Chapter 89

Clara

Exhaustion dragged at my limbs as I slipped through the back door of the hospital and into the expansive parking lot.

The cool night air carried the faint sounds of the city—a distant siren, the hum of cars on the main road, a perpetual vibration of laughter and shouts and voices. A music all its own.

Street lamps left pools of yellowy light against the cracked black tar, threw metallic glin