She Rose from the Ashes

The afternoon they delivered my grim prognosis, Dr. Julian Thorne popped champagne in his lab.

On SnapChat, his and Valerie Shaw's backs were bathed in the sunset, their lab coats gilded gold.

The caption was just one line:

"Ten years, finally a success."

Everyone raved about Dr. Thorne's unwavering devotion, his decade-long research, all to save me.

The nurse, her eyes red-rimmed, passed me her phone as I stared at the fluctuating curves on the monitor.

They didn't know the drug had been ready a year ago.

And I was the only candidate denied access to it.

1