Chapter 1
"Abbey, I know what you did. And I'm just as guilty as you."
"What are you talking about, Millie?"
"The extra morphine. You injected the whole bottle didn't you? I gave it to you for additional pain relief, not to put him out of his suffering."
Abbey looked at her best friend. Millie always had been able to see right through her. And at a time she hoped she couldn't, Millie knew what Abbey had done.
They were sitting around the kitchen table at the farm, reliving the last few months. Talking like friends do. Millie wanted to know the truth, not the public story. It was a month after Jed's death and Abbey was still having trouble coming to terms with what she had done.
"Yes, Millie. I gave him what I thought was needed to end his suffering. You don't know how much I was hurting. Jed and I had always been so in tune with each other. And I was suffering along with him. Every time he stifled a cry of pain, every time he closed his eyes I wondered if this was the last time. My brain knew what his wishes were, but my heart overruled it. I was suffering so much I had to do something that my brain was telling me was wrong and let my heart dictate my actions."
"Do you have any regrets? Remember this is me you're talking to. Don't lie, Abbey. I saw the anguish you were going though, but was the cost higher than you really wanted to pay?"
Abbey didn't respond. She was too busy thinking about her actions that last night. How, as a physician, sworn to save lives, she had basically taken one. But just not anyone, certainly not a stranger. But the life of her husband, her lover, her best friend.
But her rationale was to save him pain. She could rationalize that it was for Jed's sake. But at the moment she injected that fatal dose she was doing it for her, not for him.
"What did you say, Millie?"
"I said, do you have any regrets?"
"I can't say. I just don't know right now. My mind is still such a jumble of emotions and thoughts."
"Well, if anyone ever found out, I would lose my license and you could be arrested for murder. Whether you want to call it that, you still intentionally took a life. And to an outsider, it could even look premeditated."
"Nobody will ever find out."
At that point, both women had no clue that someone was overhearing them. Someone who would start a whirlwind. A whirlwind that would spin out of control.