This is the completed third installment to the Closer Trilogy!
.....
It was impossible.
The thought of Henry was ever present on my mind.
Some days it was faint and small, like a whisper in the dark.
And on other days, it was insufferable like nail...
Sorry for the long wait. Only two more chapters! I promise to update as soon as I can.
Song: To Die For by Sam Smith
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.....
When I woke up in the hospital, I saw Eve and Nancy each sitting by my bedside. Behind them was Lily, Adam, Nick, Patty, and my mom, who sat around the room. They all appeared fatigued like they haven't slept for hours.
"Ally! Oh you're finally awake!" Eve cried, her eyes red and puffy. The others soon noticed and crowded around the bed with relieved expressions.
I slowly peered around the room for the face I was hopeful to see, but he wasn't among them. I tried to move up and noticed an IV line hooked up to my right hand.
"Henry, where's Henry?" I asked in a hoarse voice. It felt like my lungs were tied down with sand bags, making it hard to speak.
All their faces turned away from me to each other or to the ground or the ceiling, as if deciding among themselves through the silence who would be the one to answer my question.
"Tell me where he is," I pleaded. I didn't want to tear up or have my voice crack, but I couldn't help myself when my eyes were starting to water already and my voice wavering. "Please, would somebody just tell me where my husband is?"
I looked from one person to the next, waiting for someone to speak up. The deafening silence among them already hinted at the answer.
"Ally ..." Nancy started, grabbing a hold of my hand. She sniffled. "Dear, you have to strong now for what I'm going to tell you, okay?"
I sat upright on the bed as my mother helped me up. My whole body writhed with a dull pain from my head to my toes. "What happened?"
"Henry ... he ... he never made it out of the house, honey." I looked at Nancy, divulging and mulling over each one of her words. "I'm so sorry..." The redness grew on everyone's eyes as Nancy continued. "When the firemen could get inside, there wasn't nothing left to save. They believe that ... Henry burned to death."
"That can't be true." I shook my head. "I don't believe that Henry is dead ... he can't have d..." I couldn't get the rest of the word that I feared out of my lips. "He's just ... somewhere waiting for me .... I need to go find him."
"Ally, honey ... I know this hard for you to accept, but it is what it is," Eve said.
I peered down and covered my stomach with my hands, crying to myself, thinking about Henry and our baby, how I was going to carry on. "Henry's not dead. He couldn't. There's nothing to prove that he died." Tears fell freely from my eyes without trying, one after another. "I don't believe it at all."
