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article, or how she’d seen it. Cassia wanted to ask Adalynn

where she’d been for six months, why she was suddenly there,

because what she’d said was too crazy to be believed. It didn’t

make sense. But then Cassia’s brain finally kicked into a

working mode, and she realized where she was. In a hospital.

Which cost money.

She struggled, her fingers fluttering around the IV taped

into her hand, the wires leading up to the machines that were

humming and beeping. Hospitals cost money. She couldn’t

imagine how much money. She had no health insurance. What

did they do? Release a person with a bill that they could never

hope to pay? Would people try to collect on it? Debt

collectors?

“I’m going to pay your bill,” Adalynn whispered. “I already

checked, and I know you don’t have any insurance.”

Cassia grunted. She forced her eyes open, forced herself to

look at Adalynn’s face, but she saw only kindness there.

Kindness that couldn’t be mistaken for anything else, even

with her blurry vision. Adalynn wasn’t doing this for

something in return. She didn’t have a hidden agenda. Still.

Cassia knew she couldn’t accept that kind of generosity.

“Can’t,” she whispered thickly.

Adalynn shook her head. Her jet-black hair was combed out

and fell around her shoulders in simple waves. She was hardly

wearing any makeup. She had purple smudges under her eyes.

She looked tired, but pretty. Natural, in that way that people

look when they wake up first thing in the morning. Cassia’s

eyes hovered lower and she took in Adalynn’s plain black

blouse tucked into a pair of high-waisted mom jeans that she

managed to rock, even sitting down.