The Daughter They Abandoned Is The Doctor They Can’t Reach Chapter 20
I sat back down at my desk, silenced my phone, and reopened the paper I’d been drafting.
The data model was complicated. I checked references, revised the argument, and cut an unnecessary section of analysis. The call felt like a page I had already turned. It didn’t break my concentration.
When I finished typing the last sentence, my screen lit up.
An iMessage from Eli.
*Morning. Brought you coffee and a croissant. Left them at your usual spot.*
A second message followed.
*Don’t skip breakfast again.*
I stared at the two lines, and a smile slowly tugged at my lips.
No prying. No favor waiting to be repaid. He just remembered that I drank black coffee and that when I got busy, I forgot to eat.
I sent back a smiley face, shut my laptop, and headed for the library.
Morning sunlight streamed through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, spilling across rows of desks. At my usual seat by the window, the black coffee was still steaming, and the croissant was tucked carefully into a paper bag.
I pulled out the chair and sat down. The sunlight landed perfectly across the back of my hand.
The light here wasn’t turned on for any one person.
But if you sat here, it would fall on you.
And now, it had fallen on me.
I had barely opened my laptop when an interview request popped up in my inbox.
It was from a reporter at WTAE-TV.
Attached was a long post my mother had made on the community page half an hour earlier.
The title was a single line:
About Our Daughter, Nora.