Trouble in Paradise
This is one of the free reads for everyone in the downloads:Prologue
She was running for her life. She did not know what or whom she was running from, but she could feel the fear. She couldn't see who was after her, and she couldn't see where she was going. She was racing through a fog; her arms spread out in front of her.
Looking behind her, she ran into something. Snapping her head back, she looked at a man with no face.
She screamed, turned and ran the way she had come. She couldn't remember which came first, the explosion or the blinding pain, but her head felt like it exploded. The pain shot through her entire body.
She fell, but there was no ground. As she fell through the darkness, she opened her mouth to scream but nothing came out. She felt something in her mouth and started to gag. The blackness suddenly turned to red, and she realized it was light filtering through her eyelids. Her eyes flew open, but the bright light forced them closed again. She could feel something in her throat and her hands flew to her mouth. She felt the tube. She continued to gag, as she tried to rise. She was too weak. She attempted to pull the tube from her mouth. A nurse ran into the room.
"My God, you're awake!" The nurse caught her hands. "Hold on, calm down. Let me handle this."
She continued to claw at the tube as the nurse worked over her. She suddenly realized her head was killing her. She reached up to touch her hair, but instead touched cloth. Her entire head was bandaged. As the tube was slowly extracted, she choked on the pain. Finally, she was able to take a breath.
Chapter one
She sipped from the glass of water. Five minutes had passed since she awoke. When she had opened her mouth to talk, she found she couldn't. Her throat was so dry it hurt too much to try. The nurse had handed her the water.
Now doctors and nurses surrounded her bed. They were very anxious to hear this woman's first words.
She looked around the room. It was obvious she was in a hospital. She suddenly realized that she didn't know what happened to get her there. She didn't know why her head was bandaged, and she didn't know where she was. She took another sip of water; then cleared her throat.
"Where am I?" Her voice was scratchy but coherent.
The doctor to her left was holding her medical chart. He seemed almost relieved when he heard her voice.
"You are in Pali Momi Medical Center. I'm sure you have a lot of questions, but first I need to ask you a few questions. First, what is your name? You were admitted without any identification."
"Oh, well, my name is-” Her voice stopped but her mouth remained open. She gasped. It was on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't remember her name. "I don't know," she moaned.
The doctor sighed. "Well, that's normal. You have been through a lot. I'm sure it will come back to you."
"What have I been through? And the name of this hospital. Am I in a foreign country? Why can't I remember?" She felt herself begin to panic.
"Now calm down. I'll tell you all I know." He turned to the other people in the room. "OK, she's fine. May I have some time with my patient, please?"
Everyone nodded and left the room.
"First, my name is Mark O'Donnor. I'm your doctor. You were admitted just under a month ago."
"A month? Do you mean I've been asleep all that time?"
"Well, not exactly asleep. You've been in a coma. I was beginning to think that you weren't going to come out of it." He paused for a moment. She just stared at him, so he continued. "Pali Momi Medical Center is on Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands. You were admitted with a bullet wound to the head. Since you are unable to tell me, I must assume that a mugging caused it, since your purse wasn't with you. You were found at a quarter past midnight at Neal Blaisdell Park on May 8th. It is now June 3rd."
"A bullet wound to the head? Someone tried to kill me?" She felt the tears forming. She placed her hands to her head.
"And almost succeeded. You were in bad shape when you were brought in. I performed emergency brain surgery to take out the bullet and repair the damage. You were shot from a distance, which might explain why the bullet was still in your head. You were hit from behind, which means you were most likely running from the mugger. Do you remember any of this?"
Her mind drew a blank. She shook her head.
"Well, it'll come. We had a sketch drawn of you, and it has been run in the news. Now that you're awake, we can take a picture and see if anybody knows you. It's doubtful that you came here by yourself... The mugger didn't take your wedding ring."
She looked at her left hand. "My wedding ring?" There was no ring on her hand.
"Yes. It’s in the hospital safe. Your husband must be in Hawaii somewhere. And I'm pretty sure that you don't know this, but you're pregnant."
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Jude