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The ave her a wry look “He’s not very happy about all this Physically his new heart is a winner His body is reacting as well as can be expected to the meds”

“I’ll sit with him for a while Go ahead and take a break”

When the nurse was gone, Madelaine pulled up a chair and sat beside his bed Reaching out, she gently took hold of his hand “So, Angel, you’re not playing ith others”

He lay there, unresponsive, his breathing slow and steady and unaided by machine

She couldn’t help but think of the other day, when he’d gone ballistic after surgery She’d seen the fear in his eyes, the dawning horror as he felt the rhyth of the new heart The realization that soive him the chance at life

Not soht Francis

What would Angel say if he knew the truth?

She frowned She hadn’t known Angel in years—h to know that he would throw the mother of all tantrums if he knehat she had done What she had authorized

He wouldn’t kno to grieve for so like this In fairness, she knew that no one would He would be plagued with regret and self-loathing He would wonder if Francis was really dead before the surgery, or if Madelaine and her teaivable

She knew she could make

the arguel shouldn’t know the truth—that it would hinder his recovery, that donor confidentiality could only be breached after massive discussion with the bereavement counselor, that it was best all the way around to keep Angel in the dark It was standard policy to keep the donor’s identity confidential

But there was so much more here than just standard hospital procedure

She was afraid to tell him the truth, afraid of the look that would cross his eyes, afraid of the words he would say to her Words that, once said, could never be unsaid

Because she also knew another truth She didn’t knohen it had come to her, when it had becoel had crept under her skin again It was his spirit—that great, larger-than-life spirit that dared the world to take hiirl, and she found that even as an adult, there was soth of personality, his defiant will to forge his own path

So unlike her oatered-down, Milquetoast will