My Fiancé Erased Me, Then Left Me for Dead novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Fluids

At an urgent care, Melinda refuses to let Shea film her reunion and tells the waiting room what they did; Shea posts the video as a breakdown and her principal texts.

"Take me to urgent care," I said. "Now."

Jared kept his eyes on the road. "You're fine. You're drinking water."

"My head is splitting. Take me, or I get out at the next light."

Shea lifted her phone between the front seats and pointed it at my face. "Say that again, but slower. People love when you're brave."

I put my hand over the lens.

She sighed and lowered it. "God, you're no fun when you're dramatic."

Jared turned toward town.

The urgent care in Sedona was in a strip mall between a crystal shop and a bank.

I walked in on my own legs and told the woman at the desk my name.

Twenty minutes later I was on a bed with a needle in my arm and a bag of fluids over my head.

The doctor was a tired woman with a long grey braid. She read the numbers off her screen.

"Heat exhaustion, and you got to us before it turned into stroke. How long were you out there?"

"I don't know. An hour, maybe."

"With water?"

"Half a bottle, from a ranger."

She wrote something down and looked at me for a moment longer than she needed to. "Somebody took you out there?"

"Yes."

"I'll note it," she said. "You rest here at least three hours. And you don't spend tonight alone."

When she pulled the curtain back, a man was standing in the hallway holding a paper bag.

He wore a grey ranger's shirt, and his dark hair was flattened where a helmet had been.

It was the man from the trail.

"Wyatt Hennessey," he said. "You didn't get my name earlier. I came to see if you were upright."

"I'm lying down."

"That counts."

He held out the bag. "Your sun jacket. It was in the trash can at the Mescal lot, under a fast food bag. Whoever dropped it knew where the can was."

I took it. The collar was stiff with something, and I was too tired to look.

"Thank you," I said.

"Don't. I only walked it over."

His hands were steady and brown from the sun. I noticed that I was still looking at them.

Then I heard Shea's voice in the waiting room, bright and carrying.

"There she is! Hi, everyone, this is my sister, who got a little overwhelmed today."

Jared came through the curtain first, with Shea behind him filming.

"Babe," Jared said. "We were so worried. Give Shea a hug so she can stop crying."

Shea wasn't crying.

I pushed myself up against the pillows. The line in my arm pulled.

"Turn it off," I said.

"We just want people to know you're okay," Shea said.

"You left me on the Mescal trail with no water."

My voice carried into the waiting room.

A mother with a toddler on her lap looked up. The woman at the desk looked up.

"She's confused," Jared told them, smiling. "It's the heat. She doesn't remember how it went."

"I remember exactly how it went." I looked at the woman at the desk. "They drove me out there and drove away. A ranger found me. My return ticket was cancelled from his account."

Wyatt had moved without my seeing it. He stood between the bed and the camera, a little to one side.

"Ma'am, you can't film patients in here," the receptionist said to Shea.

"It's my sister."

"Then you can film her outside."

Shea lowered the phone. She was still smiling, and she gave Jared a small nod.

"We'll wait in the car," he said. "Rest up, babe. We love you."

They went out.

Wyatt took a pen from his pocket and wrote a number on the paper bag.

"That's my cell. I wrote up the call as a rescue on a closed trail. If you want to say more than that, you can add a statement."

"Not yet," I said.

"Okay." He didn't argue. "Then it's there when you want it."

He left a bottle of water on the tray and went to find the doctor.

I lay back and closed my eyes for what felt like a minute.

When I opened them, my phone was buzzing on the tray, face up.

Shea had posted a video.

It showed my face, flushed and furious, saying "You left me" to the whole waiting room.

Shea's caption said: "Please send love to my sister. She had an episode today and walked into the desert alone. Thank you to the ranger who found her."

Under it, two hundred thousand people had already watched.

The first message in my inbox was from the principal at my school.

"Melinda, call me. Is it true you were hospitalized for a breakdown?"

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