k after the soft darkness of the night. I leaned against the wall, try

Sarah Chen stood there, arms crossed, her

er voice sharp. She didn't need to ask where

I rasped,

lm cracking. She stepped closer, her eyes scanning my face, taking in the pale s

r, the exhaustion t

g into something that looked a lot like pi

sence on my back. My room was small, clean, and sm

vements efficient and practiced,

said, the words feeling like

e was doing. She didn

ied, and Olivia had just vanished. Sarah was my oncologist, brilliant and no-non

She wouldn't just leave me. S

een too much of the world to believe in fairy tales. "Ethan," she' d said, her tone clini

For weeks, every time I mentioned Olivia, I saw that flicker of judgmen

y, my voice weak from the first r

plied, not unkindly, but with

h later, Oli

h found her there, arguing with a clerk. She looked exhausted, with dark circles under

ying my me

e looked like she hadn't slept in a week," she said. "She just kept saying

money. Gig money. Money earned the hard way, an hour at a time. Oliv

y a grudging respect. "Alright," she'd said to me, a small, tight smile o

ne day, Sarah came into my room with a file

to you about O

drug. The payout was substantial, but the side effects were dangerous. Olivia had signe

but Sarah saw the track marks on her arm from the blood draws

told her, her voice ringing with an authority Oli

ime in weeks, broke my heart. She was so thin. But when she saw me, her fac

alk about where she'd been or what she'd

the last

en driving her beat-up car, probably exhausted, and crashed. The amnesia story starte

Sarah finished taking my blood press

softly. "She was a good person, Ethan. She

e unwavering. "You

the cruelest part of all. I was t