Chapter 10
St. Mary’s Hospital.
Ryan’s nerves were shot. The whole drive over, Thea’s panicked voice from two days ago kept echoing in his head.
“Please, don’t do this…”
“Ryan, don’t leave me here! Open the door!”
Her desperate cries that he’d ignored now burned into his soul. One thought kept hitting him:
He never should’ve done that to her.
Room 25. Ryan stopped at the door, hearing a nurse inside.
“You’ll need the pain pump for a few more days. Burns are prone to infection, so you have to be extra careful.”
Ryan paused and walked in.
“Thea, I’m sorry. I went too far. I promise it won’t happen again, I’ll-”
The words died in his throat.
The person in the bed wasn’t Thea.
“Can I help you?” the nurse asked.
Ryan’s voice was hoarse. “Sorry, wrong room.”
Not the burn unit’s room 25. Maybe she was in a different wing.
Thea had only been in that warehouse for thirty minutes. She probably wasn’t burned too badly-they might’ve put her somewhere else.
Ryan searched every other floor.
Not there.
Not there either.
From the 23rd floor down to the 1st, even checking the maternity and pediatric room 25s.
None of them.
Ryan felt like he was sinking into quicksand. By the time he’d checked the last room 25, his panic had reached a fever pitch.
The headline flashed through his mind again: [Thea Mitchell Dies in Warehouse Fire.]
Ryan fumbled for his phone with shaking hands.
He texted to Thea.
[Why didn’t you tell me you were getting discharged early? Where are you? I’ll come get you.]
[Thea, I’m really worried. Please just text me back.]
[Baby, don’t scare me like this. Please…]
Every message went unanswered.
Every call went straight to voicemail.
Chapter 10
Ryan’s eyes were bloodshot as he muttered to himself.
“This can’t be real. The media always blows shit out of proportion. I was just trying to scare her-thirty minutes, that’s all. Nothing could’ve happened in thirty minutes.”
“Yeah, I must’ve missed a floor. I’ll check again. She has to be here somewhere.”
He clung to that hope and started searching again.
Once, twice, three times…
Each search came up empty, but Ryan kept going.
His clothes were soaked with sweat. He looked like a man who’d lost everything.
A call suddenly came through-from Thea’s number.
Ryan’s eyes lit up. “Thea…”
But a cold, unfamiliar voice answered.
“Is this Ryan Mitchell? Your wife died two days ago in a fire at the abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of town. We need you to come to the station to identify the body.”
Ryan froze.
After a few seconds, he laughed.
“Thea put you up to this, didn’t she? Tell her to cut the crap. This isn’t funny.”
“Mr. Mitchell, you-”
Before the man could finish, Ryan hung up and stumbled toward the stairs.
He was going to find Thea any minute now.
And when he did, he was going to make her promise never to scare him like this again.
He searched another entire floor.
Ryan was about to check the next floor when he ran into police officers.
“Mr. Mitchell, your wife-”
“Stop. My wife is fine. She’s in room 25. I’m about to find her.”
The officer stared at him for a moment then said: “Right. Room 25. Come with me.”
A spark of hope flashed in Ryan’s eyes as he followed.
The bodyguards’ text hadn’t been wrong.
St. Mary’s Hospital, bed 25.
But Thea wasn’t in a patient room.
She was in the morgue.
The white sheet was pulled back.
A charred, blood-covered body lay beneath, burned beyond recognition. Not an inch of her was untouched.
A melted wedding ring-the one he’d given her-clung to her finger.
It was Thea.
She was dead.
Blood filled Ryan’s throat as a deafening ringing consumed his ears.
