The hospital room was too quiet now. Machines once alive with beeps and flickers stood silent, the bed stripped bare.
Kevin sat alone in the corner, the plastic wristband still clutched in his hand like a broken promise.
He hadn't moved in hours. The sun had risen and set behind the window, but time no longer made sense to him.
Outside, nurses walked by with careful steps. None of them wanted to be the one to tell him it was time to leave.
No one wanted to look into his eyes and see the emptiness there.
Matt stood in the doorway, torn between stepping inside or turning away forever.
She had tried to speak to him twice, but each time the words dissolved on her tongue.
She hated her father more than she ever had hated that his cold calculations had signed Emily's death warrant as surely as the disease had.
And she hated herself for not fighting harder.
Quietly, she stepped forward. "Kevin…" she whispered.
Kevin didn't look up.
Matt took a slow breath. "The nurses need to… they need to clean the room."
His voice was hoarse, raw. "She's not here anymore. Clean whatever you want."
Matt's eyes stung. She wanted to say I'm sorry, but the words felt so small useless. She stepped closer and gently reached for his hand.
He flinched, but he didn't pull away.
"Kevin, I swear to you your sister will not be forgotten. I promise you that."
His laugh was empty, sharp. "By who? The people who turned her away? The people who let her die?"
She wanted to defend herself, but what defense did she have? Her father had made the rules, and she'd been too afraid to break them until it was too late.
Kevin's eyes finally rose to meet hers red, swollen, dead inside. But somewhere, deep in the ruin, something else flickered: anger.
"You said there was help," he said, voice shaking. "You gave me hope. You knew they'd never help me, didn't you?"
Matt felt her own anger twist inside her. "I thought I could force them. I thought my father would listen to me."
Kevin froze. "Your father?"
She nodded, shame burning her cheeks. "Richard Holloway. He's the administrator."
Kevin stood so fast his chair tipped back. "You knew? All this time you knew he was the one who could save her, and you let me beg him like a stray dog?"
Tears filled her eyes. "I tried, Kevin. I went to him myself. I fought him"
"You should have told me," Kevin snarled. "I could have done more. I could have"
He stopped, words breaking apart like glass. He slammed a fist against the wall so hard Matt jumped.
"She was all I had," he said, his voice barely more than a whisper. "All I had left."
Matt reached for him again, desperate. "Kevin I can't change what happened. But I can make it right. I can help you expose him."
Kevin's eyes snapped to hers raw suspicion flickering behind his grief. "Expose him?"
She nodded. "He's been hiding funds for years. There's proof I know where to find it. If we show what he's done, what he stole, the other families who were turned away they'll destroy him. We can make sure no one else goes through this."
Kevin stared at her for a long time. "Why would you help me now?"
"Because I should have helped you before," she said, her voice steady. "Because it's the only way I can live with myself."
For a long moment, Kevin said nothing. Then, slowly, he sank back into the chair, head in his hands.
Matt stood beside him in the silence. She didn't try to touch him again she knew trust wouldn't come back so easily.
But somewhere in the sterile air between them, a fragile vow formed this wasn't over.
Emily's life would mean something.
And Richard Holloway would pay the price.