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Chapter 12

For the next six months Annie waited patiently for her opportunity. The couple spent most weekends at the beach house and became regular members of the small community. Their weekday life could not have been more different however, with Annie in her usual competitive and driven mode. No one would have suspected that she was the same person living two separate lives, such was the contradiction. Everywhere she went in the city, Annie watched for the place where it would happen. She knew the subway steps were brutal at times but covered by CCTV, as were the exits from her apartment block. Her office at work had a security guard in the lobby so that was no good either. Nate’s office was different however. There were no cameras either at the front entrance or the rear exit to the car park. They were a couple, so she had good reason to be around, in fact she was a familiar face there. An idea began to form in her mind that it was probably the best place for it to happen.

As the winter drew nearer, Annie assumed her senior partnership at the firm and it came as no surprise that she fit right in. She had a new office and several assistants, including a junior partner working for her. Her more mundane cases passed down the food chain, while she concentrated on a smaller number of higher profile cases. Realising she would find it difficult to maintain a low profile if any of her cases attracted media attention, Annie decided that the time had come for the final stage of her plan.

The beach house was now closed up for the winter so she and Nate enjoyed a late dinner one Friday night just before Christmas. They went over the now well rehearsed plan with a fine tooth comb. Between her legal brain and his medical one, they had come up with a solution which would hopefully produce the result they both wanted. Annie was certain about her needs and wanted it to happen within the week. Nate’s office had a rear exit leading out to the alley where the car park was located. It was private property with only one other building there, but it had no windows facing the alley or security cameras on the exit. The rear exit of Nate’s office had a ramp leading down to the car park on the right hand side, but also a set of six stone steps on the left. This would be the site for the chosen ‘accident’.

Annie was nervous as she entered the reception area of Nate’s office. It was Friday evening the week before Christmas and she made her usual greeting to his secretary, Stella.

“Hi Annie, how are you?”

“Great thanks, looking forward to the holidays though.”

“Aren’t we all.”

“When time are you finishing on Christmas Eve?”

“Noon, thank goodness. What about you?”

“We close up the day before, so I’m planning to get Nate to my folks house for Christmas dinner, I’m a lousy cook.”

They shared a laugh and bid each other farewell as Stella left for the weekend. Annie went to Nate’s office door and knocked as was her habit, just in case he was with a client or on the phone, but he was occupied with neither and he opened the door for her to enter.

Annie realised these were about to be the last steps she would take and tried to take in what it felt like to be tall and on her feet, in case she couldn’t remember afterwards. A momentary flash of panic filled her with apprehension for a brief second, but it faded as she thought of the life they would lead afterwards. The life that they had been living on the weekends for the past year had been bliss, despite the physical restraint and Annie knew she had to go through with the plan or there would come a point where she would self-destruct.

They shared a coffee, both chatting nervously but not about what was to happen next, they both knew how it was going to take place. They shared a kiss and Annie caressed Nate’s face with her fingers, drinking in the sensation of his touch on her hands, knowing that she would not be able to do that from today onwards. They hugged tightly, looked each other in the eye knowingly and stood. Nate started packing his briefcase as Annie went to the exit door and walked outside. Nate’s heart rate quickened as he knew what was about to occur, restraining himself from running outside to prevent her from doing what she wanted. He prayed that she would not be badly hurt, worrying that it could go wrong if she deviated from the plan in any small way.

The seconds ticked by silently, each seeming to last an age until he heard her. The yelp of shock and thud as he knew she had landed at the bottom of the six steps. Immediately, he ran out the door to find her lying awkwardly at the bottom on the concrete.

The next minutes were a blur to both of them. He talked quietly to her and the pain she had felt on landing started to fade everywhere except her head. She hadn’t moved from her position, lying twisted with her head and torso at the bottom and her legs lying across the last two steps. She had the metallic taste of blood in her mouth. Looking up at Nate’s face, he was right there in front of her, but she wasn’t listening to the words, only the soothing tone of his voice and she began to fade out. The last thing she saw was one of her stilettos lying on its side halfway down the steps.

