Unspoken (49 page)
Authors: Lisa Jackson
Tags: #Contemporary, #General, #Romance, #Romantic Suspense Fiction, #Suspense, #Fiction, #Texas
“Fine. But please, for Mrs. Cahill’s sake, make it brief.”
“We will, dear,” the older woman agreed and Marla felt the touch of cool, dry skin on the back of her hand. “Come on, Marla, wake up. Cissy and little James, they miss you, they need you.” A deep chuckle. “Though I hate to admit it, Nana isn’t quite the same as their mother.”
Nana? Grandma? Mother-in-law?
There was a rustle of clothing, the sound of soft soles padding across the floor and a door opening as, presumably, the nurse left.
“Sometimes I wonder if she’ll ever wake up,” Alex grumbled. “God, I need a cigarette.”
“Just be patient, son. Marla was in a horrible accident, and then suffered through the surgeries. She’s healing.” God, why couldn’t she remember? There was another long, serious sigh and a kindly pat of fingers on the back of her hand. A waft of perfume ... a scent she recognized but couldn’t name.
Why was she in the hospital? What kind of accident were they talking about? Marla tried to concentrate, to think, but the effort brought only an ache that throbbed through her head.
“I just hope there won’t be much disfigurement,” the old woman said again.
What?
Disfigurement?
Oh, please, no.
Disfigurement?
For a second she was jolted out of her haze. Her throat, already parched, nearly closed in fear and her stomach felt as if it had been twisted and tied with rubber bands. She tried to remember what she looked like, but it didn’t matter ... Her heart was racing with dread. Certainly someone somewhere watching her monitors could see that she was aware, that she was responding, but no loud footsteps pounded outside the door, no urgent voice yelled, “She’s stirring. Look, she’s waking up!”
Disfigurement?
Oh, please, no.
Disfigurement?
For a second she was jolted out of her haze. Her throat, already parched, nearly closed in fear and her stomach felt as if it had been twisted and tied with rubber bands. She tried to remember what she looked like, but it didn’t matter ... Her heart was racing with dread. Certainly someone somewhere watching her monitors could see that she was aware, that she was responding, but no loud footsteps pounded outside the door, no urgent voice yelled, “She’s stirring. Look, she’s waking up!”
“She has the best doctors in the state. She ... she might not look like we expect, but she’ll be fine, beautiful.” Alex sounded as if he was trying to convince himself.
“She always was. You know, Alexander,” the woman who called herself Nana said, “sometimes a woman’s beauty can be a curse.”
An uncomfortable laugh from this man who was her husband. “I don’t think she’d agree.”
“No, of course not But she hasn’t lived long enough to understand.”
“I just wonder what she’ll remember when she wakes up.”
“Hopefully, everything,” the woman said, but there was an underlying tension to her words, a pronounced trepidation.
“Yes, well, time will tell.”
“We’re just lucky she wasn’t killed in the accident.”
There was the tiniest bit of hesitation before her husband replied, “Damned lucky. She should never have been driving in the first place. Hell, she’d just been released from the hospital.”
Another hospital? It was all getting fuzzy again, the words garbled. Had she heard it right?
“There are so many questions,” her mother-in-law whispered.
Yes, so many, but I’m too tired to think of them right now ... so very tired.
About the Author
Lisa Jackson lives with her family, two cats, and an eighty-pound dog in the Pacific Northwest. She can be reached by e-mail at
www.lisajackson.com
or by regular mail in care of Kensington Publishing, 850 Third Avenue, New York, New York 10022.
www.lisajackson.com
or by regular mail in care of Kensington Publishing, 850 Third Avenue, New York, New York 10022.
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