The Price of Compassion

“My world shattered in the sterile hallway of the city hospital. Director Anderson told me the permanent nursing position, my dream job, went to Nicole Chavez. Why? Because my husband, Matthew, had advocated for Nicole, a "struggling single mother," on compassionate grounds. The cold dread that settled in my stomach was utterly familiar; it was the same feeling I had in my last life. In that life, I had gone home, cried, got pregnant, and was later laid off, only to watch my husband hold Nicole' s hand at my funeral and my child call her "mom." A physical rage burned through me, fueled by the memory of utter betrayal. But this time, I wasn' t going home to cry; I was reborn at the exact moment the betrayal began.”