throom hummed, casting a sterile, unforgi

anger' s-deathly pale, eyes wide with

embling, came up

as c

ing was

in my head, a crue

ieve she act

a kid

the Blackwood

ea... to teach the li

ntled my realit

ye

ife, built on a f

the beginning, to

ly making rent on my tiny apartment, d

cal market, his paintings full o

, too, that he understood t

as the

rst time,

ound not just a par

amily I' d

s who had found each

rishe

io-a studio that was just a prop, I now realized

," it felt like m

line, the doctor' s grave fa

play, and I was the

y I handed over to him with tears in my eyes, telling hi

e bottle of champagne for

fresh wave of nau

hing w

ory wa

ncer w

ve was

meeting

hat stag

faced, sharp

competition, a yea

on firs

ayes had

ackstage, her smile tight,

o a friend as I passed, "No o

o

issed it as the sour

like a declar

me, waiting for a ch

as her wil

ed cruelty of it al

't just

atic destruction of a per

feeling rose

just sadne

as r

age that burned

ht they ha

pathetic little orphan they

were

fingers still clumsy but n

fessor Davies, my old ment

holarship to a prestigious university abroad, a path

d on the s

ar

ything

as hoarse,

ssor D

opportunity... is

was a

his voice full of

ah, are

hou

pted, my resolve hard

nt to stay

t to

t to

ying, this sick cat-and

be their mo

p, I looked at

r the kidney h

directly to the fa

m I' d been saving for our

augh escap

a piece of my own body

a gri

ted way, that Liam ha

one small mercy in

bathroom and straight

e funds for the

bought a one-way

felt like a gasp of f

thousand d

a new life in a new cou

as m