Tally came around to find a woman with dark hair and worried eyes crouched over her. She tried to sit up, but the woman placed her hand gently on her shoulder.

“No, chérie. Don’t try to get up. Did you hit your head when you fell?”

Tally touched the back of her head. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. What happened?”

“You fainted. I tried to catch you, but I wasn’t quick enough.”

Tally tried once again to sit up, and this time, the stranger helped her.

“I have to go. My fiancé needs me.”

“Let’s get you checked out first.”

“No, really,” Tally said, struggling to her feet. “I’m okay.”

“You don’t look okay. Come on. It will only take a minute.”

Tally weaved as she came to a full standing position. Reluctantly, she nodded, and leaning her weight on the woman, they walked to the nurses’ station. Behind the desk sat the nurse who’d been caring for Cash the night before. She probably worked the evening shift.

“It’s you,” Tally stupidly said. Jesus, maybe she had taken a blow to the head when she fainted.

“It’s me—I’m Marie,” the nurse said with a smile. “What’s happened to you?”

The kind stranger who’d found Tally briefly explained what had happened.

Marie made Tally sit down and carried out a few tests. After checking her blood pressure and taking her pulse, Marie passed her a glass of water. “When did you last eat something?”

“Last night.”

She nodded as though that explained everything. Digging around in her desk drawer, Marie produced a nutty bar. “Eat,” she said, handing it over. “And finish all that water.”

“I have to get back to Cash. He needs me.”

“He needs you to be well,” Marie said. “You’re no use to anyone if you get sick. Now eat. Then you can go.”

Tally crammed down the nut bar. It tasted like sawdust, but her stomach settled after she’d finished it.

“Come on,” Marie said. “It’s time for me to relieve Evelyn anyway. Let’s go and see how your man is doing.”

When Tally pushed the door to Cash’s hospital room open, Rachael jumped to her feet, her face holding so much worry that fresh guilt slammed into Tally.

“Where have you been? What happened?” Rachael said, smoothing dishevelled hair from Tally’s face.

“She fainted,” Marie explained. “It’s likely the stress and shock catching up with her. I’ve checked her over, and she’s fine, but she needs to eat.” She gave Tally a hard stare before she and Evelyn began to exchange notes.

Tally sank into the chair by Cash’s bed and resumed holding his hand.

“Fainted? Oh, Tally.”

“I’m all right.” Fresh realisation about Rupe washed over her. “I haven’t called Rupe.”

“I called him,” Rachael said. “Right after you called me. He should be here sometime tonight.”

“Oh, thank God,” Tally said. Somehow, Rupe would make everything all right.

He arrived a little after ten that evening, bringing with him a life force Tally desperately needed to recharge hers. She barrelled into his chest. Almost immediately, her strength returned, as though he had regenerated her depleted batteries.

“It’s okay, Tal,” he said, his arms strong and comforting around her. He kissed Rachael on the cheek. “How is he? Any change?”

Rachael shook her head. “No, but the swelling in his brain has stopped growing, which they seem pleased about, and the doctor is going to start withdrawing the coma medication at midnight.”

“And then what?”

Rachael shrugged. “We wait. And pray.”

Rupe switched his attention to Tally. “What the fuck happened, Tal?”

She met his gaze. Rupe’s face was pinched, and dark circles she’d never seen before gave his eyes a sunken look.

“He was crossing the road. The car came out of nowhere. It all happened so fast…”

“Have they found him? The driver?”

“Not that I know of. I don’t care about that, Rupe. Right now, I only care about Cash.”

“Of course. Sorry.”

“I’m glad you’re here,” she said, folding herself into his arms once more.

“For as long as you need me,” Rupe said, rubbing her back with soothing circles. “I expected Em to be here.”

Tally shook her head against his chest then pulled away. “I told her not to come. Or Pete. There’s nothing they can do, and it’s two more people for me to think about.”

Rupe gave her an understanding nod as silence descended over the hospital room, broken only by the noise of the ventilator and the scratch of Marie’s pen as she made notes every half an hour on Cash’s vital signs. At midnight, when the doctor removed the IV line administering the drugs that kept Cash sedated, Tally didn’t even dare to blink in case she missed a twitching eye, a muscle spasm, or the jerk of a finger. But as the hours passed and nothing changed, she began to lose hope.

