Cedric
The ride to the hospital was mostly quiet.
Lia sat beside me in the back of the taxi, occasionally turning to glance out the window at the city moving past. I kept my eyes on the road ahead, my hands loose in my lap, already bracing myself in the familiar way I always did before hospital visits. The sterile smell of the ward. The steady, mechanical rhythm of the machines. The particular stillness of a room where someone you loved was suspended somewhere between here and somewhere else entirely.
When we arrived, I paid the driver, and we walked together toward the main entrance, the morning sun still low enough to be gentle on the eyes. The lobby was already busy with the particular organized chaos of a hospital at this hour, with staff moving with purpose, visitors carrying flowe
