Hold on.

You’ll always have me.

Chapter 13 — The Waiting Room

The waiting room clock ticked past midnight with an unbearable slowness, each minute stretched thin and long, and I sat with my eyes fixed on the double doors through which they had wheeled my sister, willing them, by sheer force of love, to swing open with good news.

Gabriel sat beside me.

His left knee bounced uncontrollably against the cold floor, up and down, up and down, a small desperate motion he seemed entirely unaware of, and every so often he would go still and press his palms hard against his closed eyes and I would hear a sound come out of him, low and broken, that lived somewhere between a sob and a prayer.