My Husband Played Stranger, So I Took Off the Ring novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Vigil

The waiting room on the cardiac floor had a row of vinyl chairs, a broken vending machine, and a clock that was seven minutes slow.

I sat in the chair nearest the double doors.

Nate sat beside me and didn't say anything.

A doctor in green scrubs came out after forty minutes and spoke to him first.

"Are you the family?"

"I'm her son-in-law," Nate said. "This is her daughter."

"Mr. Hargrove," the doctor said, and I realized he knew his name. "Her ejection fraction is down again. Is she still on the same dose of furosemide?"

"Forty milligrams twice a day, and the new potassium pill since June." Nate's voice was steady. "She's allergic to the blue sulfa tablets. She told the night nurse last week that her ankles were swelling."

The doctor nodded and wrote something down.

I turned my head and looked at my husband.

I hadn't known any of it.

I had known the word stable, and I'd known it was a good word.

"We're stabilizing her now," the doctor said. "I'll update you in an hour."

He went back through the doors.

"You know her pills," I said.

"I write them on my hand every Sunday."

"Why?"

"Because somebody should know them."

I put my face in my hands.

I wasn't crying yet.

I was too tired and too angry and too ashamed for that.

"I should have asked what that word meant," I said into my palms. "I'm going to ask every question from now on."

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