As I walked through the cardiac wing, I noticed a woman sitting alone beside a window at the far end of the hallway.
I slowed my pace.
Then I stopped completely.
Sophie.
She was dressed in a pale hospital gown.
Her chestnut hair had been cut painfully short.
Her face was thinner, and deep shadows surrounded her exhausted eyes.
An IV pole stood beside her.
She looked so fragile that for a moment, she hardly seemed real.
I couldn’t breathe.
Why was she in the hospital?
Why hadn’t anyone told me?
Why was she sitting there alone?
Without consciously deciding to, I began walking toward her.
With every step, memories flooded back.
The calls I had ignored.
The conversations I had avoided.
Every time I had convinced myself that leaving Sophie was an act of mercy.
When I finally reached her, she slowly raised her eyes.We looked at each other.
