He Gave Her My Hospital Wing novel · Chapter 22 of 24
Chapter 22: Four A.M.
Della's POV
He said it again.
He said it slowly, to my face this time, with his hands open on his knees.
"You never once asked me if I was okay."
I stood in the doorway of the room where I had slept in a vinyl chair through most of ninety-seven nights and listened to a monitor.
I could not remember a single time I had asked him.
I had been so busy keeping our daughter alive and building her a wing that I had stopped seeing the man in the hall.
"No," I said. "I didn't."
"Della, I'm not..."
"Let me say it."
I came in and sat down on the straight chair by the sink, with Junie against my shoulder.
My coat was still on.
"I thought you were fine because you never needed anything," I said. "You signed what had to be signed, you wrote the checks, you stood at the end of the hall like furniture. I thought furniture didn't need me."
"I wasn't furniture."
"I know you weren't. I know that now."
He looked at the floor, and I could see his throat working.
"I'm sorry," I said. "That's the first thing. I'm sorry I never asked. I'm asking now, and I want the real answer."
"Are you okay," Colt repeated, slowly, as if he had never heard the question.
"Yes. Are you?"
"No."
"Good," I said. "That's honest."
The corner of his mouth moved, and then it stopped.
"I'm tired," he said. "I'm ashamed. I think I'm more afraid than I have been in my life, and I've been afraid for a long time."
"Of what?"
"That you'll say it's all right."
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