Gretchen wanted to chase after her, but she felt paralyzed. She sat heavily on a kitchen chair and started crying. The force of her sobs hurt her throat. She felt nauseous and tired. A headache came on and she didn’t care. She welcomed the pain, until the edges of her vision started to go dark. Something didn’t feel right. She took rapid breaths, trying to calm herself, but her heart continued to pound. The lingering smell of lunch made her stomach lurch, the room started spinning, and Gretchen reached out to steady herself with a hand on the kitchen table. She gripped the divorce papers as she fell forward. They bumped into the vial of antiseizure medication. She fell to the kitchen floor, and the last thing she saw was the orange bottle spinning beside her.

Chapter Twenty-three

14 days, 23 hours, 14 minutes

Jax pressed her fingertips into her temples. Her mind was reeling, and not one bit of the information Dr. Melendez threw at her helped. “What does this mean?”

“Like I said, sustaining an injury to the occipital lobe—”

“English,” Jax said firmly. “Just tell me if this set everything back or if…” Every ounce of hopefulness drained from Jax’s heart. “Did we ruin our chances of Gretchen recovering?”

“Having a seizure at this point isn’t detrimental, and it’s better it happened now rather than later, when we were less prepared for it. It’s impossible to say how it’ll impact her, but we need to stay positive.” Dr. Melendez grabbed a pen from the pocket of her lab coat and jotted something in her notepad.

“That’s it?”

“Until she wakes up again, yeah.”

Jax felt like she was living in an infinite, frustrating loop. She ran her fingers through her hair. “Okay.” A hollow knock caught Jax’s attention. She spun on her heels and smiled when she saw Gretchen was awake. She was grateful this wait was considerably shorter than the first. “Hey,” she said, walking to Gretchen’s bedside. She touched Gretchen’s forehead gently. “You’re awake. You gave us quite a scare.” She looked into Gretchen’s drowsy eyes.

“Gretchen? Can you hear me?” Dr. Melendez took her spot across from Jax. “It’s me, Dr. Melendez.” She encouraged Gretchen to open her eyes and shined her penlight into them.

She hated watching the way Gretchen winced and tried to pull away from the bright light.

“Do you remember me, Gretchen?” Dr. Melendez asked as she slid the light back into her pocket. She and Jax waited patiently for Gretchen to answer.

Jax studied Gretchen’s face. Apparent on the surface were frustration and fear. She felt relieved at Gretchen’s small nod.

Dr. Melendez smiled softly, showing her relief, too. “Do you know where you are?”