Page 123 of After We Fall

Meredith and I enter the waiting room, and I point to a light blue couch. “Sit.”

She paces three steps. “Sit? How am I supposed to sit?”

I had no choice but to allow her to drive, but her high-risk pregnancy was adding weight to my shoulders the entire car ride to the hospital. I place a hand on her arm, stopping her movement, and gentle my tone. “Please, Meredith. I need you to sit and take some deep breaths. And I need you to let me handle the remaining details.”

She stares at me a moment, nods, and sinks into the thick damask fabric. The pastel painting of the Rocky Mountains sits crooked above her on the beige-colored wall. It seems to be the only thing out of place in this well-kept room. Even the coffee maker offers a designer label and various pod flavors.

A sharp pang pounds in the left side of my head. I take a deep breath. That’s fine. Expected, even. In light of these circumstances, a migraine is inevitable. But I’ll take a headache over the kind of consequences Meredith could experience if she puts too much stress on her body.

Digging through my purse, I find the medication I’m looking for. After grabbing a free water from the mini fridge, I gulp down the pill. Out of habit, I glance around the room for Luke. No matter where I am, I’ve been doing this for several days, and I get the same disappointing result each time. No Luke. But this time more than the others, it feels like he should be here.

“Ms. Reid?”

I turn, and a uniformed police officer looks at me in question.

“Yes,” I say.

Harlan storms into the room, a thunderous look aimed at Meredith. He takes a knee in front of her, cups her face, and kisses her gently.

I look at the officer, and he offers a kind smile through his thick gray mustache. With his robust belly, I wonder if he doubles as Santa Claus at Christmastime.

Once Harlan is convinced that Meredith is fine, she and I debrief the men.

“What are we going to do?” Meredith asks. “She needs protection.”

“I don’t know that I’m comfortable bringing Finley back to the ranch.” Harlan runs his hands through his hair. “I want her to be safe. And I don’t want to endanger anyone else.”

“I think I know how to help her,” I say. All heads turn toward me. “But she’s going to have to want to go.”

I walk to the corner of the room, sit in a chair, and start making calls, hating every piece of pain that led Finley here. But hoping it gives her the resolve she needs to leave.

Marcus’s boot broke three of Finley’s ribs but, thankfully, didn’t hit any internal organs. Her retina is in place, but her cheek is fractured. The emergency room doctor quietly declared Finley lucky, but as the purple bruising deepens its color across her pale face, it’s hard to agree.

With all of us in the room watching, Finley sits on her hospital bed and responds to the police officer’s questions with short answers. She’s not avoiding the questions, but her winces tell me short answers minimize the pain.

There’s nothing jolly about the officer when his concerned eyes focus on Finley at the end of the interview and he says, “I’m worried about your safety.”

She holds up her hand and whispers two words, her voice cracking, making them indecipherable.

“What’s that, sweetie?” Meredith asks.

Finley clears her throat. “No more.” Her scratchy voice projects into the room.

Meredith steps toward her. “No more what, Finley?”

“I can’t do this anymore.” She looks at me. “I can’t be around him anymore.”

“Okay,” I say, touching her leg. “You don’t have to be around him anymore.”

A tear runs down her fractured cheek. “He’s going to kill me.”

“No. He’s not.”

“What am I going to do? I can’t go back to Twelve Bluebells. He’ll find me.” She draws a hand up to her face and covers her eyes as the tears run more quickly. “I don’t have any family. I don’t have anywhere else to go.”

I pull a chair up to the side of her bed and take her hand in mine. “You have family. You just don’t know them yet.”

By the time I finish telling Finley about Safe Cove, she’s ready to get in the car and leave Colorado Springs behind. Program director Esther Haverty and I formed a tight bond while I was doing research for my job proposal. When I called earlier today, she confirmed that they have a bed for Finley, as well as a job interview upon her arrival. But there are some contingencies.