Two Months After Our Divorce, I Found My Ex-Wife Alone in a Hospital Hallway

The first thing I noticed was the hospital bracelet around her wrist.

The second was how thin that wrist had become.

I was halfway down the fourth-floor corridor of Mercy Lake Hospital when I stopped so suddenly that a nurse nearly walked into my back.

At first, I convinced myself I was mistaken.

The woman sitting beneath the window looked nothing like the person I had shared a bed with for five years.

Her shoulders disappeared inside an oversized hospital gown. Her dark hair, once long enough to fall halfway down her back, had been cut just below her ears. An IV line ran from her hand to a metal pole beside the chair.