Chapter 1 - The Cold Pavement
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The icy bite of freezing rain against my cheek was the first thing that brought me back from the void.
I was sprawled on the slick asphalt beneath the glowing red sign of St. Matthew’s Emergency Room. My left eye was swollen completely shut, pounding with a heavy, throbbing ache. Every shallow breath I dragged into my lungs felt like broken glass tearing through my ribcage.
"Stay still, ma'am!" a voice called out over the sound of tires splashing through puddles. "Paramedics are on their way!"
I tried to lift my head, but my body refused to obey. Through the blur of my good eye, I saw two figures standing beneath the shelter of the ambulance canopy just a few yards away.
My husband, Beckett. And his mother, Mary.
Beckett looked immaculately put together, despite the rain. His hair was slightly disheveled for effect, and a single, conveniently placed tear ran down the sleeve of his designer jacket. He wasn't bleeding. He wasn't bruised. He stood there, completely untouched by the violence that had just broken my body.
Mary was clinging to his arm, dabbing her eyes with a lace handkerchief while gesticulating wildly at a uniformed police officer.
"She gets violent when she’s unstable!" Mary cried, her voice carrying easily over the storm. "Look at her neck, Officer! She does that to herself! She hurts herself just to get attention!"
A cold shock swept through me, sharper than the freezing rain. I tried to scream, to shout the truth, but my vocal cords were crushed. All that escaped my lips was a wet, choked rasp.
Beckett lowered his head, placing a hand over his face like a heart-broken, long-suffering spouse.
"I’ve tried so hard to help her," Beckett said softly, his voice trembling with practiced grief. "She refused her medication again tonight. I didn't know what else to do except bring her here."
The police officer, a young man with sharp eyes, knelt down beside me on the wet pavement. He placed a gloved hand on my shoulder.
"Ma'am, can you hear me?" the officer asked gently. "What happened to you?"
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I stared up at him, fighting for air, trying to form words through a throat that felt completely destroyed. I couldn't speak. I couldn't defend myself.
Across the pavement, Beckett raised his head just enough to meet my gaze. The grief vanished from his eyes, replaced by a cold, victorious smirk.
