Chapter 2 - The Sister’s Call and the Forgotten NumberPanic flared in Luke’s eyes as the medical staff closed ranks around my hospital bed, shielding me from his physical advance.
Yet, there was one piece of data Luke’s psychological cage had failed to account for: my sister’s childhood phone number, a ten-digit sequence I had memorized when we were little girls in our family home, a sequence I repeated silently to myself every single night of my marriage like a sacred prayer. With shaking, bandage-wrapped fingers, I whispered the digits to the nurse standing beside the bed. Luke realized what was happening a fraction of a second too late; he lunged wildly across the mattress to snatch the hospital phone, but the nurse pivoted away and hit the call button. The line connected. One ring. Two rings. Three rings. Then, a familiar, beloved voice answered on the other end: "Hello?" My throat closed up with overwhelming emotion, tears streaming down my face as Luke stared at me in sudden, unmitigated horror. Before I could even choke out a full sentence, my sister recognized my heavy breathing and said six words that made Luke instantly back away from my bed in sheer terror: "Caroline, I've been waiting for this."
