open on a tide o

gh the blur I saw Caleb-shadowed eyes

ward, voice raw with a t

s it

crashed into

g. Blood clotting di

rist. "Your blood type mat

e turned

ee, fractured

o'd carried another woman to safety while I broke o

d the air like b

rted as if I'd

baby-just

t my bandages, landi

"Mr. Huxley, Miss

ke a broken doll. "

out despite

room, the ne

back a

ery time I had blood drawn, Caleb would hol

tapping his watch like

I felt compl

d him to

und hers-while on her wrist wearing

ngs co

s grating wi

nd the memory of his warmt

still staring at the empty space where his

she said, hold

your hospital

pen pausing over marital status.

gaped: "But

isn

or slam

ock splitting his face

flat as a tombstone:

ring the room,

aged ribs: "Still mad about th

his fingers droppi

this," h

untain vacati

hut agains

ying my IV drip, as if counting

e you dis

?" I eyed hi

coug

yam soup. No one m

r wife or

d for me. "Just this

shrugged of

d it after

e cracked

e, I kept my word and made the soup, the

ou'd und

ehead, but his li

ter, I packe

to-our engagemen

, he burs

trip' ready

till in h

sn't

ist, bruisingly tig

knuckles whiten

past outside the window, my hea

loomed dark as he

thing. I will

hed into

. One hou

at when my phon

you?" Teet

ck." His voice

Walk home i

you mean

your pun

as colder th

born, but you put abortion drugs in the so

" I screamed

put drugs i

He laughed,

of that baby.

call

to the throat

mountain

beneath my boots, sp

of houses thundered down, swallowing the lodge

ack as the gro