They Gave My Heart to My Sister and Forgot My Last Birthday novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Her Own Heart

Deirdre's POV

The first thing I noticed was that my shoulder was light.

For three weeks there had been a weight on it, a black pack with a cord.

It had made a small steady hum that I had stopped hearing after the first week.

Now there was only a sheet, and a dull ache across my chest, and a sound I had never listened to properly before.

It was my own pulse.

It came from inside, quiet and quick, and nothing was helping it.

I opened my eyes.

The ceiling was white, and a monitor beside me was drawing green peaks, and they matched the beat in my ribs.

"Deirdre," my mother said.

She was in the chair by the bed.

She wore a rumpled grey cardigan, and her hair had come down on one side.

She had plainly not moved for hours.

"Hi," I said. My voice was a croak.

"Don't talk. Here."

She held a straw to my mouth, and I drank.

It was the coldest water I had ever tasted.

"It's Tuesday," she said. "You came out of the operation on Sunday morning. You slept most of two days."

"The heart."

"It took." Her mouth shook. "The doctors say it's the strongest they've seen in a year."

I lay and listened to it.

It wasn't Katie's.

It belonged to a stranger who had signed a card.

Their family had said yes on the worst night of their lives, and I would never know their names.

I thought, I'll write to them.

"Where's Maeve?"

"Down the hall. Awake. She asked me to tell you she's sorry again, and that she'll tell you in person when you can stand it."

"And Dad?"

My mother folded her hands.

"He's being held," she said. "The judge refused bail. The district attorney has the ledger, and Pier Nine, and what he did in the ballroom. The men from the dock are giving statements. One of them brought a boxful of receipts."

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