Chapter 4

Vanessa and I stopped speaking altogether.

For the next two weeks, I never returned home and slept at the hospital instead.

Because the transplant had been delayed, Sophie's leukemia became harder to control.

She had grown skeletal, with her cheekbones hollow beneath her skin.

"Julian, am I going to die?"

She lay in bed speaking in a faint, defeated voice.

Sophie wasn't naive.

"Did the donor withdraw?

"Maybe we should stop treatment. Everything hurts."

My eyes burned as I held her hand.

"Don't say that. You're going to get better. Trust me."

After she fell asleep, I went to the transplant physician's office.

"Dr. Marsh, you said another person might be compatible. Can the registry contact them again? Sophie can't wait."

At my request, the transplant coordinator reached the potential donor through the registry.

After learning the urgency, the donor confirmed immediate availability.

The hospital only needed financial clearance before conditioning and collection could begin.

The weight hanging over me finally lifted.

My hands shook as I thanked everyone.

"Mr. Fenwick, I have to be honest with you. Other critically ill patients are waiting too.

"If the financial authorization isn't completed, we may have to reassign the slot and the donor timing."

I nodded repeatedly and promised to pay immediately.

Every dollar I had saved over the years was in one account.

It existed for Sophie's transplant.

But when the billing clerk ran the card, the terminal sounded several times.

"There isn't enough money in this account."

I stared at her.

"That can't be right. There should be hundreds of thousands in there."

The balance on the screen made the room tilt.

Only Vanessa and I knew the account password.

With shaking fingers, I called her.

She answered quickly, but fireworks thundered in the background.

"Vanessa, where is the money from my account?"

"I used it for a fireworks show for Mason. It was the only thing that lifted his mood.

"I'm out of Redhaven. I'll put it back when I get home."

She said it like it was nothing and hung up before I could answer.

I called again and again until her phone was switched off.

I couldn't pay for Sophie's transplant.

When Dr. Marsh heard what had happened, he shook his head.

The hospital still had to follow allocation, scheduling, and financial-clearance rules.

The rare opening was given to another medically ready patient.

One week.

Sophie had only one more week.

I stayed beside her.

I watched the life leave her a little at a time.

At the end, she clutched my hand while tears ran down her face.

"Julian, I don't want to die."

The monitors sounded sharply.

Doctors and nurses rushed into the room.

In the end, they couldn't revive her.

Sophie died.

She was seventeen, at the beginning of everything she should have lived.

I'd had the power to save her, and then every chance was gone.

Numbly, I completed the death certificate and disposition paperwork.

I watched her cremation myself.

Only after everything was finished did I return home.

Dust covered the rooms.

I hadn't come back, and neither had Vanessa.

Her social feed was filled with photographs of fireworks and trips she had taken with Mason.

She had switched off her phone and blocked every message so I could not interrupt them.

Looking at their smiling photographs, I suddenly laughed.

When I left, I didn't hesitate.

Vanessa, after ten years, I was finally the one letting go.