“That’s not zero,” Jack said with a look that all but dared the doctor to argue with him.

The doctor seemed to realize the conversation was pointless. “We’ll discharge her in a few days. I suggest you investigate long-term care for her. I can get you the names of some places, if that would help.”

Left alone with his sister, Jack tried to absorb what the doctor had told him.

“I’ll move here, Jack,” Frannie said decisively. She lived in New York, where she worked as an artist, and had recently ended a brief second marriage. “I’ll help with the girls and whatever else you need.”

“I can’t ask you to do that.”

“You didn’t ask. I want to.” She gripped his hand as her hazel eyes heated with emotion. “What’s more important than making sure the girls are well cared for right now?”

“Nothing,” Jack said, resigned to the fact that he needed what his sister was offering. Besides, he was too drained to argue with her. “Thanks, Fran.”

When Frannie left to pick up Maggie at a friend’s house, Jack went back to Clare’s room, where he’d spent most of the last three weeks. Despite the feeding tube, yellowing bruises, and casts on her arm and leg, she looked so much like herself that he ached with yearning to have her back, to have her turn those brilliant blue eyes his way and flash that special smile she used to save just for him, back when things were right between them.

Taking her hand, he held it against his face, and smoothed the blonde hair off her forehead with his other hand. “I know you can hear me,” he said softly. “The things I said that day…I didn’t mean them. You know I didn’t. Whatever’s bothering you, we can fix it. I need you to come back to me. Please, Clare. Don’t give up.”

How could this have happened to her? To them? If the girls were to be believed, she’d let the car hit her. But why? The questions tortured him through sleepless nights and agonizing days. Since her accident, he’d run through every minute he could remember from the last few months. Something had definitely been off between them. In place of her usually sunny, upbeat disposition, she’d been prone to long silences and bad dreams she thought he didn’t know about. But every time he’d tried to broach the subject with her, he’d been rebuffed.

Their usually passionate and satisfying sex life had all but disappeared. Was it possible she’d met someone else? Had she decided to end a marriage that ranked as one of the proudest accomplishments in his life? Had she been waiting for the right time to tell him?