The Drowned Wife's Spectacular Comeback

ted every day of Julian's three-month coma, watching her body transform in the mirror while her husband lay motionless behind glass. Through the ICU window, Julian Astor IV lay still, a landsc

the screen lighting up with the hos

rofessional voice said.

ring the image of the man in the bed. It was over. The nightmare was over. He was back. Their future, the one with

was not what she had expected. The bed was empty, the sheets tangled and thro

, her voice sharper than she i

His private medical team was here within minutes of him waking. He's been transferr

g Julian's number, her fingers trembling. It rang. And rang

ree months, and he hadn'

doctors had warned her that traumatic brain injuries could cause personality changes, memory issues, conf

r phone buzzed. An unknown number. She almost i

quite disappeared from the periphery of their marriage. "I just heard the wonderful news about Julian! We're having a little celebra

tal and gone directly to a party. To her. But if he was there, she needed to see him. She

managed to say, the w

oating palace of teak and polished brass. From the dock, she could see figures moving on the deck, hear the distant hum

physician who had overseen Julian's care-was

very is nothing short of miraculous, but he is not himself. Brain trauma can sometimes cause... altered men

eaumont," Summer said, the

t was at the hospital within minutes of him waking. She's the one who arranged the tran

ght air cutting through her thin dress. Then she squared

doors. Voices drifted out-Scarlett's musical laugh, and then Julian's. His voi

l have the lawyers serve her the papers in the hospital. I d

g over the doorknob. The words

Scarlett asked,

through the air, sharp as a shard of

ing against a tall, precarious tower of champagne flutes stacked by the door. They

e was pale-too pale for a man who should have been in a hospital bed-and his eyes, which had once looked at her with warmth, were empty. There was no recogniti

e had to get away, off this boat, out of this nightmare. She burst onto the deck,

d with a practiced efficiency that was terrifying. Scarlett's pr

ruggling as they grabbed her a

oss her face, stinging her tear-filled eyes. A crackle came from a walkie-talkie on one of the me

f her. Thr

wind and her own tangled hair, she saw something that didn't make sense. One of the guards had lowered the walki

back was turned. He hadn't been watching at all. He was leaning

mind struggled to piece the fragments together-the empty hospital bed, Dr. Harrison's warning, the pale ghost of her husb

agged breath and scream

lett-I will haunt

er whole. In the last moments before the darkness took her, two contradictory truths burned in her mind: Julian had said he wanted her go

closed over her head an