Fated to love you.

ing room

Amara Ikenna barely noticed. Her hands were clutched tight in her lap, fingers digging into each ot

that happened to the old, the weary, the ready. Not something that arriv

nurse's voice was

than usual. Her legs ached from s

ice, the clock ticked l

like he usually did. Instead, he stood in front of it, ha

w it was bad-worse

four," he

rds. Tha

Just three words that dropped int

ge

can

o

the persistent cough turned into bloody sputum. She'd joked about it to her room

was real.

" she asked, her voi

... perhaps a year. Without i

lurred. Her

? Six

imental treatments... but they're expensive. We can r

money," she

trembled. "Thank you, doctor.

she stepped back and walked out b

Lagos m

d a man on the shoulder and was waved off. The world didn't care

ket stalls, past the church where someone

whispered to herse

ugh of that during the scans and tests over the

to her cramped flat in Suru

n a part-time job at a school. Her younger brother was preparing

ould

and quietly seek treatment. If it work

ld have done eve

makeup to hide her exhaustion, and slipped into her best outfit-a secondhand blu

ear's internship at a media firm, and a few freelance gigs. She had dream

matter when you ha

classifieds as "possibly hiring." It was upscale-glass windows, marble floors, and soft jaz

the manager when she collided-hard-into

'm so

traight down his crisp white

widened i

d-I'm so

own slowly, then

rp. Cold. But str

id calmly.

in, trembling. "Please

t tou

t was control. Precision. The way his voic

ll across

s gasped, rushing forward. "Sir

naire? The man who owned OrionTech? T

offee on Nigeria's mo

en turned to the barista. "Get my car

ff froz

mara. "I want her

d out, shirt drench

the spot, napkin in

hell just