Chapter 7 - Sunrise Over the Greenwich Estate
Three weeks after the accident, the spring rain finally gave way to a brilliant, crystal-clear sunrise over the Greenwich estate.
I sat in the comfortable leather armchair beside the hospital bed in the private recovery suite we had set up in the master wing of the house. A team of private nurses monitored her vitals, but the medical equipment hummed quietly in the background, no longer screaming emergency.
On the bed, beneath a light cotton quilt, Annie stirred.
Her eyelashes fluttered slowly against her cheeks. A soft, groaning sigh escaped her lips as she blinked against the gentle morning sunlight streaming through the tall bedroom windows.
I dropped the report I was reading, stood up so fast my chair scraped loudly across the floor, and leaned over the bed.
“Annie?” I whispered, my voice trembling with raw, unfiltered emotion. “Annie, can you hear me?”
Her dark eyes focused slowly, shifting from the ceiling down to my face. A weak, familiar, lopsided smile tugged at the corner of her lips.
“Ethan...?” she rasped, her voice dry and raspy. “Why... why do you look like you just saw a ghost?”
I let out a shaky, half-crying laugh, dropping down onto my knees beside the bed and taking her hand in both of mine, pressing her warm palm against my cheek.
“Because I thought I had lost you,” I whispered, tears finally spilling over my lashes and tracking hot down my face. “Don’t you ever, ever do that to me again.”
Annie’s fingers curled weakly around my fingers, squeezing my hand with a familiar, stubborn strength.
“I wasn't planning on getting hit by a minivan, for the record,” she muttered dryly, though her eyes were shining with unshed tears. “How... how are the boys?”
Before I could answer, the master bedroom door flew wide open with a joyful crash.
Jordan and Justin came tearing into the room at full sprint, pajamas fluttering, hair a wild mess of morning bedhead. They didn't care about the IV drips or the leg cast. They launched themselves onto the edge of the bed, burying their faces in Annie’s arms with cries of pure, unrestrained happiness.
“Annie! You’re awake! You’re finally awake!” Justin sobbed happily, planting a wet, messy kiss on her cheek.
Annie laughed, wrapping her arms around both boys and pulling them tight against her chest.
I stood up slowly from the floor, wiping the last remaining tears from my cheeks, watching the three of them framed against the brilliant morning sunlight pouring through the window.
The shadow of the past was gone. The ghosts of the nursery had been laid to rest.
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The house wasn't a corporate fortress anymore. It was a home.
And as Annie looked up from the boys, catching my gaze with a smile that promised forever, I knew that the sun had finally risen over our estate—and the dawn was going to be magnificent.
