Eventually, the wail of a siren carved through the snow-choked silence. Magnus scooped Denise into his arms
and raced outside, boots crunching through powder until he placed her inside the ambulance. Not until the
hospital doors swallowed them did he dare draw a steady breath.
Doctors ushered her onto a gurney, ran tests, hung fluids, prescribed antivirals, and then admitted her to an
isolation ward.
"High fever and influenza. Why bring her this late?" the attending physician chided, pen scratching angrily across
a chart.
Magnus blinked, thunderstruck. "Influenza? I-I didn't know."
"It's been two, maybe three days. Haven't you noticed?" the doctor pressed, brow furrowed in reprimand.
"I swear | didn't." Magnus' voice shrank to a rasp. "If I'd realized, I'd have brought her sooner."
Nothing but truth rang in the admission. Had he known, nothing would have kept him away from the ER.
"You two must be fearless or careless. If her condition gets worse, it'll be troublesome," the doctor muttered
before stalking down the corridor, white coat flapping like an angry flag.
Those final words echoed behind him, then faded with the doctor's departing footsteps.
Magnus dropped into the metal chair beside Denise's bed, hands folded but restless, prepared to sit the night
through as sentinel to every shiver, every sigh.
Denise peeled her eyes open, drifting up from fever-thick dreams into a glare of antiseptic white. The ceiling
above her looked endless, a blank sheet of snow lit by fluorescent tubes.
She turned her head. Everywhere she met more white starched sheets, a plastic pitcher, a jungle of monitors
softly blinking green. The sharp scent of disinfectant clung to her nostrils, telling her exactly where she was long
before her mind caught up.
"Is this... a hospital?"
Confusion pinched her brow. Last night, she had fallen asleep in the cheap apartment she rented downtown, yet
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now she lay surrounded by humming machines and sterile walls.
From the chair at her bedside, Magnus jerked upright, nearly spilling the cup he had been guarding. Steam
curled from the rim as he hurried it toward her.
"Thank goodness," he muttered, half scolding, half relieved. "Your fever finally broke. You scaredto death."
Only then, through his rushed explanation, did Denise piece things together. She recalled her fever, delirious
rambling, and Magnus bundling her into a taxi.
She pushed herself upright, every muscle protesting. "Con," she said, voice scratchy but determined. "I'm
fine now. Let's go home."
"Are you kidding me?" Magnus' words cout slow and sharp. "The doctor says you've got a nasty strain of flu
with a full-on pneumonia brewing. They want you under observation for a few days."
"A few days?"
Her face folded with worry.
Hospitals terrified her for only one reason, and that was cost.
Every paycheck she scraped together felt like a lifeline, so the thought of watching
it drain away at the billing desk was almost worse than the illness itself.
“No,” she insisted, shaking her head. "Really, I'm okay. Let's leave before this turns into a money pit."
It's just a bad cold, nothing serious. Denise told herself, chest tightening at the imagined total already ticking
upward on sinvisible register.
Magnus caught the calculation in her eyes, and a flush of anger climbed his cheeks.
"Which matters more? Your health or your bank balance?"
The question hit her like a slap. She blinked, speechless.
“You have no idea what it felt like,” he pressed on. "You were rambling nonsense, burning up, and | thought I'd
lose you. If something happened, who would look after Mr. and Mrs. Laney? Money counts sure, but you have to
be alive to help them, don't you?" s
Denise had never expected such blunt wisdom from him.
Admitting she might be over-frugal, she stopped trying to swing her legs off the
bed.
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All right," she sighed. "One day. If I'm
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At last he managed a small nod. "Okay."
"Here, drink," he said, lifting the cup to her lips.
She wrapped chilled fingers around the paper cup and sipped, the water tasting warm and faintly metallic.
"Stop worrying about the bill," Magnus added. "I'll figure it out. I've earned a decent amount lately."
She shook her head. "I can't take
your money. You toldyourself
f oN 8
you're still in debt. Rupa you
per \ho Gd S, those people
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ight need it even more than | do.
s
His shoulders sagged with a silent sigh.
The mountain he owed was so
astronomical that even shaving off
one percent feltimpagsibié; but he
SEidhoting, only tightened his grip
on the cup and sat a little closer to
her bedside. s The content is on
novelenglish.net! Read the latest
chapter there!
"Mmm, | know," Magnus said, steadying the tremor in his chest. "I've already figured out how to handle it."
He rose, forcing a crooked grin. "I'm heading to the restroom. If anything comes up, message me."
Magnus slipped into the hallway, pockets stuffed with restless thoughts, the door clicking shut behind him.
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