Years ago, he would have taken her elbow without thinking.
Now he waited.
Mara nodded once.
He pulled the chair closer, and she sat.
Ruth removed the original visitor log first.
Mara’s name appeared beside room 814.
Beneath it were six entries showing Evelyn’s visits.
Preston’s name had been written twice, then crossed out in different ink.
“She told the nurses you were not permitted to enter,” Ruth said to Preston.
“She said Ms.
Ellis had accepted a settlement and did not want contact.”
Preston stared at the page.
“I came twice,” he whispered.
Mara looked at him.
For years, she had believed he never came at all.
“You came?”
“The first night, security stopped me in the lobby.
My mother called and said you had refused to see me.
The next morning, I tried again.
A nurse handed me a signed note saying you wanted no contact.”
“I never wrote that.”
“I know that now.”
Ruth pulled an envelope from the box.
The handwriting on the front belonged to Preston.
Mara recognized it immediately.
He had always made the letter M too large.
Ruth placed five more envelopes beside it.
“These were intercepted before they reached the patient floor,” she said.
“Mrs.
Hale instructed staff to return them, but I kept them after I saw what was happening.”
Preston’s face crumpled, but he did not reach for the letters.
They belonged to Mara.
She opened the first envelope with shaking fingers.
The letter inside had been written the day after she lost the baby.
Mara, I do not understand what is happening.
My mother says you do not want me there.
I will respect your wishes, but I need you to know I am outside this hospital and I am not leaving Chicago.
Please send one word.
Any word.
The second letter was angrier.
The third was desperate.
The fourth said Evelyn had shown him bank records proving Mara had accepted two million dollars.
The fifth asked whether the baby had been his.
That line cut deeper than the others.
Mara lowered the page.
“You doubted me.”
Preston’s eyes shone.
“Yes.”
He did not soften it.
“My mother created the lie, but I chose to believe it.
She gave me documents, and I treated paper as more trustworthy than the woman I loved.
I came to the hospital twice, but I did not break through the door.
I did not call Lena.
I did not go to your apartment.
I accepted the answer that demanded the least courage from me.”
