“Then why?”

“Because I thought she’d come begging for me to come back!” Jax’s confession echoed in the room. Her ears were ringing with heat and embarrassment. “She pushed and she pushed, and she pushed. Finally, I got tired of feeling like a single mom in a shared house and acting like everything was normal.”

Jax didn’t bother trying to fight back her tears. She hadn’t told anyone the truth, not even Wyatt, and it felt cleansing as she did so now. “So I walked away. I thought if my wife loved me and still believed in our marriage, she’d come and get me. Well, guess what, Amanda? She never came. The phone would ring, and I’d pick it up like a hopeless fool thinking she’d be on the other end asking me to come home.” Jax laughed at her own naivety. “She was only calling about Caleb, or to tell me she saw a lawyer.”

Amanda dropped her head and shook it. “Gretchen is stubborn. You know that as well as I do. She didn’t want you to leave.”

“But she let me go. And none of that really matters now.”

Amanda was shocked. She looked at Jax like she was bananas. “Of course it matters. You can’t give up on your marriage.”

“Our marriage…” Jax looked at the door when a strange sound caught her attention. Hospitals were never truly quiet. “It’s over. It’s been over. Right now we’re fighting to keep our attention on Caleb and be as civil as possible.”

“You should tell her. When she wakes up.”

“Tell her what? That I tried to manipulate her into proving to me that I mattered? That we mattered. Nuh-uh. That stays between us.” Jax noticed Amanda shift uncomfortably. “Amanda, you have to promise me. You can’t tell Gretchen. We’ve both been through a lot, and we need to keep our focus on Caleb. I don’t have any fight left, and neither does she.” Jax glanced at Gretchen. She imagined her soon-to-be ex-wife nodding in agreement.

“Is this because of Meredith?”

Jax’s shoulders went slack with sudden exhaustion. She laughed. “No. This has nothing to do with Meredith.”

“I just want my sister to be happy.”

“Trust me,” Jax said with sadness in her heart, “she will be happy without me.”

Jax and Amanda heard a noise and turned to the windows. They couldn’t place it. It wasn’t thunder or wind. This sounded strangled and…human.

Gretchen struggled to take a breath.

Chapter Six

14 days, 15 hours, 3 minutes

“We heard it. We both heard it.”

Dr. Melendez moved her stethoscope around Gretchen’s chest and listened intently. When she stepped back, she released a long breath. She unplugged her ears and wrapped her stethoscope around the back of her neck. Gretchen was breathing on her own, but not much else appeared to change.

“Coming out of a medically induced coma isn’t easy,” Dr. Melendez said somberly. “There’s fluid in her lungs which we will treat and monitor, but her pupils are responsive. This is very good news.”