A Taste of Tenderness

The sterile silence of the hospital room stretched on. The heavy weight of the night slowly gave way to the pale, creeping light of morning filtering through the slatted blinds. Declan remained in the stiff chair beside the bed. His chest felt hollowed out, hollowed by the echoing sounds of Clara’s desperate, sleep-bound pleas to her dead father. The raw agony in her voice had stripped away his us