How a Dying Woman Rewrote Her Epilogue

When Elodie accepted his friend request, Joseph was genuinely surprised. He couldn't even explain to himself why he'd added her in the first place, or what he was supposed to say now that she'd accepted.

It all felt a bit awkward.

In the end, he didn't say anything.

Instead, he tapped into Elodie's social feed and started scrolling.

She didn't post often, and it looked like her privacy settings were wide open. The latest update was from about two weeks ago—a photo of a hospital building.

The caption read: "Here alone, fingers crossed for good news..."

Joseph couldn't help picturing Elodie's calm, detached expression.

Clearly, she'd gone to the doctor by herself.

As he scrolled further, most of her posts were snapshots of daily life-little things that showed how much she loved living. Pictures of desserts she'd made, home- cooked meals, fresh bouquets she'd bought, and her place looking neat and inviting.

It was all so warm and full of intention.

Joseph lingered for a while, thinking that, really, Jarrod ought to be pretty happy.

His thumb paused on a mirror selfie Elodie had posted. He hesitated, then decided not to open it in full.

"Joseph? What are you looking at?" Maurice's voice broke his reverie. They'd all been out to dinner for a while now, but Joseph had barely said a word and kept staring at his phone.

Jarrod glanced over, his tone unreadable. "Something on your mind?"

He, too, had noticed Joseph seemed distracted all night.

Joseph met Jarrod's eyes, feeling a sudden, inexplicable irritation. "No."

Sylvie walked over and glanced at Joseph's phone. "You seem out of it. Are you feeling all right?"

He quickly locked the screen. "I'm fine."

"Glad to

thought she'd glimpsed a woman's photo on his

A woman?

Joseph a second, lingering

night at Silverstein Mansion.

and the next morning, as he was getting

just heading

climbed right into his car, still in

her, eyebrow raised.

"Going to school, obviously.

today? I miss her, thought I'd say

called Sylvie

to say she'd be downstairs soon, she suddenly asked, "Has Elodie

glanced at her. "What

a strand of hair, thinking. Elodie cared so much about her brother, always wishing and pleading to be acknowledged as his sister-in-law, but Octavia stubbornly refused and kept

didn't compare

Octavia wanted to go into

to admit, Elodie was good at running a home-her cooking

totally useless, she

Elodie had stopped dropping off little treats for her on

she wasn't about to act friendly-otherwise,

pretty peaceful lately," Octavia said,

idolized the genius who'd developed the U.N2 drone. Someday, she'd love to meet

making it clear he had little interest in any conversation

met up with Sylvie, Jarrod dropped Octavia

school, her mornings weren't too early. When she walked into the classroom, she saw Freya

had missed a few days after an asthma attack and a short hospital stay. Octavia didn't bother to say hello. They were the same age and had been compared to each other all their lives-she was

seem to care, either. She simply took a box of cookies out of her bag and set it on

recognized the packaging. "Where'd you

look and