a Stei

night air. I leaned against a cold concrete pillar, gasping for breath, my body trembling uncontrollably.

tdown. Had it been days since then? Hours? My sense of time was dissolving with my strength. W

surfaced in the chaos of my mind, a name I hadn't ut

ed Hugo, past my parents, past Isabell, until I found it. Ingrid Wilkinson. My estranged best friend. The one person who had seen throug

art hammering against my ribs. I

and clear, cut through the haze

ak. A sob chok

to me!" Her voice was laced with a frantic urgency

d, the word a ragg

lipped from my grasp, clattering onto the pavement

the feeling of soft fabric against my cheek. A famili

d tears, broke through the fog. "You

posed and fierce, was a mask of worry, her eyes red-rimmed. She wa

rasped, my

nto a fierce hug. It was a bone-crushing embrace that

you alive." I had brushed her off, accused her of jealousy, of not understanding my family. That argument had created the rift, a chasm between us that widened further when she refu

er. Desperately. There

them do this to you?" She pulled back, her hands cupping my face, her thumbs brushing a

finally tumbling out, a confession pour

d across her face before she could compose herself

fortune. Everything to Isabell." I told her about the vow renewal, about Hugo and Jaret

hed. When I finished, a terrifying stillness settled over her. Her eye

s allowed it? They pressured you to sign away everything?" Her hands balled into fists. "They are going to pay for th

haustion washing over me again. "Just let m

ot dying. I won't let you. We're going to a private oncology center. The best. Cutting-edge. If anyone can give you a second cha

ething I hadn't felt in weeks. Hope? Or

said, but the con

clared, her eyes blazing. "And it's never too l

as if I weighed nothing. My frail body was no match for her strengt

se of peace settling over me. I was leaving. Truly leaving. No longer a ghost haunting

ir new wealth, their perfect, compliant family unit. They would think I had simply vanish

as a fragile thing, built on lies and betrayal. And soon, very soon, it would shatte