His Cruel Test, My Broken Heart

as cold and smelle

eavy and dense. It was everything. Every extra shift, every meal skipped, every

ounding against my ribs. I pushed

y. The sheets we

n my face. Her express

she said quiet

ne where? We had the money n

the nurse said, handing m

ed it. It was my mother's h

Take this money to clear the debt. Jake is a good man, he loves you, he just lost his

wasn't for her surgery. She had saved it, endured the

ing outside Jake Miller's office, holding a simple wooden box. My mother'

out, maybe looking for another job, still struggling with t

r when I heard voices from the conference

s has passed all your

tors, a man I had begged for an ex

recognized with a sickening jolt.

her tone laced with something I couldn't place. "But we need to test

, the voice I loved, the voice that ha

m the warm, troubled man I thought I knew. "I'm going to reveal my true identity to her. If she doesn't get greedy or

impossibly heavy. The thirty thousand do

die in pain, believing she was helping the man

ie. A test. A crue

sharp corners digging into my chest. Tea

was wrong

so w

t to marry