Chapter 26 - WALKING OUT
Fourteen months after Caleb tried to drag me from the hospital bed, I returned to St. Anne’s.
Not as a patient.
Clara invited me after the hospital updated its intimate-partner-violence response protocols.
I did not give a speech to staff.
I met privately with a review committee.
What worked?
The emergency alarm.
Security response.
Maya asking me directly whether I wanted Caleb present.
What failed?
Earlier confusion about his medical authority.
Staff sometimes defaulting to spouse despite disputed documents.
Too many people saying:
Your husband says—
instead of:
What do you want?
At the end, I visited Trauma? No.
Orthopedic floor.
Room 612.
Someone else occupied my old room.
I did not need inside.
I stood in the hallway with a cane.
Then walked to the elevator.
May you like
By myself.
That was enough.
