# Chapter 54: Two Minutes Between Death and Dawn
Hello everyone, it's me again! How are you all doing? Today I will continue to walk with you and review Chapter 54 of "Forget You Saw Her free digital audiobook". This is one of those chapters that leaves you sitting in silence after you finish it, because it is not just about survival—it is about what love looks like when it refuses to let go, even after the heart stops.
The chapter begins with Sabina telling us something almost impossible to absorb: she was clinically dead for two minutes. The doctors called it a miracle. Dennis stabbed her nine times with a jagged bottle, and one blow missed the major artery in her neck by only two centimeters. She lost so much blood. In the ambulance, she cried without sound, her throat bruised and damaged from the cord Dennis had pulled across it. One EMT gave her Lorazepam for shock while they rushed her toward surgery at Ogden Regional Medical Center. But Sabina was not trying to hold on to the living world in those moments. She was trying to memorize every detail of the two minutes she had with her daughter.
When she wakes in the hospital, Joel is squeezing her hand. She sobs, and Joel cries with her. The doctor and nurse exchange looks, probably wondering if she needs another dose of medication, but it is not the drugs. It is Andrea. Sabina keeps thinking of her baby's face, her big green eyes, and wondering whether the quilt-wrapped feeling beside her is real or only a side effect. Deep down, she knows. It is her. Andrea had promised, “I’ll still be there. You’ll feel it. I love you.”
Rita is the one who called the police and brought the EMTs to the courtyard. She swears Sabina shouted, “Call the police now.” But Sabina knows she did not speak those words. None of the women interviewed at the apartment complex heard them either. There were no witnesses to Dennis raising the jagged glass again and again while Sabina lay bleeding on the pavement. It is a haunting detail—a voice that saved her life, yet could not have come from her damaged throat. The implication is gentle but unmistakable: Andrea was there.
Sabina cannot talk yet. Her throat is swollen and bruised, and she had to be intubated. She communicates through a laptop Joel places on the rolling table. Eight hours after the attack, she types her statement for Detective Barker. The words are stark: Did you catch Dennis Beaumont, he did this to me, he killed Andrea and Isabel, they need to do an autopsy, Andrea’s body is buried under the cement slab of the house Dennis built on the other side of the woods. Detective Barker is stunned. Then he types back the news that changes everything: Dennis is dead. Car crash.
Dennis. Was. Dead.
Part of Sabina rejoices, because he can never hurt anyone again. Another part of her is outraged, because he will never stand trial for what he did to Andrea, to Isabel, to her. Then Barker tells her Bunny is in custody, and they are searching the house. He asks where she got the information about the cement slab. Sabina closes her eyes. She is not ready to tell Joel the whole story, so she certainly cannot tell the detective that she saw her daughter while her heart was stopped. Finally, she types: He told me. You’ll find the other butterfly earring there, with her. I want them both back when you can give them to me.
The quilt-wrapped feeling tightens around her, and some of the pain dulls. Detective Barker gives her a skeptical look, but then he types something he probably should not share: the Palphreymans have agreed to allow the autopsy. His kindness makes Sabina cry again, because she can tell he believes her. There is evidence now. A trail to follow. Andrea’s body will be found. Isabel’s death will be understood. Rita will speak to the police. The scales of justice are finally tipping. Sabina will go home with Joel, and in a way she cannot fully explain, she will go home with her daughter too. She will carry Andrea with her along the beach in Neskowin after storms, searching for sea glass and sand dollars. For now, that will be enough. She will live, breathe, and one day find her again.
Then the story shifts into the Epilogue, and we see everything through Andrea’s eyes.
Andrea tells us that Bunny did not fight the court request allowing Sabina and Joel to bring her body to Neskowin for burial. Still, Andrea wonders about Bunny. Had she ever cared for her like a daughter? How much did she know about what Dennis did to Andrea and Isabel? Did she think of Andrea in prison, or did she still whisper “Little bitch” while crying for her dead, disgusting husband? Andrea remembers being held by Bunny all night while she cried, Bunny whispering, “You’re ours now.” But she also remembers those same words spoken through clenched teeth when Andrea was eighteen months old and threw a tantrum before church: “You’re ours now. Get used to it.”
Sabina and Joel buy a plot in a lush, shady cemetery near their house. The police have not released Andrea’s body yet because excavating it from the cement is arduous. But soon, they say. It does not matter. Andrea already knows that except for the funeral, Joel and Sabina will not spend much time at the cemetery—not after what Sabina told Joel she saw the night Dennis nearly killed her.
Andrea watches Joel’s eyes as Sabina tells him about the two precious minutes they spent together before the EMTs restarted her heart. She tells him how she felt Andrea’s presence long before that, even though she could not see her. How Andrea told her where to find her body. Andrea expects Joel to stare in disbelief, to raise an eyebrow at least. Instead, his eyes fill with tears. He shakes his head and chokes out, “I’ve felt her too, ever since I got to the hospital in Ogden. I thought it sounded crazy, I didn’t even know her, but…” He lets the tears fall. Andrea wishes more than ever that he had been her dad. She knows he would have loved her the way he loves Sabina. He would have driven to her house, brought her lunch, let her paint her room any color, told her he loved her eyes because they looked just like Sabina’s. But knowing he believes Sabina—and knowing he can sense Andrea nearby—will have to be enough for now.
