Graham Whitmore turned his head on the pillow and looked at Annie as though the child had spoken in some strange language his fevered mind had invented for him. His voice came out low and rough. “What did you say?”
Annie stood very still beside the bed, one hand resting against the mattress as if she needed to anchor herself.
“I said she’s going to move against you tonight,” Annie repeated, even more softly. Graham stared at her for a beat, then let out a faint breath of disbelief. “Who is she?”
Annie’s eyes flicked toward the half-open bedroom door.
He frowned. “Annie, who are you talking about?”
She leaned a little closer. “Please don’t talk loud.”
That answer unsettled him more than the first.
“Why?”
“Because she might hear.”
A chill moved through him that had nothing to do with illness. He shifted against the pillows, trying to push himself higher, but the effort tightened his chest at once. He stopped, frustrated by how weak even small movements had made him these past months.
“Annie,” he said, quieter now. “Tell me exactly who you mean.”
“Your fiancée.”
He went still. “She’s your nurse,” Annie continued in a whisper.
“She stays here with you every day. She changes your IV. She checks your medicine.
She tells everybody what you need.”
“Vanessa,” he said, almost before he meant to. Annie nodded. Graham looked away from her for a second, toward the window, toward nothing.
“That’s not possible.”
Annie said nothing. He turned back to her. “Vanessa has been taking care of me around the clock.
She’s the reason I’ve made it through any of this at all.”
Annie’s expression did not change. “No,” she said. “She watches you.”
The words landed so plainly they did not even sound like an accusation.
“She watches if you look stronger,” Annie said. “If you seem better, she changes things.”
Graham gave a small, strained laugh, the kind that carried no humor. “That’s a serious thing to say.”
“I know.”
“She’s trying to help me.”
Annie shook her head.
The story doesn’t end here — it continues on the next page.
Tap READ MORE to discover the rest 🔎👇
