Total pages in book: 54
Estimated words: 50815 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 254(@200wpm)___ 203(@250wpm)___ 169(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 50815 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 254(@200wpm)___ 203(@250wpm)___ 169(@300wpm)
Steve had given her a disgusted look.
“Well then I guess I’m out, just like that,” he said. “If you can’t see reason, I’m not hanging around to raise someone else’s kid.” His voice changed and became wheedling. “C’mon, babe—what about the honeymoon trip we were going to take? What about Thailand and—”
“You can go by yourself. Or find someone else to go with you,” Nora cut him off. “I won’t be going anywhere for a while. I have a five-year-old who can’t understand why Mommy isn’t coming home and I’m not about to leave her and go waltzing off to Thailand with you just because you don’t like kids.”
Steve must have seen the finality on her face because he’d slammed out of the apartment without another word. He’d come back a few days later to pack up his things and Nora hadn’t heard from him since.
Of course, he’d taken their honeymoon trip to Thailand without her and posted multiple pictures of himself having a great time on social media with lots of skinny women in bikinis, but she no longer cared. It had taken her sister’s death to see what a shallow, self-centered jerk her former fiancé was and Nora was of the opinion that she’d dodged a bullet when she’d broken up with him.
Life had settled down into a kind of routine for the next two years and she had officially adopted Anna as her own. She’d even been able to add her to her insurance plan, which was why she’d been able to afford to bring Anna to the doctor when she developed a nasty cough.
At first the pediatrician dismissed it as a cold that wouldn’t go away. But after multiple rounds of antibiotics, she’d finally ordered a chest X-ray…which was when the Pulmonary Chrystalosis had reared its beautiful but deadly head.
A time of frantic searching ensued, looking for the right doctor—a specialist who could cure the rare condition. Finally, they had found Dr. M. Patel, one of the few doctors who knew anything about PC.
The prevailing theory was that the deadly lung disease was caused by inhaling a particular fluorocarbon which was used in the type of car Cora and Anna had been in during The Crash. The company, Pexla, denied all blame—just as they had denied any blame for the wreck when their self-driving car had run into the back of a semi, killing Cora instantly. The billionaire who owned Pexla was rich enough to keep all the cases out of court, or else tie them up in so much legal red tape they would never go to trial.
Nora had been incredibly angry and frustrated to learn that getting justice for her dead twin was hopeless and now she just felt helpless to hear that her niece was going to die from a disease caused by the same faulty automobile. Dr. Patel was certain the cause of Anna’s Pulmonary Crystalosis was the fluorocarbons she’d inhaled directly after The Crash.
The little girl had seemed fine at first, Nora thought bitterly. She’d only gotten a few scratches despite the severity of the wreck. But inside her little body, the PC was already taking hold. It was slow-acting but always fatal, because even when it was caught in time, there was no known cure, as Dr. Patel had explained to her.
But Nora wasn’t willing to believe that. She couldn’t let Anna go—not so soon after losing her twin. It had taken them some time to settle in, but she loved Anna like her own daughter. She wasn’t going to watch her die without a fight!
“There has to be some way,” she said to Dr. Patel as the two of them stared at Anna’s X-ray. “There must be a study or a drug trial—something—anything—that might help her.”
“I’m sorry.” He shook his head regretfully again. “I wish I had something to offer you. But no medicine on Earth can cure PC. All we can do is slow it down a little, but it will ultimately be fatal.”
Nora felt the same awful grief rising inside her—the feeling that had almost swallowed her whole when she got the terrible news of Cora’s death. She might have given up altogether if it wasn’t for Anna. She knew she had to be strong for her niece. But if she lost Anna too…
I’ll want to die, she thought and knew it was true. I can’t lose another person I love so soon and survive it—I just can’t.
Numbly, she thanked Dr. Patel and left the hospital. She had a packet of pills—a new drug that he’d helped develop that would slow the PC down—but even with the rare and expensive medication, he couldn’t give Anna more than six months to live.
Nora drove home in a daze. Over and over again the doctor’s words echoed in her mind. “No medicine on Earth can cure PC,” he’d said. No medicine on Earth…No medicine on Earth…