Chapter 2: The Woman by the Window
PART 2
Ivan followed Jessi in silence the whole drive down.
She didn't explain.
She didn't look at him.
When she parked in front of the same sun-bleached building he had watched her enter that morning, she simply got out and walked toward the door on the ground floor.
He followed.
She knocked twice, then used a key.
The smell hit him first — disinfectant, medication, something stale and closed-in.
A small television played in the corner with the volume too low to hear.
The curtains were drawn.
And in a narrow bed near the window sat an old woman.
She was thin.
Her white hair had been combed neatly to one side.
Her hands rested in her lap, fingers moving slowly against each other as if counting something only she could feel.
She looked up when they entered.
"Jessi." Her voice was soft and uncertain.
"You came back."
"I always come back, Ruth." Jessi crossed the room and took both her hands.
"I always do."
Ivan stood in the doorway unable to move.
"Who is that man?" the old woman asked, squinting toward him.
Jessi didn't answer right away.
Ivan looked around the room.
On the small dresser: the Donepezil.
The Memantine.
A handwritten note taped to the wall — *Turn off the gas.
Leave food prepared.*
His throat tightened.
"Jessi," he said quietly.
"Who is she?"
Jessi turned to face him.
Her eyes were dry, but something behind them looked exhausted in a way he had never noticed before.
"Her name is Ruth," she said.
"She was my mother's closest friend.
She has no one left."
Ivan felt the floor shift beneath him.
"How long?" he asked.
"Fourteen months."
Fourteen months.
While he had been sitting at his computer answering emails, his wife had been driving across the city every single day to care for a woman who had no one else.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Jessi looked at him for a long moment.
"Because I didn't think you'd notice either way."
The room went completely quiet.
And then Ruth looked up at Ivan with clear, calm eyes — and said something that made his chest cave in.
---
May you like
What Ruth said next stopped Ivan cold — and revealed a secret Jessi had been keeping for far longer than fourteen months.
Click the link below to read the full story.
