Page 102 of The Life We Almost Had

The siren blares. Oliver half falls out of bed and grabs his glasses. Runs barefoot down the corridor wearing his pyjamas.

Orange flashing lights blink on and off. On and off. The noise builds and builds as he approaches Adam’s room.

‘Quick.’ Sofia beckons him inside. He can’t believe, after everything, they are losing Adam. Anna will be devastated. Oliver has come to deeply care about them both.

He rushes inside. Adam’s bed is empty. Oliver is momentarily confused until he notices light shining through the open door to the scanner room. It’s a sudden sickening realization.

No. Anna. No.

In there, Luis is hunched over the patient table.

Doing what he can.

No.

Oliver draws nearer and sickness thuds deep in his stomach as he realizes it isn’t Adam at all who is in trouble.

It’s Anna.

Chapter Fifty-Seven

Adam

Drifting. Drifting.

Body heavy.

Can’t think straight.

Noise. Whooshing? The waves?

Hissing. The sound of the sea?

Something else?

A siren.

A voice.

Somebody calling Anna’s name.

Chapter Fifty-Eight

Anna

‘Anna.’ Hands shake my shoulders. ‘Anna.’ Fingertips press into my pulse point on my wrist. ‘Anna. Wake up.’ But I don’t want to. Instead of Harry’s crying and Dug’s happy barking, there is the blare of the emergency siren.

I am in the last place I want to be.

Blood streams from my nose, down my throat. I choke but I don’t care. Without Adam, Harry, I am nothing. I am rolled onto my side, something pressed under my nostrils.

‘Anna.’ The voice won’t stop talking. I prise open my eyes and the light feels like a laser slicing through my brain. ‘Thank goodness.’ Oliver’s concerned face looms towards me. I close my eyes once more.

I don’t want to see.

I don’t want to speak.

I don’t want to feel.

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