Page 87 of Beautiful Trauma

“I need someone up here immediately to get into the bathroom and probably an ambulance. Now!”

I continued banging on the door, trying to force my way in. To the credit of the hotel, they had someone from housekeeping to our room in under a minute. The harried woman ran to the bathroom door with a key and opened it, both of us taking a deep breath before looking inside.

“The police are coming, sir,” she assured me as we took in the scene.

Cee was crumpled on the shower floor. I took the three steps to her and lifted her face. It was heavy in my hand. I called her name repeatedly, feeling for a pulse. It was there. Her breathing seemed shallow, and there was an empty pill bottle in her hand.

I know I was screaming at the poor housekeeper to get them to hurry. I was screaming at Cee to wake up as I shook her. She only opened her eyes a bit and mumbled something.

“What did you do, Kate?” I grabbed her hand and squeezed.

It was obvious what she had done, but fuck.

“Fine,” she whispered. At least, that’s what I thought she said.

“You are so not fine. Help is coming, okay? Just hang on.” Tears fell down my face. I placed a kiss on her forehead and hoped like hell they arrived quickly. “Do not fucking die on me.”

When paramedics and police came barreling into the room, I screamed at them to help, as if that wasn’t what they were trying to do.

“What’s her name?” Someone asked.

“Catherine. Catherine Fuller.” I watched as someone with a gurney came into the room.

“How long has she been like this?” a voice asked me. Everything sounded so far away.

“I don’t know,” I stammered. “I woke up about fifteen minutes ago and just thought she was in here peeing or something.”

“When’s the last time you saw her?” The medic was checking her pulse as they moved me out of the way to pick her up.

I thought back to the last time I had looked at the clock before I fell asleep. “Like five, I think?”

“This morning or last night?”

“This morning. Is she okay? Please tell me she’s okay,” I pleaded. They loaded her onto the gurney and strapped her down.

“Is she an addict?”

“No. She had this bottle in her hands.” I held out the bottle of pills.

“How many were in here?”

“I don’t know. I usually have to force her to take her meds.”

“Who are you?”

In that moment, I chose to lie. I knew claiming to be anything other than family would have me jettisoned from the equation immediately. “Her husband. She’s been depressed. Her best friend just died.” I promised him I wouldn’t let this happen. “Fuck!” I slammed my fist into the wall. “Kate! Don’t fucking die, you hear me?”

“Sir, I need you to calm down. Maybe there is some family you can call to be with you?”

“Her mom is in Massachusetts. Her sister is on the road, but I’m not even sure what city.” I followed them to the door, but the police officer stopped me. “I need to go with her.”

“We will follow, sir.”

I struggled to take a normal breath. This cannot be real life! I was crying as we took another elevator to the lobby and climbed into the cruiser.

The car whipped through the city streets until we were in front of the hospital. The officer let me out but clarified that I was a person of interest, and they would question me once we had a status on Cee. At the time, it didn’t register in my mind that they thought I had done this to her.

I ran to the desk in the emergency room. “They just brought in my wife. She was unconscious. Where is she? What’s happening?” The words ran out of my mouth as my gaze darted around the busy entrance.