Annie woke with a blinding pain in her head. When she tried to rub her temple as she normally did when she had a headache, she realised she couldn’t move and panicked. Voices were all around her as she screamed out reassuring her and pleading for her to lie still. She had no idea where she was or who the voices were to begin with and then she heard the familiar deep tone of Nate beside her. He spoke soothingly in her left ear and asked her to relax, reassuring her that everything was going to be okay and she calmed down.

It was the following day before Annie woke again. She still couldn’t move at all and could feel the stiff collar around her neck as well as the pain in the side of her head. Her bottom lip was swollen and she started to worry it with her tongue, probing the sore spot to find how bad it was. Realising she couldn’t move or see anyone, she tried to speak but no sound came from her mouth. Instantly Nate was in her vision explaining that she couldn’t speak because there was a tube in her neck helping her to breathe. She tried to look down but couldn’t see beyond the end of her nose. She heard the noise of the ventilator however, now that her attention had been drawn towards it.

“You can’t speak properly but you can mouth words,” Nate explained. “How do you feel?”

“Strange,” she mouthed back. “Can’t move.”

“I know honey, do you remember what happened?”

“No,” she mouthed back. “Tired.”

With that she drifted out of consciousness.

Three weeks later Annie was still in the same hospital bed, still completely immobile. The medics were trying to wean her from the vent a little at a time. Annie was ready to try breathing on her own, with everyone else doing the opposite and holding their breath. “Ready?”

“Yes,” Annie mouthed back.

“Here we go.”

Annie didn’t feel any different but instantly tried to suck in a breath on her own. She managed four breaths before she heard a nurse say her sats were dropping a little. The vent tube was reattached quickly and once again breathing for her.

She heard her mother ask when they could try again and Nate was soon congratulating her for being able to do it on her own. The doctor seemed pleased and said they could try it again in an hour before leaving them alone again. Annie smiled at the faces around her. “Did I do good?” she mouthed.

There had been a steady stream of visitors during the last two weeks, including her work colleagues, friends and of course, her family. The questions had been about how she was feeling initially to how it had happened and now to when was she going to recover. An accident report had been filed and medical reports gathered, all with the same conclusion, she hadn’t broken her neck, but the indications were that she had bruised her spinal cord and she was in spinal shock. She also had a broken rib, a fractured right wrist and a number of cuts and bruises.

Nate had given a statement, but he hadn’t seen her fall, just heard the scream as she tripped on the steps. He explained how he found her lying awkwardly at the bottom, unmoving, with blood coming from her mouth and chin. When he spoke to her, she couldn’t move, so he called the paramedics and held her head still until they arrived.

Annie had told them, by mouthing the words, that she had simply caught her heel on the top step and couldn’t remember anything else until she woke up in the hospital. She was confused because she couldn’t move anything at all and her body was numb. The doctors had performed X-rays and a scan of her neck and though there was no fracture, it was obvious that she was suffering paralysis from her neck down. Her breathing had not been completely compromised, but she was not able to breathe properly so they had performed a surgery to insert a tube in her throat. The doctors were hopeful that her breathing would recover and it could be removed and the hole sewn up leaving just a small scar. They were less sure about her long term prognosis. They talked about spinal shock wearing off, but not being able to say definitively if the paralysis would diminish or remain. They spoke about partial recovery being likely but not guaranteed and they made noises about lengthy rehabilitation in a specialist facility. All this was supposed to be a shock to Annie, but she remained calm and positive that she would recover throughout the first weeks.

Nate sat beside her one night and they spoke about where she would choose for rehabilitation, with the excellent benefits her job provided, she had her pick of anywhere on offer. She thought about it for a while and decided the closest centre was the best choice as Nate could visit often. They decided on Mount Sinai hospital and she would be transferred there as soon as she could be moved. As they continued to speak, Annie felt her eyelids getting heavier and closing. Nate’s soothing voice remained in her ears and she drifted off.

Two weeks later, Annie was moved to Mount Sinai to begin rehabilitation. She was off the vent but the trache tube stayed for the time being just in case. She had regained sensation in her neck and shoulders, but she still had no movement as yet. The hard collar was still in place until they could be sure that there was no further risk to her neck. More scans and tests were performed when she was checked into the rehab unit, all reaching the same conclusion, no damage to the bones in her neck but nerve damage to the cord. No one was using the ‘Q’ word yet, but Annie wondered how long it would be before they did.