Love After the Storm

d out of consciousness, my body a landscape of pain. They pumped me full of antivenom for the sp

eyes, was the one who confirmed it. She sat by my b

stoma is as aggressive as the initial report suggested. We were able to relieve some of the immediate pressure,

already so ti

hatred. But for what? To face this slow, inevitable decay f

as Liam. He stood in the doorway, clutching a toy race car. Ch

" she said, as if it were an inconvenience. "They

in in my ribs forced me back down

e you," she said,

the IV line in my arm. Then, with a sudden, vicious movement, he slam

rm. The IV needle was ripped out, and

ed, more from

d, empty eyes. "Uncle Mark says you're weak. He

aint smile, as if proud of his cruelty. "He's just

ed him? My heart ached wi

ing him up, his small arms wrapping around my neck, his sobs quieting as I held him close. I remembered singing

c from another life. It was a stark, brutal con

him do this?" I whispered,

hiss. "Let him? I encourage it. You deserve so much worse. After w

The ghost that had haunte

said, my voice shaking with a sudden, d

And you... you were jealous. You couldn't stand to see me with someone else. So you d

s so complete, so wrong, that it left

as so much

terically in my arms after Ben Carter, the love of her life, had unceremoniously dumped her to take a research po

he wouldn't leave her bed. She was o

r. I was also on the cusp of my big break-a prestigious international fellowship t

ve i

or my future-and used it to pay off the debts Ben had left her with. I told her the

er life. I never once told her about the fellowship I had sacrificed. I let her believe I drove Ben away because the alternative-that the man she loved had use

nship grew. We fell in love. We had Liam. I though

ted into a monstrous crime. She hadn't healed.

e barely audible. "I gav

b? Your sad little life? You latched onto me because you had nothing. You trapped

to breathe. My sacrifice, the foundation of our life together, had been reframed as a

one. The truth wouldn't save me. It was just an

my hand, I understood. I wasn't just fighting a tumor. I w