#Chapter 44: Bedside Vigil

Nicholas As I watched, Piper seemed to crumble in on herself. The guilt and the worry pushed down on her shoulders and made her small. It didn’t suit her. She was strong, a fighter, yet fear for Elva tore straight through her. I had known the child a few short weeks, and already I was in agony, watching her cry and shake with fever. I could only imagine how Piper felt. To watch her daughter be sick now, and so often, must have been a special kind of torture. Holding Piper’s arm, I turned her into me to offer her the physical support of my body. She clung to me, likely about to fall if I did not hold her upright. I may have been angry at Piper for all that had occurred between us. She had betrayed me once, for reasons I still didn’t fully understand, when all I had ever done was love her. Yet seeing her like this, so scared for her daughter, I could not help but soften to her. “It’s not your fault,” I told her. “It could have been any illness. Even someone with a cough could hav