A Reborn Bride Pearl Emerging from Dust by Sally Garcia

"No, don't!" Hudson frowned, his voice tense. "Don't look into it. Knowing won't help!"

"Not knowing doesn't help either!" Calliope shot back, just as stubborn.

"If I know, at least I can try!" she insisted.

"Look, Hudson, I'm only calling you by your name because we get along. You're a good person." she said honestly. "Maybe I can't help you, but at least give me a chance to try. How do you know I can't help if we don't even give it a shot?"

Hudson hesitated. He finally let his shoulders drop, giving in. He knew Calliope— when she set her mind to something, there was no shaking her off. If he kept resisting, she'd only dig her heels in further. And she was more than capable of pinning him down if she wanted to. If this got messy, Lance would find out, and things would just get worse.

Better to let her check him out and keep things quiet.

Calliope grew serious, focusing as she examined him. The longer she checked, the deeper her frown became.

Just like Hudson had warned, this was bad. Really bad. The kind of situation where, medically speaking, there was no hope.

"You've had scans, right? X-rays, MRIs...where are they? I need to see them," Calliope said, searching for any sliver of possibility in the impossible.

you?" she pressed. "You're afraid Lance would find out, so they're still

turned icy, her voice steely. "I need

"He's already given up on me. Told me straight-there's

buy some time!" Calliope snapped. "One more

know. Every day I get is borrowed time, but with my condition, every day

it

the

want to waste what time I have left sitting in a sterile room, going through treatments that

make it easier... I'd be grateful. Treatment isn't worth it otherwise. It's just wasting

that in cases like his, endless treatments only dragged out the suffering, stripping away any quality of life. That

didn't

if she didn't at least look, didn't at least try, she'd

felt that helplessness. Everyone

lost her graness

but every