Dear Diary,
I can’t help but wonder as I lie on my uncomfortable prison bed, smelling of body odor and sweat, whether I would have done anything differently if I’d known I’d be caught and tried. Would I have done it at all?
I might have quit sooner or gotten better at covering my tracks… I’ll never know because I was outsmarted by a cop and betrayed by my sister—between the two of them, my choices were taken away.
I lie here and think about all the lives I have saved. I helped the lame walk again; I helped blind people see. I breathed new life into people who were facing certain death and I couldn’t have done any of it without the sacrifice of the dead.
But in the end, I was the sacrifice. I gave my life, my freedom, my everything and I did it all for them.
Or did I…?
* * *
Sam wasn’t at work when the police attended the Glebe Morgue to arrest Richard Davis. She was sitting beside her mother’s hospital bed in the ICU, waiting for her to wake up. A television near the nurses’ station was on low and she looked up at the screen in time to see her boss being led away by the police. A suit jacket tossed over his face concealed his expression, but reflected light from the news cameramen glinted off shiny, metal handcuffs. Sam stifled a gasp of shock, even though the scene didn’t come as a surprise. The argument she’d partially witnessed between her brother and her boss had made it all too clear.
She shook her head, overwhelmed by the tragedy of it. Two brilliant men, kind and compassionate, had succumbed to the dark side and she wasn’t even sure what had motivated them. No doubt it would be revealed in time as the whole sordid mess played out in the courts and in the media. She shuddered at the thought. Catching a movement out of the corner of her eye, she saw Rohan walking toward her. She offered him a weak smile.
“How is she?” he asked quietly, coming to a halt beside her mother’s bed.
Sam lifted her shoulder in a half-shrug. “The doctors are happy with how it all went. Now it’s a waiting game. They’ll keep her in the ICU for the next several days until they know the kidney’s going to take. Rejection’s more likely to happen during that time. She’s taking a cocktail of immunosuppression drugs to aid in her body’s acceptance, but of course, there’s no guarantee.”
Rohan nodded and his attention turned to Sam. “How are you?”
The concern and compassion in his eyes was enough to undo her. Tears welled up and she stifled a sob, but the stress and anxiety of the past few days had finally caught up. Another sob escaped, followed quickly by more. Tenderly, Rohan drew her into his arms and she leaned into him, grateful for his support and the comfort only he could give.
He stroked her back and held her close and whispered soft, soothing words against her hair. She cried quietly against his shirt. A long while later, she lifted her head and gave him a shaky smile.
“I got your shirt wet.” She hiccupped and drew a deep breath.
“I have plenty of others.”
She tightened her arms about his waist and once again rested her head against his chest. His heart beat slow and steady and strong beneath her ear and made her feel safe and secure and loved. She never wanted to leave. As if he could read her mind, Rohan loosened his arms and tilted her chin up with his fingers. His head came down and his lips found hers. The sweetness of his kiss brought forth another rush of tears.
“I love you, Samantha Wolfe.”
She stared up at him. “I love you, too, Rohan Coleridge.”
He kissed her again and Sam responded with all the love in her heart. It was a kiss filled with gentleness, kindness and compassion. It acknowledged wrongs and it offered forgiveness and it promised a bright new start.