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.

but he managed a shaky smile. "Knew you'd figure it out. You

She'd operated on cancer patients before. Once, she'd managed to help someone live out a full life, growing

every case went that way-sometimes, it moved too fast, and there just

doctors in the country, real legends in their fields, but

see," Callie said, her heart

so much sadness. He'd

was barely in his thirties, for God's sake. And Lance? He

had so much time ahead of them. If Hudson left

had grown up

the things kids dream of. He acted like nothing really mattered, always cracking jokes, but the one thing he truly cared

one had

everyone else including Lancet.

parents. They'd all accepted

was impossible not to love. If Lance was with Hudson, he

this illness was threatening