Chapter 71- Truce

One day, Elvie noticed Joey’s face was no longer the same pale shade as the bathroom wall.

He was going through something called adoptive cell transfer therapy. The treatments were invasive and uncomfortable after he had been diagnosed with lung cancer, but every time he came back to the mansion, he smiled bigger than the last time. He was still weak. He was still grey. But he no longer spoke like he was ready to die but too ashamed to let go of life because he knew how much she needed him, and that made her heart soar. Even after what he’d done, Joey was still her family. Her brother.

They spent more and more time out of the mansion with Thea—short trips around the block, arm in arm, admiring the festival of colours as the garden burst into full-blown summer. Green leaves rustled above their heads, and barefoot children ran around the neighbourhood, pointing the park’s hoses at each other and spreading wild laughter like confetti. Flowers unfurled in their sleepy beds on the edges of