How a Dying Woman Rewrote Her Epilogue

The world around him was still a blur of noise and chaos, people coming and going in a restless tide. But for Jarrod, it felt like the only thing he could hear was the thunder of his own heartbeat.

Elias spoke with the calm detachment of someone who'd merely observed it all- his tone straightforward, unembellished, yet every word was suffocating. Jarrod's usually refined features turned deathly pale in an instant. Something in his dark eyes seemed to shatter, losing all shape and coherence.

"She had to accept things no one should ever have to," Elias said quietly. "Even if it really did come to terminating the pregnancy, I don't think Mr. Silverstein would have had any right to blame her. It was her life at stake. Faced with life or death, what other choice did she have?"

Elias had seen Jarrod back then-seen the confusion on his face as he waited outside the operating room, convinced there'd been some terrible mistake. From Esmeralda's scattered words, he'd pieced together Jarrod's attitude, how it had driven a wedge between him and Elodie.

But Elodie... she was the one who had suffered most. She'd endured agony in both body and spirit, and she'd done absolutely nothing wrong.

Elias knew, as a doctor, he shouldn't let his empathy cloud his judgment. Yet he couldn't help thinking-Elodie had borne far too much.

"She never told me," Jarrod muttered, as if someone had driven a spike through his mind.

Elias kept his distance, his voice level. "She was hurting, Jarrod. She felt lost and overwhelmed. Your reaction determined what she could or couldn't say to you.”

so helpless. How could she possibly have handled Jarrod's

drained from him. He seemed at a loss for any expression at all, one hand braced against the wall as he struggled to breathe. Clutching his chest, he bowed his head and drew in a few ragged

voice was

to Elodie he would get to the bottom

than her. Not the child, not anything else. Every word Elias had spoken was the truth-Jarrod knew that. Even he couldn't forgive himself for the things he'd said, the way he'd acted toward Elodie at

How heartbroken? When she needed comfort most, she'd had to swallow her pain and bear

she'd fought to keep her composure back then made it hard for Jarrod to breathe. Suddenly, he understood-why should she have to explain herself to him? Why should she be the

outside factors, her uterus took another hit. Even if we change the surgical plan now, the prognosis won't be

might not work?"

are only about twenty percent. Failure is very likely-and you know what that means. If the surgery fails, the disease could spread much faster. On the other hand, if we remove the uterus entirely..." Elias looked at the man before him, who seemed utterly defeated.

Elias could say. He felt helpless,

were before, Elodie's condition would have allowed him to preserve her uterus.