Chapter 10
On November 19th, Ryan was heading out to Riverside City for "treatment."
Kevin had a medical-branded van parked at the hospital entrance.
I wheeled Ryan over to the van.
He sat in the wheelchair, looking up at me.
The sunlight hit his face, and for a second, he looked like he did when we were kids.
Back then, he was a boy who always had one hand holding mine and the other clutching a lollipop.
"Claire, wait for me," Ryan said. "In two months at most, I'll be back on my feet.
"The first thing I'll do is bring Cooper Enterprises back, so you can be the Cooper family's heiress again. No one will ever dare to mess with you."
He reached out and gently brushed my hair.
During the four years, he'd done this countless times.
Every single time, it felt like the warmest hand in the whole world.
"Okay." I crouched down and straightened his collar. "Ryan, let me know when you get there, okay?"
"Okay," he said with a smile.
The smile was so genuine that I almost wondered if everything I'd heard back in that VIP room was something I imagined.
But it wasn't.
The laughter in that room, Emily's flowery dress, the faded name on the golden locket, and the fresh scar on my forehead were all real.
The van drove off.
I stood at the hospital entrance, watching the back of the van disappear around the corner.
My phone buzzed.
It was a message from Emily.
Emily: [Claire, Ryan's on the road now. Don't worry, I'll look after him. Focus on your job. No need to worry about him.]
I turned off my phone and headed toward the inpatient department.
I headed up to the third floor, to oncology.
Stephen was waiting for me in his office.
There were a few more reports on his desk.
I sat down across from him.
He didn't say a word.
He simply pushed the reports over to me.
I couldn't make heads or tails of the numbers, but a few were circled in red.
"It's worse than it was two days ago," he said, his voice a little hoarse. "The cancer's spreading faster than I expected."
"How long do I have left?" I asked.
He closed his eyes for a moment. "If we're lucky, three to five days. If you bleed again tonight, it might be the last time."
In the exam room, the clock's second hand ticked on.
I looked down at my hands. They were so skinny. My knuckles stuck out, and the veins under my skin were easy to see.
These hands had spooned soup, scrubbed floors, lugged bricks, been sliced by broken glass, and trampled by people.
But they'd never done anything for me.
"Dr. Reed, could you help me with the paperwork for organ donation?" I asked.
"Claire!" Stephen was anxious.
"Use whatever organs are still good. Cremate the rest. Send the ashes back to the Cooper Estate."
He shot up from his chair, sending it skittering back half a yard.
"Your mom used her own money to support me back then, because she didn't want someone with talent to be wasted. What do you think she'd say if she saw you like this?" Stephen said.
I looked up at him.
"She's not here to see it anymore," I said.
Stephen stood there, frozen.
I got up and gave him another bow.
"Thank you," I said.
When I left the oncology department, the hallway was so empty that I could hear my own footsteps echo.
The evening sunlight spilled in through the windows, stretching my shadow long and thin across the floor.
Even my shadow was thin, just like me.
My phone buzzed one last time.
It was a message from Ryan.
Ryan: [Claire, I'm in Riverside City now. Don't worry, everything's going to be alright. When I come back, I'll make sure you get the biggest birthday cake ever.]
I crouched in the corner, leaning against the wall.
I held my phone up in front of me.
I typed for a long time, then deleted it.
I did this over and over again.
In the end, I left only one message: [Ryan, I'm leaving first.
[I'm giving back the life I owed you. Keep the golden locket or give it to Emily, whatever you want. But don't bury me in the Cooper family's cemetery. I don't deserve it.
[If you can, let me rest next to Mom.]
I pressed send.
My phone slipped from my hand.
I tried to push myself up against the wall, but my legs wouldn't work.
A metallic taste flooded my throat.
This time, I didn't swallow it back.
Blood ran from the corner of my mouth, dripping onto the hospital's white tile floor.
The red was shockingly bright.
My vision started to blur.
The world felt like someone was slowly turning down the brightness, everything shrinking in around me.
I looked at my phone screen for the last time.
It was buzzing like crazy, with one call after another.
They were all from Ryan.
I closed my eyes.