Palme

The fire in my stomach was an inferno now, every n

a? Help you on your wellness journey? Some

etrayed me. I was choking, my airway closing up from the

er, his face a mask of alarm

," Kassie said, her voice laced with pity.

I gasped, the wor

the floor to Kassie' s calm, composed face. He saw an inc

a hand on his chest. "She does this for attention. Let'

rald' s face, not filled with concern for his wife of ten years, but

p, antiseptic smell of a hospital. Not Fitzgerald' s privat

"Anaphylactic shock. A few more minutes and we wouldn' t have

throat felt like it wa

voices. A doctor was spe

er the press would find out. He tried to prevent the paramedics from taking her to a public h

otect our privacy. Adella has these... dramatic episodes. She' s mentally unst

nal. "My fiancée is right. My wife is...

had already replaced me, not just in his bed, but in his future

head and vomited into the basin beside the bed. It felt like I was purging the last ten year

or a rising star. I' d hosted his parties, charmed his investors, defended his eccentricities. I had given up my own d

a carefully arranged mask of concern. "Adell

ered, my voice

to look away.

for me. He was a jailer. He was waiting for me to be well enough to be moved back to

baron, What' s-his-name. It' s a ridiculous affair, but Kassie is being honored for her animal advocacy. It' s important for her bra

rop to quell the gossip about his new

he ICU, Fitz," I s

ssively. "You sitting by his bed wo

knew. This was my only way out. If I was at a public event, s

I said. "

se of the host' s private collection of exotic animals, including several massive grizzly bears kept in a large, state-of-the-art en

ces. "That' s her... the first wife." "I hear she had a c

ould have been by my side, his arm securely around me, daring anyone to look at me the wrong way. Now, he was across the lawn, his arm around Kassi

d by panicked screams. One of the massive grizzlies, agitated by the noise and

d ran, a stampede of tuxedos and

terror. But he wasn' t running towards me. He was running with Kassie, his arm w

even gla

nkle twisting beneath me, and fell to the hard, cold ground. A searing pai

caught my temple, and the world exp

d, and for one heart-stopping moment, he turned and our eyes met across the terrified crowd. He

s. Fear. Indecision. And then... no

peared inside the lodge, pulling t

me there

shadow of the bear, rising up on its hind legs, its roar a deafening thunde