Chapter 168. A Disastrous Twist

Teyana’s POV

Two Months Later

“Mrs. Carter has less than three months to live.”

The words landed between the doctor and I like a physical weapon, heavy enough that I felt it press into my chest. For a moment, I forgot how to breathe properly. I was seated across the family doctor table, my hands folded tightly in my lap, nails digging into my palms as though pain there could keep the rest of me from breaking apart.

I closed my eyes slowly, because I knew if I kept them open, the tears would spill immediately, and once they started, I didn’t trust myself to stop. I focused on the sound of the air conditioner humming softly above us, the muted beeping of hospital machines outside the office door, anything that wasn’t his voice replaying the sentence again and again inside my head.

Less than three months. My mother.

When I opened my eyes, the doctor was still talking, his tone careful and practiced, the way people speak when they know t