I smiled, and it pulled at the stitches, and I didn’t care.
In Shane’s family my whole role had been to lower my head and remember my place.
To hear a near-stranger simply confirm that what was happening to me was real — that made me feel like a person again.
Chapter 7 — Against Medical Advice
At half past six, before the shift change, I peeled the tape off my hand, slid the IV needle from my vein, and walked to the nurses’ station to sign myself out against medical advice.
The attending pleaded with me — the vertigo, the risk of a concussion turning worse hours later.
“You really shouldn’t leave in your condition,” she said.
“I’ll make no sudden moves,” I told her.
“I’m only going to take my life back.”
By half past seven I’d pulled a thick stack of cash from the ATM and was parked down the street from the complex, watching the garage like a woman on a stakeout.