Chapter 5

I had told myself that I was past caring. Dying men didn't pick fights.

But when I looked at the four broken pieces on the floor, something in me flared. I had given ground again and again, and each time he pushed harder.

I crossed the room and punched him.

He did not even try to move. He took the blow clean to the face and dropped straight to the floor.

At the same moment, a sharp cry cut in from the kitchen. "Stop!"

Winona burst through the doorway and kicked me aside. The pill bottle flew from my pocket and skidded across the floor.

Her heel came down on the surgical wound at my side. I couldn't get up. The pain pinned me in place.

The doctor had warned me that blood cancer patients didn't heal cleanly. The wound soaked through in seconds.

She stood over me, looking down with open disgust. "Jordan. I actually thought you had changed. I see now you were just playing along. I asked you to sign those documents. If you have a problem with me, take it up with me. There was no reason to hit Danny."

I forced the words out through the pain. "Daniel smashed the bracelet."

Winona blinked. Then her expression hardened into something dismissive. "It's just a bracelet. God knows which woman gave it to you. That doesn't make it okay to hit someone."

My eyes burned. "That was my mother's."

The room fell still. Winona turned to Daniel. He gave her a wounded look and said nothing.

She turned back to me without asking him a single question. "It can be repaired. I'll have someone look at it. You're a grown man. You don't assault someone over a piece of jewelry, especially not someone who's done so much for you."

There it was again. Done so much for me. What exactly had he done?

Something snapped.

"What has he ever done for me?" I demanded.

Winona's voice turned flat and cold. "He volunteered to give blood after your accident. That's not enough for you?"

Grief crept into my voice before I could stop it. "He gave two teaspoons before you called it off. Was that because he had a cold and you were afraid his blood would make me sick, or because you couldn't stand watching him bleed for me?"

Her slap came fast and hard.

"Jordan! How dare you?! Everything I have ever done has been for you," she barked. "Danny is your blood match, yes. But that doesn't mean you run to him for every little thing. He isn't an object. He's a person."

She was heartbroken for Daniel. She had never once been heartbroken that I gave him a kidney.

I pressed a hand to my face and let out a quiet, hollow laugh. Then I knelt and gathered the broken pieces of the bracelet, one fragment at a time.

"Mom, I have nothing left," I said to no one.

In her final days, my mother had thanked Winona over and over. She had said she was glad someone was loving me in her place.

I wondered who that person was now.

Winona watched me, caught between alarm and uncertainty.

"Jordan. You still have me."

Then she watched me lose consciousness on the floor.

…

I woke up in the hospital again.

The doctor looked at me with quiet sympathy. "Mr. Wilford. Your condition has deteriorated further. You have three days at most."

Winona walked in just as he said that. "Three days?"

I kept my voice even. "Three days until I can check out."

She accepted that without question and set my painkillers on the table beside me. "Take your medication. I've already sent the bracelet out for repair. Danny shouldn't have taken it without asking, so I punished him. He's not allowed to talk to me for a full day."

She had not asked once what I was taking the pills for.

One day of silence was his punishment.

"Cheer up, Jordan. Guess what I have for you." She brought her hand out from behind her back and held out a wedding planning booklet. "I've decided we should get married. I don't want you overthinking things. The date is set for three days from now. From that day forward, I will never let you go through anything hard alone."

I kept my hands at my sides and did not take it. She did not press.

"Promise me one thing. Stop going head to head with Danny. You know why I look after him. Everything I do for him, I do for your health. For your future," she claimed.