Isabel and Andrea have perfected the “Time travel game,” drifting deeper through memories each time they meet. They know each other better than anyone now. Isabel once said, “We see as we’re seen,” and Andrea did not ask what it meant because it was too beautiful. Isabel’s family holds her funeral the week after her autopsy, a small private ceremony. In the spaces behind the pews stand some of the pioneer women next to Isabel. They have been sharing memories too, and one of them—the elderly woman in the black dress—was Isabel’s fourth great aunt who crossed the plains from Illinois to Utah. Most of those old pioneers have long since moved beyond the living world and into the depths of their memories and loved ones. A small group has stayed, though. There are still secrets to tell, stories that have not been shared among the living. They intend to stay until that happens. In the meantime, they have perfected the art of the haunt.
Isabel sometimes talks about nearly getting lost in her own memories, like walking through a house of endless doors and hallways. Not scary—full of possibilities, discovery, and knowing. She is meeting family members she never knew, learning their lives, seeing their memories. They greet her like a long-lost friend. But she also says that when she wades deep enough into a memory with another dead person, she can feel her connection to the living world closing. And maybe that is all right with her. There are endless worlds to explore.
But Andrea is not ready to cross over yet. When Isabel shows her the memories of her funeral, Andrea is amazed. The last time she heard Mary Palphreyman’s voice, Mary was furious. Now she kneels beside Isabel’s grave, offering a tearful apology: “I love you. I’m so, so sorry I trusted him instead of believing you. I was wrong. I miss you so much. Please forgive me.” Isabel shows Andrea that memory, and Andrea knows those words mean more than the autopsy results. The autopsy uncovered five fractured ribs, trauma to Isabel’s cheek and upper lip, no proof of a drug overdose, and Dennis’s DNA. Her cause of death is officially changed from overdose to homicide—death by asphyxiation and blunt force trauma. It is the last thing Isabel needed before she can move on.
This morning, Sabina takes her first walk on the beach since coming home to Neskowin. One blow severed a tendon in her hip. Another sliced through her abdominal wall. It will be a long time before she can walk miles of coastline again. But today, Joel holds her hand, and Andrea loops her arm through the other as they set out for a short stroll to the surf and back. The wind whips Sabina’s auburn hair. The sun makes her squint across the horizon. Andrea imagines the feel of the sun on her face and the wind tangling her own hair with salt and spray. The feeling swells inside her like its own type of sunshine. From the way Sabina squeezes her eyes shut and draws in a shaky breath, a hint of a smile on her lips, Andrea hopes she can feel it too.
Then Isabel draws Andrea into the memory of the church pews. Andrea almost ignores the pull, hating to leave the moment, but something tells her not to. She is right. “I think today’s the day,” Isabel says gently. “My grandma and my great aunts—I just love them. I want to know them better.” She squeezes Andrea’s hand and looks at her mother, her sisters, her dad. “It’s not really goodbye. They’ll find me again.” Then she locks eyes with Andrea. “And you will, too. Okay?”
Andrea asks, “I’ll still be able to find you here, though, right?” Isabel shakes her head slowly. “Once I cross over, we won’t be able to talk like this anymore. It’ll pull you to the other side. But I’ll be there when you’re ready.” Andrea nods, already feeling grief sharpen inside her. She had never lost Isabel—not the way her parents had. Isabel had always been dead. Like her. “I’ll miss you,” Andrea whispers. “Think about me sometimes, okay?” Isabel grins, and her blonde hair turns short and vibrant blue. Her modest dress becomes a short red skirt and velvety pleated top. She pulls Andrea into a hug. “Always.”
The meeting room dissolves into ocean and sky and the sound of Joel’s and Sabina’s tentative footsteps on the sand. Andrea comes back to the moment with them, this half-life she intends to wrap herself around for now. Maybe for their whole lives, until the day they find each other again, face to face. She wishes her mother could see her beside her. She wishes her life had not ended so soon. She wishes she could feel the salty air fill her lungs. She wishes there were more memories to be made. But then she thinks of Isabel and her grandmother, her great aunts, the new worlds they are exploring and reliving together. The conversations they are having. The way they are seeing each other for the first time. Maybe there are still memories to be made after all. And maybe mourning is just waiting, while holding on to the ones we love in the only ways we can. For now.
## Reader’s Impressions & Star Rating
This chapter broke my heart and then carefully stitched it back together. The way Sabina’s survival is tied to Andrea’s presence is both devastating and beautiful. I loved that Joel believed her without needing proof, and that Andrea finally got a father figure in spirit, even if not in life. The Epilogue gave Isabel a tender farewell, and the image of Andrea walking beside Sabina and Joel on the beach is one I will not forget. The writing balances grief, justice, and hope with a ghostly touch that feels more like love than horror.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4.9 / 5 Stars
## Next Chapter Prediction
Since this chapter ends with the Epilogue and Isabel crossing over, the next chapter—if there is one—will likely be a bonus or extended epilogue. I predict we will see Bunny facing the consequences of her silence and complicity, while Sabina slowly heals and learns to live with Andrea’s presence. Joel and Sabina may return to the cemetery only once, but the real visits will happen on the beach, in the sea glass, in the storms. I also suspect Andrea will remain in her half-life for a while, watching over them, until her own crossing-over finally arrives. And when it does, it will not feel like an ending. It will feel like a reunion.
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