“I need a minute,” she said, scrabbling out of the chair. She almost ran from the room, and when she burst through the hospital doors to the outside, she took huge gulps of air. A sudden dizzy spell hit her, and she shoved her head between her legs.

“Not again,” she muttered as wave after wave of nausea flooded her stomach, and she broke out into a cold sweat. Tally breathed slowly in and out, and after a minute, the sickly feeling disappeared. She stood upright.

“He’s going to pull through.”

Tally glanced over her shoulder. Rupe had joined her, his face more serious than she’d ever seen.

“You don’t know that,” she said.

“Yes, I do. Cash is the most stubborn fucker I know. In everything he does. Why should this be any different?” His gaze dropped to her hand, where she was twisting her engagement ring around her finger. “About time he made an honest woman of you. Do you think after finally plucking up the courage to propose, he’ll fuck it all up now?”

“This isn’t anything he has control of, Rupe. He can’t will himself out of this.” Her eyes flickered up to the sky, and she gazed at the stars, the same stars Cash had pointed out to her a few days before during a walk along the beach in the Maldives. Except here, they seemed dull and lifeless. The irony wasn’t lost on her.

“The car hit him so hard. I can’t get the sound of his head slamming against the windscreen out of my mind.” She rammed the heels of her hands into her eyes. “I keep hearing it. Over and over. The dull thud. The sound of his body as he was thrown from the bonnet and hit the ground.”

Rupe’s arms closed around her, and she sobbed into his chest. He let her cry it out, and only when she was spent did he pull a handkerchief out of his pocket and dab her face. She couldn’t help smiling.

“Only you would still use handkerchiefs in the twenty-first century.” She spotted the letters RFW in blue on the corner, and her smile widened. “And stitched with your initials no less.”

“It’s part of my charm. Although Cash would call it pretentious shit.”

She laughed, even though it didn’t feel right when Cash was lying unconscious in a hospital bed. “That sounds like him.”

Rupe put his arm around her shoulder and squeezed. “Ready to go back inside?”

She took a deep breath through her nose. “Yes. Let’s do this.”

* * *

The following morning, they removed the ventilator, and Cash began breathing on his own. The doctors assured them this was a good sign. Tally watched carefully for a hint that he was regaining consciousness, but as time passed, she began to realise this was going to be a longer process than she’d first thought. But Rupe was right: this was Cash, a strong and capable man who rarely let anything beat him. She had to hang on to the hope that this particular fight would be no different from his determination to win every tennis match he played.

The police visited again to tell them they had caught the hit-and-run driver. He was a young man, only twenty-two, and had been drinking in a local bar with his girlfriend when they’d had a row and he’d stormed off. After mowing Cash down, he’d driven out of Paris and set fire to the car to try to cover his tracks. But the police had the bar owner’s evidence showing the young man had been drinking for several hours. The police told her he was looking at significant jail time. Not that it mattered to Tally. It was immaterial how much time the guy spent in prison. None of it would take away what had happened to Cash and the living nightmare they all had to cope with.

Minutes turned into hours, and hours into days. Despite both Rachael and Rupe urging her to take regular breaks, Tally wouldn’t leave Cash for more than a few moments at a time, and only then to grab a bite to eat or to use the bathroom.

She developed a routine of sorts. Each morning, Rupe would fetch the paper, and Tally would look through it, pick out any interesting stories, and read them to Cash. Then she’d choose a novel by one of his favourite authors and read from it, at least four or five chapters at a time, before her throat would become dry and scratchy and she’d have to take a break. Then she’d simply hold his hand and pray.

Dawn broke on the sixth day. Rachael and Rupe were having a well-earned lie-in at the hotel, and Tally couldn’t stand the distance from Cash any longer. She needed his body next to hers. They had always used physical contact as a way to connect, and she craved that connection now more than ever.

Carefully lifting the tubes and wires, she managed to make a space for herself, and she crawled onto the bed, curling into his side. She rested her hand over his heart, gaining comfort from the gentle rise and fall of his chest. His beard had grown longer than he normally liked to wear it, and she made a mental note to ask Rupe to bring his trimmer from the hotel.

“Wake up, Cash,” she whispered, gently kissing his cheek. “Please, babe. I need you.”

He didn’t, but even so, being physically close to him comforted her, and gradually, she drifted off to sleep.

She awoke some time later, not sure whether it was of her own accord or from the gentle touch of Marie’s hand.

Marie smiled kindly, although her eyes held a reprimand. “You shouldn’t be up there with him, Tally. What if you moved in your sleep and pulled a tube out?”

