Chapter 66: Won’t work
Chapter 66: Won’t work
Audrey woke up screaming. The sound ripped through the room before she could stop it. Her fingers clawed at the bedsheets as her body couldn’t hold it anymore. The pain wasn’t a sharp stab. It was deeper. Like something inside her had gone silent while the rest of her screamed.
Yvonne was already at her side. “Audrey!” she said, gripping her arm. “What’s wrong? Talk to me.”
“I can’t…” Audrey gasped, trying to sit up, failed, and fell back against the pillows. Her breath came fast. Her voice broke. “I can’t feel my leg. I feel numb. I am in pain…”
Tennessee appeared at the other side of the bed, his face pale in a way no one had ever really seen before. “What do you mean you can’t feel it?”
“My left leg,” Audrey whispered, panic swallowing her. “It’s not… it’s not moving.”
She tried again, staring at it as if her will alone could wake it. Her right foot shifted slightly in response to her command. Her left didn’t.
“Call the doctor,” Tennessee snapped, already pulling his phone out as Yvonne reached for hers too. “Now…please hurry up.”
By the time the doctors arrived, Audrey was crying openly. Not soft tears. Not quiet sobs. She cried like someone whose body had turned against her. Her hands shook violently as she grabbed Yvonne’s sleeve.
“Something’s wrong with me,” she said. “I feel it. It’s wrong.” Audrey’s heart was beating. She had seen something like this in the agency. She knew how it turned out.
Medical bags opened. Gloves snapped on. The room got filled with a quiet kind of urgency.
“Mrs. Whitmore,” one of the doctors said gently, approaching her bedside. “I’m going to ask you a few questions, okay?”
She nodded, wiping her eyes quickly.
“Can you lift your right leg?” the doctor asked.
Audrey tried. Her right leg lifted slightly off the mattress.
“Good,” the doctor said softly. “Now your left.”
She tried, nothing happened. Her face crumpled.
Another doctor moved closer, his hands careful as he began a physical examination. He didn’t rush. He pressed lightly along her leg, watching her face. “Tell me when you feel this.”
Audrey shook her head. “I don’t… I don’t feel anything.”
He adjusted his touch, checking different points, gently using the back of his fingers. “How about now?”
“Nothing,” she said, voice cracking.
He exchanged a look with the other medical staff. The doctors checked her reflexes gently, tapping just below the knee, watching for any response. The right side reacted faintly. The left stayed still.
Yvonne covered her mouth, her eyes filling with tears. Tennessee’s hands curled into fists. He was suddenly sweating.
Another nurse checked Audrey’s pulse, her blood pressure, her temperature. Everything else was stable. Like her body was fine, except for the one part that mattered most to her right now.
“Mrs. Whitmore,” the lead doctor said gently, stepping back so she could see his face. “We’re noticing that your left leg isn’t responding to nerve stimulation the way it should.”
Audrey stared at him. “What are you saying?”
“We’re saying…” He chose his words carefully. “There appears to be a neurological disruption. The signals from your brain aren’t properly reaching your left leg.”
Yvonne whispered, shakily, “Is it temporary?”
The doctor paused.
Tennessee asked sharply, “Don’t sugarcoat it. Is it permanent?”
The room went silent.
“We won’t know for sure until further testing,” the doctor said, honestly. “But based on what we’re seeing right now… there is a strong possibility she may not regain full function of the left leg.”
Audrey’s breath left her lungs in a broken sound.
“What?” she said. “No… no, no, no… you’re wrong. I walked yesterday. I was limping but I could feel my legs…”
“I know,” the doctor said gently. “And that’s why this is very serious.”
The maid stood frozen near the door. She’d been trying to make herself invisible since the doctors came in. Her hands shook. Her chest felt too tight. Her eyes wouldn’t stay still. She couldn’t stop seeing the tray. Couldn’t stop hearing Gwen’s voice in her head.
Tennessee noticed her. He turned slowly. “Why are you shaking?”
She flinched at his voice. “I’m just… scared,” she whispered. “I feel bad for her…”
Yvonne moved closer to Audrey, pulling her into her arms as Audrey finally broke.
She cried out loud. Not pretty tears. Not calm ones. These were the tears of grief. The tears of fear. The tears of a woman who felt her life changing in real time.
“I can’t be like this,” Audrey sobbed. “I can’t… I can’t be...I can’t afford not to walk, my life will be ruined.”
Yvonne stroked her hair. “You’re not ruined.”
“It doesn’t work,” Audrey cried louder. “My leg doesn’t work!”
The doctors quietly packed their equipment as Tennessee walked them toward the door.
In the hallway, their voices dropped.
“We’ll arrange neurological imaging immediately,” one of them said. “She needs full scans, bloodwork, and monitoring.”
“Is there any chance this was induced?” Tennessee asked, his voice low and dangerous.
The doctor hesitated. “We’re not ruling anything out.”
Tennessee nodded once. “Do what you have to do.”
He walked back into the room slowly. The sound of Audrey’s crying hit him harder than anything had in years.
Yvonne held her. Audrey clutched her dress. The maid stood frozen in the corner, silent and shaking. Audrey’s cries filled the air, loud, broken, unstoppable.
“My life is ruined…” Audrey kept crying.