My hands had gone cold.

My heart was pounding.

And some animal part of me wanted to turn and run out of that hospital before he could reach me, as though I could outrun the news itself if I only left before it was spoken.

I did not run.

But I wanted to, and I have never forgotten the wanting.

Chapter 6 — He Hasn’t Told You Anything, Has He

He came toward me the way a person walks toward something they dread, and he stopped in front of me, and for a moment he did not say anything at all.