cold so deep it felt like my bones were freezing. The man sleeping in the chair down the hall wasn' t my husband. He w

silent, empty space where your heart used to be. Every kind word he had ever sai

call, the news report about a gas leak, the funeral I was too sick to attend. Alex had held me while I cried,

esh air. I wanted to visit my family' s graves. He was hesitant, worried about my "fragile h

mother, my father, and my brother. There were no tears left. There was only a cold,

I whispered. "I

eyes. In the city, most people ignored the animals that lived in the shadows-the rats in the subway, the pigeons in the squa

and focused, pushing my consciousness out, not with words, but with a feeling-a command of shared pain and a

ss penthouse that had become

ning pain started in my left arm, spreading from my shoulder

his voice filled with fake urgency. "It

doctors" held me down on my bed. I

g to pull away. "Alex,

, his eyes filled with crocodil

The needle went into my arm

the elbow down. In its place, stitched crudely to my skin, was a shriveled, ha

ide. "Sarah, darli

twisted in manufactured ra

idn' t give her enough anesthesia! I heard her

ave them fired for their "cruelty." All while I lay there, mutilated and shaking, knowing he