A Reborn Bride Pearl Emerging from Dust by Sally Garcia

"I didn't let you see because I knew... there's nothing you can do to help, not with this."

Hudson let out a crooked, sad smile. "I really don't have much time left. If I had even one more day, I'd ask you for help-of course I would. But there's nothing left to do..."

He tried to keep his voice steady, but it wavered. "I promised I'd be there for him, for the rest of our lives. But it looks like I'll be the first to go."

"Callie, please, after I'm gone, look out for him, will you? Help him through this. Try to talk to him. I can't be there for much longer."

"I've got, at most... maybe a year. Maybe not even that. The doctor says it's gotten much worse."

Hudson looked down, pressing his palm to his forehead. The pain was there, sure, but what hurt most was the ache in his chest.

He was still young. Lance was even younger. Lance needed him. What would Lance do without him?

"Cancer?" Callie's voice was soft as she looked at him. She'd already suspected. There were so many illnesses you could read in someone's face, in the way they moved.

But cancer... sometimes it hid itself well. And this looked like one of those cases.

eyes were red when he looked up at her, but he managed a shaky smile. "Knew you'd

operated on cancer patients before. Once, she'd managed to help someone live

wasn't always possible. Not every case went that way-sometimes, it moved too fast, and there just wasn't time

legends in their fields, but even they couldn't work miracles. Research continued, but no

Callie

much

for God's sake.

both had so much time ahead of them. If Hudson

had grown up

best food, all the things kids dream of. He acted like nothing really mattered, always cracking jokes,

was... complicated, maybe, but no one had ever tried

everyone else including Lancet.

parents. They'd all accepted

Lance was with Hudson, he was happy-and

now, this illness was