Beneath Innocence (Deception #2.5) by Ker Dukey, D.H. Sidebottom Read Free Book Online

realise I’m crying until the waiting room door opens slowly and an old woman is staring at me, her wet blue eyes full of sadness. “Oh my dear.” Her voice is gravelly but soft, soothing and coaxing. Her hand reaches to mine and she pulls me gently. I allow her to lead me into the room, her movements slow as her old weary legs shuffle in front of me. She sits me down on the sofa, her leathery hand never letting go of mine.
    “You lost someone too,” she whispers.
    I can’t answer her, I’m not able to feel, never mind talk. Her eyes drop to our joined hands. “My Herb just left me. Cancer.” The sound of her voice makes my insides hurt for her. But looking back up at me she smiles, softly, almost…almost gratefully. “Pain is a funny thing,” she says quietly, sensitively, as her eyes fix on something over my shoulder. “He was in so much pain that I agonised over it. His pain became my hell, my own physical agony.” Although I can tell she is well into her eighties, her bright blue eyes are so very young, full of life and love for her dead husband. “But his love had the power to overcome it all. The way he loved me told me that he would fight to the end for me, hold on to the thing that pained him to stay with me. But in the end, we all choose the right path for our loved ones. We all help them in how they want to go. And we all do anything to make that love last till the end. Even if it guarantees us a place in hell.”
    My eyes snap to hers. Is she telling me she helped kill her husband? She shrugs faintly but smiles as if she’s aware of my silent question. “We all have demons, my dear. It’s how you choose to fight them that matters.”
    “I don’t…”
    “Shhh. Death isn’t the end. It’s the beginning of a journey, a journey none of us are willing to face but very ready to accept.”
    “I would die for her.” I’m not sure what made me say it, I’m not even sure if I did say it but the lady smiles once again, the wrinkles beside her eyes making her expression soft and warm.
    “And I know that if that is the case, then you’re worth it. Not many of us ever get to touch love, some of us are not lucky enough to ever see inside another’s soul, but when we do, it’s the only thing that leads us to our death because we never let it go, never. And we take that piece with us, through life, and even through death. My Herb will never leave me, he’s just moved ahead, but he’s waiting for me. We’ll meet again.”
    I can’t say anything. My throat is so tight I’m sure I’m choking right in front of her.
    “But that’s the thing, you see. Love. It makes us hold on. It allows us to face anything because love is all the drug we need, and to get the high from it is like nothing else.”
    How she seemed to see inside me was inexplicable but for some unknown reason, I knew she could.
    She pats my hand then stands and makes her way out but before she closes the door behind her she turns back to me. “Just hold on, my dear. It will find you. And not before you’re ready for it.”
     
    The corridor is silent and empty when I emerge out of the room sometime later. Darkness has descended, the lights from the activity on the street below causing frequent flashes to bounce off the glass of the windows.
    Another burst of doors and I once again move aside. A team of three this time, all of them running. My eyes lower to a trail of blood following them, the thin crimson line someone’s life-force.
    “Stem the bleed you idiot! Seal the damn wound!” one of the white coats shouts to a nurse. He nods frantically, grabbing onto the pale wrist that has dropped off the edge of the trolley. Another nurse, a female, is running alongside holding a bag of fluids, her hands virtually squeezing it to push it through quicker.
    Long hair falls from the head of the trolley and I’m strangely mesmerised by it. It’s long and thick, like Blue’s but without the streak of blue running through it. I smile to