What is happening to you?”

“It’s nothing I can’t manage, Laura,” she whispered.

“Don’t you dare say that to me again.” I pressed my forehead against her knees.

“Please.

Tell me the truth.”

She let out a long, shuddering breath, and then she said the word that made my job and my launch and my promotion and every cruel thing I had said to her instantly, permanently meaningless.

“Cancer,” she said.