JAMES
The hospital cafeteria coffee tasted bad, but I forced myself to drink it anyway. I needed the caffeine. Needed something to keep me sharp while I figured out how to spin this disaster.
Three days. Three days of sitting in uncomfortable hospital chairs, fielding questions from doctors and nurses, maintaining the grieving husband act. Three days of watching Lily drift in and out of consciousness, her face pale as death.
Three days of knowing I'd f****d up beyond repair.
I stared at my reflection in the black coffee, remembering the sound my fist had made connecting with her stomach. The way she'd doubled over. The blood that had started pooling beneath her on our kitchen floor.
I hadn't meant for it to go that far.
But she'd been so goddamn stubborn, so determined to leave me. A
