I looked up at him, wide eyed. If he noticed my stunned reaction, he didn’t show it. Grayson lifted Uncle up, putting one arm over his shoulder as I did the same, and silently put Uncle to bed—in his bed. My heart lurched. The Grayson the world knew would never do something like this.

The Grayson I knew? I wouldn’t doubt it.

So why was he always trying to show me the lie?

Grayson ripped out his phone, muttering fast, furious words into the receiver. I caught ambulance, doctor, paramedic. Meanwhile I stared at my uncle’s passed-out, white-as-a-sheet face, the truth I didn’t want to acknowledge staring back at me.

Grayson turned to me, furious. “What the hell is happening?”

“Cancer,” I croaked, barely above a whisper. I swallowed, saying more clearly, “He has cancer.”

And apparently wouldn’t fucking stop lying about it, either.

“It’s back? How long have you known?”

“I mean, since right after the Fourth, but he said…he said he was getting better.”

He turned from me on a curse.

A thought popped into my head, and a new fear bubbled up my throat. I grabbed Grayson’s wrist, trying to get him to face me.

“Please don’t tell anyone, Grayson. Please. If word gets out, he’ll lose his job.”

Grayson’s eyes narrowed. “We don’t fire people for having cancer.”

I rolled my eyes. “And you call me naïve.”

An awkward silence bloomed.

I let go of his wrist, realizing I was still holding it.

“That’s why you agreed to do this. The contract. All of it. Because of him.”

I couldn’t exactly deny it. It was the truth, after all. Somewhere along the way, though, I’d stopped thinking about it.

Grayson rubbed the ninety-degree angle at his jaw, and I noticed it looked like he hadn’t shaved.

A strange look crossed his face. Guilt? That couldn’t be right.

“Please, Grayson,” was all I said.

Raw hurt bled from his face. “You really think I’d do that?”

I didn’t know what he’d do.

“Grayson!” The voice ripped both of our attention away.

“Lottie, what? How did you get in—” Lottie jumped into Grayson’s arms, kissing him hard. He looked into my eyes, until I tore my eyes away, back to Uncle.

When it rains, it pours most people said.

My mom always said when you bleed, you’re a cut away from bleeding out.

She was fucked like that.

“Oh, what…” Lottie’s enthusiasm drained, spotting Uncle. “What’s going on?”

As if in answer, a horde of paramedics rushed his room, taking the stairs two at a time. Lottie grasped Grayson’s hand as paramedics strapped my uncle to a board, carrying him down the stairs.

“I better—” I started.

“Yeah,” Grayson finished.

GRAY

“That was intense,” Lottie said, a few minutes after everyone had cleared out.