na

ght mask of professional cheerfulness th

us fill the room with these for y

ying scent clogging my throat, making

forgotten my

a detail; it

ved his wife, a man who filled her hospital room with flow

side, holding a vase of lilies-another

a shadow of a bru

voice tentative, as if testin

ained locked on the vase of

of cold energ

tering, sending a spray of water a

spered, the word

g the part of the caring husband, pi

let's ju

is skin. His eyes instinctively flickered to

away, staring a

ping a tissue around his bleeding finger. "In a hit, you protect the most vul

te chocolates, a peace offering.

loor, mixing with the broke

d, get

cerned husband vanished, and the r

ed, his eyes ha

s paying for this room? Who paid for every

threat hanging in

ing slightly, poi

rd second. Then he turned and storm

he silent room, and f

grief and a sheer, so