Chapter 267
The thought settled in my chest, warm and urgent, pushing against the cold weight that had been there for a while.
Royalty. Compensation. A way out.
I stood there in the corridor, watching Dr. Evan disappear around the corner. His footsteps faded into the hum of fluorescent lights and distant chatter.
My grandmother's formula.
She had spent years on it. Nights in her small study, bent over notebooks, surrounded by the smell of dried herbs and old paper. She had believed in its potential. She had believed it could save lives.
She had never cared about money.
But I did. Or rather, I cared about what money could do. What it could undo.
The debt. Twenty years of my father hiding, flinching, lying. Twenty years of my mother wondering why her husband was so distant. Twenty years of Lilith blaming herself for being a burden.
All of it, because of money.
And now, perhaps, money could begin to heal it.
***
I walked back to the nurses' station.
