Chapter 3 - Cold Rejection
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The first thing Adrian said after the investigators and police flooded into my hospital room was my name.
Not an apology.
Not a desperate denial.
Just my name.
“Hannah.”
He said it with the bewildered softness of a man who had finally realized that the woman he had completely underestimated had been listening to every single word.
I opened my eyes and looked directly into his.
For several suffocating seconds, no one in the room moved.
Adrian stood beside my bed with the pillow still clutched in his hands, though he had lowered it the instant the door crashed open. Vivian was trapped near the window, one trembling hand pressed against the marble sill, her face completely drained of every trace of arrogant confidence she had carried into the room.
I looked at Adrian.
There were hundreds of emotional things I could have said to him right then. I could have asked why he threw away twelve years of marriage. I could have reminded him of our wedding vows, of the little fixer-upper house we bought when neither of us could afford decent furniture, or the nights we ate cheap takeout on overturned moving boxes and laughed about our future.
Instead, I looked at him coldly and said, “Please step away from me.”
One of the lead detectives moved immediately, stepping his frame between us.
Adrian stared at me in shock. “You were awake the whole time?”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
I swallowed carefully, feeling the brutal ache in my throat. “Long enough to hear every word about Claire, the insurance, and the railing.”
His shoulders sagged as the reality set in.
Vivian suddenly found her loud voice. “This is being completely misunderstood! My son was just adjusting her pillows!”
The lead investigator, a calm woman named Detective Lena Morris, turned toward her. “Mrs. Mercer, you will have plenty of opportunity to give a formal statement at the precinct.”
Vivian’s eyes flashed with anger. “I am giving one right now!”
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“No,” Lena replied sternly. “Right now, you are under arrest, and you have the right to remain silent.”
It was the first time in nearly fifteen years that I had seen Vivian obey anyone without a bitter argument.
