His Heartbeat Came Six Years Too Late

A bitter sting rose in my throat, and I held the tears back.

The next second, Toby's phone rang.

And again I heard that heart of his, slamming hard.

"Daisy, listen to me. Don't you dare run off on your own again!"

"What do you mean I'm married, that you have to keep your distance?!"

"Daisy, tell me, where are you?!"

In the car, his voice turned colder and colder.

I caught the words "the Riverside Bridge."

I looked up. Ten seconds left on the light at the intersection.

Right turn to the hospital. Straight ahead to the Riverside Bridge.

I broke into his call.

"Toby, it's time to turn right for the hospital."

After the reminder, I said nothing more. I just sat quietly, waiting out the ten seconds.

【Nineteen … three, two, one.】

The red light ended. The green came on.

Toby hit the gas and drove straight for the Riverside Bridge.

I smiled, and the tears finally spilled over.

I picked up my phone and slowly typed out a message to my best friend.

【Celly, I want a divorce.】

【Help me draw up a divorce agreement.】

The whole way to the Riverside Bridge, Toby never hung up.

I listened to him patiently soothing Daisy.

Listened to him, slowly recounting the details of how they'd loved each other.

A twenty-minute drive, and he made it in ten.

The car stopped, and he rushed to throw the door open.

I caught the sleeve of his shirt and said, softly,

"Toby, do you love me?"

A flicker of impatience crossed his face.

"Addie, this isn't the time to be unreasonable."

"Daisy's about to jump!"

I held his eyes and said it again.

"Toby, did you ever love me?"

And then I listened, carefully, to his heart.

Steady. Not the slightest change.

The same as every single day of these six years.

The hand gripping his sleeve loosened, slowly.

I forced a smile to my lips and asked once more.

"Toby, do you love Daisy?"

A heart pounding like crashing waves, as if it would drown me.

I let go of his sleeve completely.

"Go!"

"Daisy's about to jump, and with her heart condition, it's dangerous."

His brow furrowed; he opened his mouth to say something more.

Then, from a distance, came a passerby's voice.

"Quick! Call the police!"

"Someone's going to jump!"

Toby threw the door open in a panic and ran, never once looking back.

I watched him go. After a minute, I opened the door and got out too.

I raised a hand for a cab, climbed in, and didn't linger a second.

"Driver, take me to the state hospital."

The driver pulled his gaze back from the Riverside Bridge, and the words came out thick with that New York accent.

"Heh, another lovers' spat!"

"That guy's not bad-looking, though. Ran right over and grabbed her."

"The two of them kissing like they couldn't bear to let go!"

He finished and started the car.

The Riverside Bridge fell away behind us.

My phone buzzed with the divorce agreement from my best friend.

I forwarded it to Toby, then powered off the phone.

……

Once Toby had pulled Daisy back from the edge, he carried her all the way to the car.

"Addie, I'm taking you to the hospital now—"

The words caught in his throat.

The passenger seat was empty. I was long gone.

He assumed I'd thrown a fit and gone to the hospital on my own.

Toby froze for a moment, then thought nothing of it.

He told Daisy to buckle up and had just started the car.

His phone rang.

He opened it and saw the message I'd sent.

He tapped it at once.

Only to find the divorce agreement.

His foot hit the brake before he knew it.

His face was grim. When it registered, he slammed the gas and raced for the state hospital.

But just before that intersection, a traffic officer flagged the car to a stop.

The officer who ran up looked frantic as he rapped on the window.

"There's a multi-car pileup ahead, a woman, early twenties, gone into cardiac arrest."

"I saw you've got an AED in your car. We're commandeering it."

He was already telling Toby to pop the trunk.

Then his radio crackled.

"Cardiac arrest victim identified. Local woman, twenty-eight, name's Adela Swanson."

The name Adela Swanson reached Toby's ears.

And the heart that had been steady for years suddenly surged like crashing waves.

Pounding harder, by some measure he couldn't begin to count, than it ever had for Daisy.