They Thought I Was Asleep, So I Let Them novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: The First Lie
The emergency room smelled of floor cleaner and burnt coffee.
Nils had pulled a hospital jumper over his shirt in the lift, and every nurse we passed said his name.
"She came in by taxi," his charge nurse told us at the desk, a brisk woman with her glasses on her head. "Cramps and a little bleeding. She's with the doctor, and nobody's with her."
"Nobody came?" Nils said.
"She asked us not to ring anyone. Then she gave your name for the contact line."
Nils looked at me.
"I'm not family," he said. "I'm not anything."
"She doesn't have anyone else."
"She has a fiancé."
"He isn't picking up," the charge nurse said, and shrugged.
Florian had stayed in the waiting room with my shoes in his hand, because I had kicked them off in the taxi and he didn't want me walking barefoot on a hospital floor.
I walked down the corridor in the green dress with my hair still wrecked.
I knew exactly what I looked like, and I did not care.
The curtain around bed six was half open.
Pia lay propped against two pillows in a paper gown, with a line in her arm and a monitor beeping steadily beside her.
Her makeup had run, and her face looked about fifteen.
"The baby's fine," she said, before I could speak. "They found the heartbeat. They said it's stress.
"They said I should sit down more."
"Good," I said.
"You came."
"Nils's name was on the form."
"Oh." She turned her face towards the wall. "Of course."
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