How a Dying Woman Rewrote Her Epilogue

Elodie instinctively tightened her grip on her fork. "No, really, I'm fine. I've just been busy-skipping meals, that's all."

She'd lost a lot of weight since she got sick. Her appetite was gone, and nothing seemed to stay down, but neither Jarrod nor Ivan had noticed.

Only her grandmother, the one person who truly loved her, had sensed something was wrong right away.

But Elodie couldn't tell her.

Her grandmother was getting on in years, and after Elodie's mother passed away, she hadn't been able to handle any more shocks. Her uncle, Emile Thorne, had been in a care home battling liver cancer for months. If Elodie fell apart, how could either of them cope?

"Elodie, are you unhappy?" Rosemary watched her with concern, picking up on the unease in her demeanor. "Did you and Jarrod argue?"

Why else would Jarrod barely ever come by with her?

Elodie set down her fork and hugged her grandmother tightly. "No, honestly, we're doing just fine. Don't worry about me. Next time, I promise, I'll bring him here myself so he can tell you."

Just as soon as the divorce was finalized.

Then they could both move on.

For now, Rosemary just kept piling food onto Elodie's plate, wishing she could somehow make her put on twenty pounds overnight.

Even though the thought of eating made her queasy, Elodie smiled and ate everything her grandmother offered.

Before she left, she wrapped herself in the scarf her grandmother had knitted.

Monday.

go to The Silverstein Group. She drove straight to VistaLink

she'd wrapped up her work. It

car and wore

and Alexander were waiting

ones on VistaLink Technologies' management team. Now that Elodie had invested her technical expertise, she was the third-largest shareholder. But most employees were skeptical about

at VistaLink Technologies had graduated from top universities in the

résumé, by comparison, was far from impressive-her only real work experience was

this was a tech company, not a

only hire people with at least a Master's?" Elodie said, looking around in surprise after

to

a hand dismissively. "So what? Put all their degrees together and they still wouldn't be half as useful as

ago had already

in for an MRI," Alexander grumbled. "I need to make sure you're not still lovesick. If you bail

just stared

old Alexander-blunt as

Sterling, there's someone here to see you," Alexander's assistant knocked at the door. "She says she wants to talk to

"Who is it?"

on behalf of

the mention of that name, everyone's face soured except Elodie's. Especially Esmeralda, who folded her arms and sneered. "And who the hell

represent Jarrod? Tell