Chapter 79

After dropping his wife off at her office, Thomas steered away from his restaurant’s familiar neon sign. He climbed back into his car with a knot in his gut, the engine’s low hum echoing his dread. He wasn’t headed to sauté pans or crisp linen tablecloths today. No, that oversized puppy of a partner—always dramatic—had declared Cyrus’s condition “life or death.” And since Cyrus had just survived a bombing, Thomas didn’t hesitate. After all, family, right? Especially when family is your brother-in-law. He flicked on the turn signal and drove toward the hospital, utterly unaware that this detour would be the gravest misstep of his life.

The hospital lobby was bright and antiseptic, fluorescent lighting bouncing off polished floors. A hush of beeping monitors and hushed footsteps filled the air. Thomas’s heart thudded like a hammer in his chest as he climbed the marble staircase two steps at a time. He passed nurses gliding silently down the corridor, glancing up from clipboards.