Sarah left before sunrise.
She pulled her veil low and walked fast through the quiet streets.
Shops were starting to open, and people lined up at the bus stop.
Sarah stood patiently in line.
She had not told the twins where she was going today, and she left them in Laura’s care.
She wanted to return home before the garment shop opened at ten.
She had told Laura the only reason she had come back to this city despite the danger.
Her last doctor had referred her to the best in the field, located here in Costa Verde.
Two years ago, she went to a doctor about her blurring eyes.
He shone a light into her eyes, ran a few tests, and went quiet.
When he finally spoke, Sarah sat stunned, unable to form a single word.
The doctor wrote a name and an address on his prescription pad and pushed it toward her.
“If anyone alive can save your sight, it’s this man, Miss Larson,” he said.
“He’s the best there is, but the best never comes cheap.
He’s a long way from here.
You might need to wait longer before he could see you.”
Sarah read the name, then froze for the second time when she saw the location of the clinic.
Costa Verde.
The last place on earth she should ever set foot in.
She decided to come anyway.
For two years, she saved what she could—skipping meals, mending her own clothes twice over, telling herself the twins didn’t notice she wasn’t eating.
She knew one consultation wouldn’t be enough.
Even the lab tests could cost her a fortune.
She saved whatever she could to see this man, and today was that day.
When Sarah arrived at the clinic, it was already seven in the morning.
The receptionist had just opened and confirmed her appointment.
The waiting room only had three people waiting.
They glanced at her as she took a seat in the far corner, waiting for her name to be called.
She waited for an hour before a nurse opened the door and read a name off a clipboard.
“Emelia Larson?”
Sarah stood.
She had learned to stop reacting to her real name and lived with a new one.
She followed the nurse down the hall to a room and let them take her vital signs before seeing the doctor.
Then they asked her to sit and wait for the doctor.
A man in a white coat came in a moment later.
He was older than she had pictured.
He was reading the lab results Sarah had taken the day before, at his request.
“I’m Dr.
Reyes,” he said.
He sat down and placed the thin folder on his desk.
“You’ve come a very long way to see me, Miss Larson.
Dr.
Winters already emailed me your file and medical history.
How do you feel now?”
“My eyes,” Sarah said.
“There are times I can barely see a thing aside from forms and shadows, and sometimes I get really bad headaches.
They are getting more frequent.”
“When did it start?”
“About two years ago.
I thought it was because of being overworked, but the headaches come and go.”
Dr.
Reyes gestured for Sarah to sit in front of an eye machine.
Sarah rested her chin in place and looked at the lenses, waiting patiently for the doctor’s instructions.
Then, she was asked to read a chart with the alphabet.
“Read the top and second line for me, Miss Larson,” he said.
Sarah read.
The letters looked big and dark.
She could read them just fine.
The third, fourth, and fifth lines were a bit smaller, but she still managed to read them.
However, when she reached the sixth and seventh lines, Sarah struggled to make out the letters.
The eighth and ninth lines were impossible to read anymore.
“I’m sorry,” Sarah said.
“There’s nothing to apologize for, Miss Larson.
I’ve read the results of your CTV and MRV.
We’ve found blood clots in your optic veins, and pressure on the nerves that cause your headaches.
I can prescribe you blood thinners to see if the clots would dissolve on their own, but the pressure on your eyes can’t be treated with medication alone.”
Sarah held her breath.
She already expected to hear something like this from the doctor.
“Have you ever had a head injury before?” he asked.
Sarah hesitated to answer.
She didn’t want to say anything about the car crash seven years ago.
Not even her twins knew about it.
Still, she knew hiding it could make things worse.
“I was in a car collision years ago.
I came out just fine, or so I thought.
I never thought I had any injuries aside from the one on my face.”
“Did the doctors run some tests on you?”
Sarah shook her head, her face warm.
“I didn’t have enough money to pay for it,” she admitted.
“I left the hospital after signing a waiver.”
Dr.
Reyes set his lens down and folded his hands.
“The damage has been there all along, Miss Larson, behind your eyes.
You might have wrongly assumed it was nothing.
The crash hurt something deep in your head.
You felt fine for a while, until you weren’t.
