“This is ridiculous,” Tessa said, but she began walking toward the door, her boots heavy on the floor. “We are only trying to help you, Nora.”
Martha followed her without looking back at me, her thin shoulders hunched under her gray cardigan.
Vance stood by the door, watching them go before turning back to me. He wrote a few quick lines in his notepad.
“Do you want to press charges for the monitor?” Vance asked.
I looked at my father’s silver watch on the table, its face scratched but still running. “I just want some peace.”
Vance closed his notepad with a quiet thud. “The hospital will keep a security guard on this floor for the rest of the day.”
The heavy door clicks shut, leaving the hospital room larger and colder than before.
Nurse Brenda came back into the room at two o’clock carrying a small cup of tap water and a clear plastic bag tied with a green twist-tie. The bag held the clothes I had worn during the accident, folded into a tight, damp square, along with my black leather purse.
