I had passed a test I did not know I was taking.

And before I could fully absorb the weight of any of it, the heavy wooden door of the hospital room slammed open.

I have thought about the wisdom of what Julian did, in hiding his wealth from me, because at first it stung a little, the discovery that I had been, in a sense, evaluated, that the man whose hand I held through his final week had been secretly measuring me the whole time.

But the sting faded quickly, replaced by an admiration for the deep shrewdness of it, and an understanding of why a man in his position had no other choice.