“Because once, I was the one sitting alone in a hospital room.” He didn’t elaborate.

Chapter 6 — Until Sunrise

They talked for hours.

Emeka told her about Winnie — her obsession with drawing power lines, her endless campaign to repair every broken appliance in the building.

Ifeoma told him about her father, about the thirty-eight hundred employees who depended on the company, about a board that was using her illness as a lever to strip her of her authority while she fought to stay alive.

“Everyone disappears when you get sick,” she whispered at one point.