“Please, Marie. I need to touch him.”

Marie nodded and patted her arm. “I know, honey. All right, but only while I’m in the room with you. If I have to leave, even for a moment, you get down. Deal?”

Tally nodded and curved back into Cash’s side. She was tired, so tired. She closed her eyes for a second, but when they snapped open the next time, it wasn’t Marie who had woken her—it was the slight rumble in Cash’s chest beneath her left ear. She half sat up, looking for signs of him regaining consciousness, and when his eyes flickered open, hope surged within her.

“Hi,” she said—stupidly inadequate but the first thing that came to mind.

“Hi.” His voice rasped, and a flicker of confusion crossed his face, but Tally didn’t care about any of that. He’d survived. Against all the odds, Cash had survived and come back to her.

“Marie, he’s awake,” she said, trying to stay calm for Cash’s sake, even though mounting excitement made her want to scream with delight—and relief. The tension she’d carried on her shoulders for days evaporated.

When Marie didn’t respond, Tally glanced over her shoulder. That’s odd. Marie’s chair lay empty. What had happened to her rule?

“Stay here, babe,” she said, loath to leave him but knowing she needed to get a doctor. She climbed down from the bed as carefully as she could. “I’ll get someone.”

“Wait.” Cash’s left hand snapped around her wrist, stronger than she’d expected, given what he’d been through. “What happened? Where am I?”

“You’re in Paris. You were hit by a car almost a week ago. You nearly didn’t make it.”

“Paris?” His brow furrowed in confusion. “What the fuck am I doing in Paris?”

She tried not to worry about what his apparent lack of memory might mean. She held up her left hand. “Proposing to me.”

His gaze raked her from head to foot, and given the disdainful look on his face, earlier hope was replaced with fear. Cold, terrifying fear. Something was very wrong.

“This is a joke, right? I mean, look at you. I like my women blond and tall. And thin,” he added, a sneer marring his handsome face.

Tally’s knees buckled. This couldn’t be happening. Pain sliced through her chest, and she clutched at her shirt. “But… but you proposed. We’re together. We’ve been together for seven months.”

Cash snorted. “Dream on, sweetness. As if I’d waste my time on someone like you.”

A cry ripped from her throat, and as her knees gave way, she fell to the floor.

“Tally!”

She awoke with a start, gasping for air. Her lungs were burning, and her chest heaved, breath coming in short, sharp bursts.

“Tally.” Marie’s face swam before her, and she tried to focus. Her head snapped around to Cash. His face was serene, eyes moving behind their lids. He must be dreaming. And so was I. Fuck, it was only a dream.

In her haste, she almost fell off the bed, bile burning her throat. It had seemed so real. The way he’d looked at her. The way he’d ridiculed her, hatred spilling from his eyes as he’d pointed out her deepest fears, spoken them aloud.

Except he hadn’t.

“I’m going to be sick,” she said.

Marie grabbed a surgical kidney tray and shoved under her chin. Her stomach rolled, and she retched, but nothing came up except yellow bile, which she spat into the tray. She shivered violently as Marie wiped the bile from her chin. Her abdomen stopped heaving, but she felt bruised inside. Her mouth tasted gritty, and she reached for a bottle of water. She swilled out her mouth and spat the excess into the tray.

“I’m sorry,” she said. Sweat poured off her, and her legs wobbled—for real this time.

Marie grabbed a chair and encouraged her to sit. “What happened? You were sleeping, then all of a sudden, you yelled ‘No’ at the top of your voice. You were thrashing about, and I was worried you’d pull out a tube. That’s why I was a little rough with you.”

“I dreamt he woke up. Oh, Marie.” She buried her face in the nurse’s shoulder, her body heaving with wracking sobs.

“Honey.” Marie held her, rocking her back and forth until she calmed.

“He’s not going to wake up, is he?”

The skin bunched around Marie’s eyes, and she gave Tally a pained stare. “The longer he remains unconscious, the less likely it is he’ll make a good recovery. But you more than anyone know miracles happen. Look at his mum. Maybe it’s in the genes. We know so little about how the brain operates. There are no hard-and-fast rules.”

Tally turned away, her gaze firmly on Cash. She desperately wanted him to wake up, but what if her dream was a prequel to a new world? What if, when Cash woke, he couldn’t even remember her?

The horror of that potential reality didn’t even bear thinking about.