Page 103 of Life’s Too Short

I started to wheeze.

Her hand…

She had told me. She told me and I didn’t fucking listen. I didn’t fucking hear her.

Information came flying back to me in patches, each bit sticking until it pieced together into some black, macabre obituary.

Hand weakness.

Her reasons for not dating.

Her tubes were tied, her saying she couldn’t adopt Grace because she wouldn’t be here in a year…

No…no no no no no.

I couldn’t breathe.

It was a wrecking ball to my universe. The shattering of everything. A beautiful stained-glass window in a thousand pieces at my feet.

She might be dying. The love of my life might be dying.

And I was going to have to watch.

CHAPTER 26

YOUR WORST

NIGHTMARES RANKED!

VANESSA

After ice fishing, I jogged up the steps and let myself into our room. Adrian was standing in front of the fireplace facing the door when I came in.

“Hey,” I said, pulling off my beanie. “God, I love your family. Your dad’s like a mountain man or something. Do you know he—”

“Are you sick?”

I unraveled my scarf. “What?”

“Sick,” he said again. “Are you sick? Do you have ALS?”

I wrinkled my forehead. “I don’t know…” I stared at him, confused. “Why are you asking me this?”

“I didn’t know…” he breathed.

I blinked at him. “You didn’t know what?”

He shook his head, and I realized how pale he looked. “I didn’t know it was hereditary.”

I felt my face fall. “What do you mean you didn’t know it was hereditary?” I said carefully.

He let out a shuddering breath. “I didn’t watch all your videos. I just…I just watched that one where you talked about meeting me and then ghost peppers—”

“Ghost peppers? That’s not even my channel. That’s Willow Shea’s channel. It was a collab.” My stomach dropped. “Adrian, what are you saying? Are you saying…you actually didn’t know about this?”

“I didn’t know,” he said again.

And then he started to wheeze.