roof asked no questions.

By two in the morning I was kneeling on the wet grass of the Slenale cemetery for the second time that week.

"Hi, Dad," I said.

The granite stayed cold under my hand.

"I found out. The slip, the nurse, all of it. I know what Marjorie did."

The wind moved in the trees.

I swallowed. "I said it in front of people, the way you'd have wanted. Now I have to decide what to do with the one who knew."

I wiped my face.

"I'm so angry at Cillian."

Nothing answered.

"He kept it for six years. He let me call him a vulture at this exact spot. And then he put his whole company on a table for Hattie, without asking, and I don't know what to do with a man like that."

I laughed, because it was so stupid.

"You knew exactly what you were doing, didn't you? Keep it open."

A twig cracked on the path behind me.

I knew the step before I turned.

Cillian stood at the edge of the gravel in his shirtsleeves with his tie gone.

His shoes were soaked, and his eyes were red from no sleep.

"I read your note," he said.

"I told you I'd be back."

"You said you needed tonight." His voice cracked. "I stood in that room and thought, this is the night she goes."

I stood up slowly.

"You thought I was leaving you."

"I thought Hattie was safe, and Neil was in a cell, and you'd done what you came to do." He stopped. "You don't owe me a year, Penelope. I'd have driven you to the door."

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