Chapter 5

Saving me wouldn’t have prevented Stephen from treating anyone else. That left only two possibilities: either Stephen lied to Ronald, or the two of them had conspired to deceive me.

Testing the waters, I asked Ronald, “Dr. Thomas, what urgent matter came up that day?”

He hesitated, stumbling over his words. “It was to help save an old friend…”

Disappointment washed over me.

Ronald wasn’t being entirely honest.

There was definitely something off here.

“Compared to me, of course, your friend must have been more important,” I replied calmly, not wanting to push the matter further.

Ronald looked guilty but didn’t want me to feel hurt either. He added awkwardly, “Teresa, that old friend of mine happens to be someone very close to you.”

Panic rose in me. “Are you saying my grandfather was ill?”

In this world, aside from my daughter, my grandfather was the closest person to me. My parents had died early in an accident, leaving my grandfather to raise me. Though he lived in a retirement home