Chapter 145

Two months had passed since Grace had told Keegan everything...her truth, her fear, her illness. She had said the words slowly that night, halting and uncertain, like someone speaking a language they’d only learned in secret. Like someone unsure they had the right to ask for more time in a world that had only ever taught them to live quietly, politely, without complaint.

There had been no grand moment. No dramatic music playing in the background. Just a soft, ordinary night, with her sitting across from him, fidgeting with the hem of her sleeve, thinking of all the ways to properly say things she wanted to say.

But that night, something shifted in her. The

ache of living beside him while carrying a future she was afraid to claim, was heavier than the fear of speaking the truth aloud. Yet,

she told him anyway.

Keegan hadn’t said a word while she told him. And that had been the mercy of it. He didn’t try to save her with interruptions or soften the blow w