THE GREAT BETRAYAL Read Online Free

around for an ambulance, but now they had to tackle the heart of rush-hour traffic.
    Holding her husband in her arms, Leslie gave Ingrid frantic directions from the backseat to avoid the main roads. Jeff had lapsed into an eerie quiet, clutching his head at the temples as if to shield against every bump in the road.
    “ Can you see anything now, honey?” asked Ingrid as she navigated traffic. “Anything at all?” She shot a quick glance at the rearview mirror. “Any bit of light?”
    There was no response.
    Leslie started crying. “Oh, my God!” She quickly kissed Jeff’s forehead. “Honey, can you hear us? Please say something, okay? Say anything.”
    Slowly, his hand rose—but he did not speak.
    “ Jeff?” She lifted his head, looking his face over. “Honey? Jesus—can you talk? Say something. Let us know you can speak.”
    “ Head hurts…” he managed. Opening his eyes, he looked about blankly, without focus. “Still can’t see…just dark…”
    Frightened and weeping, Leslie kept kissing Jeffrey’s forehead, clutching him very close until they finally pulled up to the entrance of the emergency room.
     
    • 
     
    Once inside, the triage nurse immediately had Jeff carted off on a gurney. She asked the three frightened women to have a seat out front in the semicrowded waiting room.
    Shortly thereafter, a security guard stepped through the sliding doors. “Excuse me, madam? You can’t leave your car out here in the entrance like this. You’ll have to park it.”
    Ingrid rose, turning to Beth and Leslie. “If someone comes out, hold them here until I get back!” Then she rushed through the doors, the guard quick on her heels.
    Leslie looked at Beth, their eyes locking in fear. They embraced each other.
    This was not good.
    They could feel it.
     
    • 
     
    “ He needs a cerebral MRI—stat!”
    He heard the flurry of activity around him, but by now Jeffrey Phillips had lost the ability to speak.
    As they wheeled him down the hall, all he could think of was his wife.
    Leslie. That luxuriant main of auburn hair that fell just below her breasts. Those beautiful green eyes. The soft features of her lovely oval face. Her distended tummy…heavy with the child they had conceived in their love. Heavy with Grace.
    Would he be able to see his baby when she was born? Would this damned blindness be permanent?
    Just then a sharp pain ricocheted through Jeffrey’s head—a pain stronger than any he had ever felt in his entire life.
    He could no longer think about Grace.
    He could no longer think about anything.
     
    • 
     
    Out in the waiting room, where they sat filling out insurance forms, Leslie’s apprehension grew. Her prayers were fast and urgent as the tears flowed.
    Dear God, she thought, clutching her tummy, it can’t be good that he lost his sight. Oh, God…It just can’t be good…
    “There, there,” Beth soothed. “Let’s not jump to the worst conclusions.”
    Leslie flinched. She was unaware she’d spoken aloud.
    “ No…it doesn’t look good at all right now,” Beth continued, clinging to her mother’s hand. “But it has to be a temporary thing from the fall he took. He passed out, for Pete’s sake!”
    Overwhelmed by fear, Ingrid began to weep. “I knew we should’ve brought him here yesterday—immediately after it happened and he passed out! He just didn’t look well. But Jeffrey’s so damned stubborn—he refused to listen!”
    They lapsed into a sniffling, tear-filled silence, losing all sense of time.
    They waited.
     
    • 
     
    “ Ms. Phillips?”
    All three heads snapped to attention, and they rose to their feet.
    Just how long had they been sitting there?
    It was a stout, balding man in a long white coat. “I’m Dr. Saul Benedict,” he said. He was not smiling.
    “ I’m Mrs. Phillips,” said Leslie, shaking his hand. “I’m Jeffrey Phillips’s wife. This is his mom and sister. Is he going to be all right? Has his sight returned?”
    The doctor’s gaze