Chapter 10 - The Emergency Room
When I finally opened my eyes, the world was a chaotic blur of motion. Blinding fluorescent lights were racing past me in a continuous, dizzying line. The smell of antiseptic stung my nose. I was on a gurney, being rushed down a hospital corridor.
Every inch of my body screamed in agony. Breathing felt like swallowing shards of glass. As my vision slowly cleared, I saw Ethan walking alongside the gurney. He was putting on the performance of a lifetime. His hair was perfectly disheveled, his eyes wide with manufactured panic.
"Please, you have to help her!" he cried to a passing nurse, his voice trembling with the exact right amount of emotion. "There was so much blood."
A triage nurse leaned over me, checking my pulse. "Sir, what happened?"
Ethan didn't miss a beat. He reached out, gently brushing a stray lock of hair from my sweaty forehead. His touch made my stomach heave. He looked at the nurse with tear-filled eyes and said the lie smoothly, almost kindly.
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"She slipped in the shower. She hit her head on the tile. She's so clumsy, she just lost her footing."
It was his signature talent. The devoted husband, desperate to save his fragile wife. The nurse nodded sympathetically, shouting orders to prep Trauma Room 3. Ethan squeezed my hand, a silent warning to play along. But he didn't know whose hospital we were in.
