Chapter 65
65
POLLY
The man with the chocolates and the teddy bear steps aside to let me get out of the elevator first. But while he walks toward the maternity ward, I linger behind. My stomach is churning, and I feel like I might be sick.
I’m losing my nerve.
But I can’t. If Tegan talks to the police about me and Hank, it’s all over. This is the only way. I can’t save myself, but I can save Hank.
As I’m about to walk toward Labor and Delivery, a tall, skinny man with thick glasses and a suit brushes past me, his shoulder jolting mine. He had been absorbed by something on his phone, and when he knocks into me, he looks up in surprise. “Sorry,” he mumbles, although he goes right back to looking at the screen.
My phone vibrates in my pocket. I pull it out. Unsurprisingly, there’s a text message from Hank, who must have finished chopping wood and discovered I was gone:
Where are you?
And then a second later:
You’re not in the bedroom. Where did you go?
And then:
Please come home right now!!!
I want to write back to him. I want to tell him that I’m sorry about what I’m going to do, but it’s the only way to save him.
But if I write anything, he’s going to freak out. So I stuff my phone back in my pocket.
Goodbye, Hank.
Time to do this.
I keep my hand in my pocket, gripping the shears. In my scrubs and with the ID badge strapped to my chest, I know nobody will stop me. I’m able to walk right into Labor and Delivery, and just as expected, the nurses are huddled together, passing off their assignments from the morning shift to the evening shift. Nobody questions me, because I look like I belong here. I blend right into the scenery. I am invisible.
The names aren’t on the doors, but I know they keep a list of who is in every room at the nurses’ station. As casually as I can, I slip into the nurses’ station and locate the list lying on the keyboard of one of the computers.
Werner. Room 308.
I’m gripping the scissors in my pocket so tightly, my fingertips are tingling. I walk briskly and with purpose down the hallway. I pass 301, 302, 303…
Am I really going to do this? Do I have it in me to harm another human being? I couldn’t even break her kneecap, and this is far, far worse. But it’s the only way to keep my husband out of trouble.
304, 305, 306…
My phone is ringing now. Hank is calling me. I pull my phone out of my pocket and press a button to reject the call. Then I switch the phone to silent.
307, 308…
And here I am.
I see her right away. Tegan. She’s lying in the hospital bed, her blond hair limp around her face. Her belly is jutting out, and her left ankle is wrapped in a healthy layer of white gauze. Her eyes are shut, and she’s sound asleep, which will make this a heck of a lot easier.
Except then I realize she’s not alone in the room. There’s a man standing at her bedside. It takes me a second to recognize him as the man who was at my house looking for Tegan. The man who said he was her brother.
Except he’s not just visiting with Tegan. Something else is going on in this room.
The man has a syringe in his hand. And he’s trying to hook it up to Tegan’s IV, but he’s fumbling a bit. I may not have worked as a nurse in years, but I very much doubt the rules have changed enough that a random family member is allowed to inject whatever they want into a patient’s IV line. This man does not have good intentions.
I stand in the doorway, frozen. Tegan’s brother is trying to hurt her. I came here to keep her from turning me and Hank in to the police, but this man is doing the job for me. All I have to do is back away, and this entire nightmare will be over.
“What are you doing?” I blurt out.
The man jerks his head in my direction. His eyes grow large at the sight of me. He drops the IV, which is now leaking fluid. He pockets the syringe. “Sorry,” he says. “Are visiting hours over?”
I release the scissors in my pocket and plant my hands on my hips. “I asked you what you were doing.”
Tegan’s brother opens his mouth. Even though I recognize him from when he came to my house, he is likely unable to place me in my scrubs and surgical mask. He surely just thinks I’m a floor nurse. I stand there, waiting to see what story he will concoct about what he was just trying to do. But instead, he surprises me. He starts running, nearly knocking me down in his desperation to get out of the room.
Tegan’s eyes crack open at the commotion. For a second, our eyes lock. “You!” she cries.
I don’t have time to deal with her right now. I turn around and run after the man, who has a considerable head start. “Stop him!” I shout.
My sneakers pound against the linoleum floor as all the staff turn to stare. A few of them start moving, but I’m in the lead. It’s up to me—I’ve got to stop that guy. It’s all I can think of.
I’m not fast enough to catch him, but I manage to hook my fingers on the collar of his ski jacket from behind. It doesn’t stop him, but he stumbles and loses his balance, taking a second to right himself. The stranger I’d seen earlier—the one with the thick glasses—is waiting by the elevator, and he rushes over at the sight of the chase. Without any hesitation, he grabs Tegan’s brother and shoves him hard against the wall, holding him in place with his elbow to his neck. That man is stronger than he looks.
The stranger glances over his shoulder at me while Tegan’s brother squirms under his grasp, gasping for air. “What did he do?” he barks at me.
“He was trying to inject something into her IV,” I say breathlessly.
The bespectacled stranger doesn’t even look surprised. I can hear him hiss in the man’s ear, “I knew it! I knew you did it, you piece of shit!”
A security guard joins them, and I quickly explain the situation. Because I look like a nurse, everything I say is taken very seriously. The guard nods like this isn’t even the wildest thing he’s seen today. I almost believe it.
Then the guard fishes the syringe out of the man’s pocket. I wonder what was in it. Nothing good, I suspect.
“Thank you, Polly,” the guard tells me when I’m done with the whole story.
I open my mouth, shocked that he knows my name. Then I remember. I’m still wearing my ID badge. “Oh” is all I can say.
I’ve got to get out of here. It’s only a matter of time before they figure out that I don’t actually work here as a nurse. And if anyone remembers what I did two years ago, that’s not going to look good for me. I could wind up going to jail along with Tegan’s brother. So the second the guard turns his head, I slip away as quietly as I can.
I came here to kill Tegan Werner, to stop her from sending my husband to jail. But the truth is I never could have done it. I didn’t have it in me after all.
So instead, I saved her life.