-Roxy Delgado:
When Sloane closed the door behind her and the click of the latch echoed down the corridor, I felt something in me rearrange.
It wasn't the same stupid flutter I used to get when a bartender winked at me. It was colder, cleaner, a knife sliding into place. She'd refused. Nobody says no to me.
My brothers filed in like they always did: loud, heavy, taking up space the way we were taught to do in the world. My mother hovered at the edge of the bed with that careful, brittle smile she kept when she wanted to seem calm. My father's face was closed off, that old man gravity settling around him—he'd tried his best to smooth things out with polite words, but even his diplomacy had limits.
Kyle sat down hard in the chair, the air around him charged. "Mom said the doctor said no," he said, like it was a confession he kept needing to make to himself. He kept looking at me like maybe I'd change my mind if he looked hard enough.
I didn't. Not for any of them.
