Chapter 23: Three Rings

Willa's POV

On day one hundred, the oncologist closed her office door and said the word before I sat down.

"Remission," she said. "Complete. There is nothing on the scan."

I had practiced for this.

I had pictured myself calm and dignified, thanking her in a level voice.

Instead I put both hands over my face and made a noise I could not control.

Abel was in the chair beside me.

He didn't say a thing.

He took the hand nearest him and held it in both of his.

His thumb went back and forth over my knuckles.

"Is there a bell?" I asked, when I could talk.

"There's a bell." The doctor smiled. "It's in the hallway outside the infusion room. You've walked past it forty times."

"I never looked at it."

"Look at it today."

The infusion room was full.

Somebody had taped a paper banner to the wall that read WILLA in marker, with a lopsided sun.

Marla stood under it in her green cardigan with her reading glasses on their chain.

She was crying openly, which I had never seen her do.

The woman in the purple turban sat in her recliner with a bag running.

A knitted hat lay in her lap.

"I made you a hat," she said. "Don't tell me you don't need it."

"I'm going to need it. My hair's coming in fuzzy and patchy."

"It's coming in dark," Abel said. "It's lovely."

"It's a mess."

"It's a lovely mess."

Keep reading free with an account. Start I Gave Him Freedom, He Came Crawling Back in Tears from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.