I was discharged from the hospital a full day earlier than planned. The nurse smiled warmly as she handed me the papers.

“You’re healing faster than expected, Mr. Hayes,” she said softly.

I forced a polite smile, though my chest still ached from the procedure. Three nights surrounded by the steady beeping of machines, fluorescent lights that never dimmed and silence where Claire’s voice should’ve been. She never came. She’d said hospitals made her anxious, that she couldn’t stand the smell of disinfectant. I’d believed her. Or maybe I just wanted to.