It’s progressing as we speak.”
Sarah nodded.
“The parts I can still see are getting smaller.”
“Without treatment, they’ll keep shrinking until there’s nothing left.”
The room went quiet.
Her own heart pounded in her ears.
“How long?” she asked.
“Months,” Dr.
Reyes replied.
“Maybe a year, if you’re lucky.
The last stage goes fast, though.
You might wake up one day, and everything is dark, and it will stay dark.”
Months, Sarah thought.
She has only months to see her children’s faces clearly before she couldn’t.
“Is there any way to fix it?”
“There is.” The doctor stood and pulled open a drawer nearby.
He took out a printed sheet, checked the lab test she should take and placed it in front of her.
“Surgery could fix the blood clots and remove the pressure on your eyes.
It needs to happen soon, Miss Larson, before the damage moves too far.”
Sarah read the page.
The numbers were blurry, but she made out enough.
The cost sat at the bottom, huge and clear.
It was money she could never earn from sewing and mending clothes alone.
She had expected the consultation and the surgery to be costly, but she didn’t expect it would cost an arm and a leg just to afford it.
“I can’t pay this, Doctor…” She stared at the numbers.
“I don’t have this kind of money.”
The old Sarah Emilia De Luca would have, but she’s now Emelia Larson—a person with no money in her name.
“The government offers medical assistance.
You seem to be a native of this country.
You could apply for the program if you want.
You only need to provide your valid ID and an address on file—”
“I don’t have any of those, Doctor.
I’m sorry…”
She couldn’t leave any proof that might be used to track her down.
Not when she’s in Moretti territory.
She wasn’t even certain if her family’s enemies were still trying to find her.
“I wish I had a better answer, Miss Larson.”
He wrote again in his prescription pad and tore the page off.
“This is for the pain.
The eye drops would help ease the dryness.
Take the medications on time and come and see me once you finish all the doses.
I want to see if they affect your blood clots.
It won’t stop what’s already happening, but it’ll help ease the headaches.”
Sarah took the paper and stood.
“Thank you, Doctor.”
“Come back if anything happens,” Dr.
Reyes added.
“If it progresses too fast, or if you find a way to cover the cost, we operate.
The sooner, the better.”
She nodded and walked out of the room and the clinic.
She went straight to the nearby pharmacy to buy her medication and eye drops.
It cost the same as a week’s wages.
Thankfully, George had turned down her request to pay the rent above his shop.
Otherwise, Sarah would be beating herself up again trying to find the money she needed for her medicines.
The street was loud and busy.
People moved past her without giving her a second look.
She was just a woman in a veil walking alone.
Sarah turned into a narrow alley and stopped.
She pressed a hand to her mouth and sobbed.
Her entire body shook.
She hadn’t let herself cry in months.
Not since she found out her sight was fading.
She had lost things before.
She had lost her parents, her face, her name, her husband.
She had learned to live for years without all of it.
But her eyes were something she could not afford to lose right now.
She still wanted to see her children’s sleeping faces.
She still wanted to see their smiles.
She couldn’t imagine a world where she couldn’t see them.
Without her eyes, she would be a burden to her young children.
They were already six years old and had suffered enough.
She could not ask them to suffer any more than they already had.
Somewhere in the city, she knew there was another way—a family with enough money to support her children.
Whatever else the Morettis were, they had more than enough to give Alec and Abby everything she never could.
Warm beds, full plates, and the best doctors in the world if they ever fell sick.
A name that could easily open every door of opportunity.
All she had to do was give them up.
But she couldn’t.
“I’m sorry,” she said between her sobs.
“I know I should let you go.
I know a good mother would.
But I can’t.”
God help her, because she couldn’t.
She was selfish and wanted to keep them by her side.
However, she knew there was a limit on what she could do for them.
“Just a little longer,” she whispered to no one.
“Let me keep you just a little longer.
Mommy would find a way so we can stay together a little longer.”
Sarah forced herself to calm down.
She wiped the tears from her face, pulled her veil in place, and gathered her medications.
She had her eye drops and pills now.
It wasn’t a cure, but it was something.
She would keep going.
For the twins, she would keep going.