All Chapters of Crossings in the Barren Years: Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

Garrett didn’t come home that night.The messages I sent disappeared into silence, and after a while, I stopped trying.Early the next morning, I went to the hospital to see my sister.A bone marrow match had finally been found, and her surgery was scheduled for two days later.She’d had leukemia since she was a child. Our parents walked out on us years ago, and all this time, she had been my last remaining family.She lay in her hospital bed, surrounded by softly beeping machines.The moment she saw me, her eyes lit up.“Jade!”Then she noticed the bandage wrapped around my forehead and froze.“What happened to your head? Were you hurt?”I set the fruit I’d brought on the side table and answered lightly, “It’s nothing. I took a bad fall, that’s all.”She nodded, still a little uncertain, but her excitement quickly took over.“Jade, the doctor said I can have surgery in two days. Does that mean I’m finally getting better?“After I recover, will you take me to the capital? Please?”I ru

Garrett and I fell into a full-blown cold war.For the next two weeks, I never went home once.I stayed at the hospital instead.Because the surgery had been delayed, my sister’s condition spiraled further and further out of control.She had grown so thin she was almost nothing but skin and bones, her cheekbones hollow and sharp.“Jade… am I going to die?”She lay in the hospital bed, speaking so softly her voice barely seemed to hold together.My sister wasn’t stupid.“The person who was supposed to donate… did they back out?“Maybe we should just stop. I’m so tired.”At her words, my eyes burned red with tears. I choked back a sob and gripped her hand tighter.“Don’t say that. You’re going to be okay. Trust me.”I stayed with her until she fell asleep, then turned and went straight to her attending physician’s office.“Doctor, you said there was someone else who matched. Do you have a way to contact them? My sister can’t wait any longer.”After hearing my plea, the doctor gave me the

Garrett shot to his feet.Staring at the chat window, he sent several messages in a row, unable to believe what he was seeing.It felt like a stone was pressing down on his chest, making it hard to breathe.He started calling Jade’s friends one after another.“Have you seen Jade?”“What? Jade? I was actually going to ask you. No one’s been able to reach her for days.”When the call ended, Garrett stood there in a daze.He and Jade had been together for ten years.From eighteen to twenty-eight.There had been several times when they were supposed to make it official.But every single time, something involving Sienna got in the way.Even so, Jade had never once brought up breaking up.Garrett refused to believe she would really leave him.So what if he had used the money from her account?Was that really enough to end a relationship over?He couldn’t make sense of it.And he didn’t want to believe it.As if trying to prove himself right, he turned on every light in the apartment.That wa

Jade’s POVI saw Garrett Logan again three months later.My sister’s ashes had long since been laid to rest.I never expected him to find me.And I certainly never expected to see him kneeling in front of my sister’s headstone.“Jasmine… I’m sorry. It's all my fault.”Over and over, he bowed his head, begging for her forgiveness.I stood behind him and felt nothing but bitter disbelief.“She’s dead. What’s the point of apologizing now?“Jasmine died in agony because she never got that surgery. I hope you never come here again for the rest of your life. I won’t let you stain her grave with your presence.”I said every word clearly, one by one.The second Garrett heard my voice, he turned around.He got to his feet and walked toward me.“I’m sorry. I… I really didn’t know it would turn out like this. I thought it would be okay.”He tried to explain himself, but even he seemed to realize there was nothing he could say.Both times Jasmine’s surgery had fallen apart because of him.There wa