Spiralling Skywards: Fading (Contradictions, #2)(67)

“Yeah, there’s wine.”

I opened Sarah’s mouth, stuck two fingers inside, and scooped them around. I must have forced them down a little too far, because she gagged. It was the best sound I had ever fucking heard, and I started to sob harder. I held Sarah to my chest, and I cried.

“She gagged. She gagged. She gagged.”

“That’s good. That’s a good sign, Liam. The paramedics are almost with you. They’re in the building and making their way to the room.

They stormed the room and forced me to do the hardest thing I had ever done in my life.

I let her go.

I let them take over. I stood and watched as they listened to her heart, took her blood pressure, set up a drip, and placed an oxygen mask over her face.

I had my fingers laced together and my hands pressing down on the top of my head.

Cherise stood next to me, saying something to the medics about the wine and the tablets, and then one of them picked up the packet. “Stilnox.”

He turned to me. “Do you know how many were in here? How many she might have taken?”

I shook my head.

“No. No. What are they?”

“Sleeping tablets.”

They worked to get her on a stretcher as we talked, and I followed them out of the room. Cherise led the way to the service lift, which had more room in it, but I couldn’t focus on what anyone else was doing.

“We don’t—she doesn’t take sleeping tablets. We don’t have them.”

“Well, she got them from somewhere.”

“I don’t know. Will she be okay? She gonna be all right?”

We climbed into the back of the ambulance, and I had to hold on to the seat as the driver flipped on the sirens and sped out of the parking bay.

“Let’s get her to the hospital, get some blood tests done, and go from there. You wanna come up here and hold her hand?”

I nodded, and we switched places. I reached out and both of my shaky hands enveloped Sarah’s. It felt small. It felt frail. It felt cold. It broke my fucking heart.

The next half hour or so was a blur. We were whisked into the emergency department, but they wouldn’t let me follow. All I could do was stand and watch as they took my wife away.

I gave all of the personal information on Sarah that I could offer to the administration staff, and then they showed me to a waiting room.

I sat, and then I stood. I paced, sat, stood, sat, and then paced again. Then I called Luke.

“Arsewipe?”

“You need to come to St Johns.”

I was surprised by the calmness of my voice.

“What? The hospital? Why, what’s happened?”

I didn’t know. What had happened? How? Why? My head spun, and I just wanted to sleep.

“Del? I’m on my way. What the fucks happened?”

“Sarah.”

“What?”

“Please just get here.”

He was there however long later. Could’ve been an hour, could’ve been a minute. I had no clue. I was sitting with my elbows on my knees, hands clasped together, and my head hanging down between them. I didn’t look up when the door opened. I was too scared to. Terrified of who it might be and what they might tell me.

“What happened?”

Luke asked very quietly.

“Overdose.”

“What? What the fuck?”

I heard and felt him fall down into the chair next to me.

“Is she gonna be all right? How? What the fuck did she do? Where were the kids?”

I finally looked up and met his gaze. His mouth was drawn down into a frown, and he looked as if he was in pain. Did I look worse? I must have looked like I was in absolute agony, because he reached for me, and I broke down.

“Its okay, Del, its okay.”

He released his hold, and we both dried our eyes.

“She got Taylor to babysit, checked into a hotel, and washed down a packet of sleeping tablets with a bottle of wine.

“Jesus. Fuck,” he said through the hand that was coving his mouth. He raked it through his hair and then shook his head and deepened his frown.

“Where’d she get the sleeping tablets? I offered her some the other night, she never said she already had some.”

“Fuck if I know. I’ve never seen them. I’ve never known her to take them.”

The door opened and a doctor walked in. It was a woman with long, straight red hair parted in the middle.

“Mr Delaney?” She held out her hand and looked between me and Luke. I held out mine and moved to stand. “No, please. Sit down. This must’ve of all been an awful shock for you.”

I sat and nodded my head.

“This is Luke Carter, Sarah’s brother.”

“Luke, hi. I’m Molly Dalglish, and I’ve been looking after Sarah.” She looked between us for a few seconds, and I swore my heart stopped beating the entire time.

“Okay, so we’ve got Sarah stabilised. Preliminary blood test results show that she took somewhere between eight and ten tablets. We’ve administered a reverse anaesthetic and that’s brought her around somewhat. Her BP is okay and everything else looks good. She’ll probably remain asleep for the next few hours, during which time we’ll keep monitoring her. She will probably be a little groggy for some time after that.”