Sign the Papers Mr. Langford novel Chapter 156

Martha turned and disappeared back into the kitchen.

Her silhouette looked painfully thin.

Daisy stared down at the bowl of soup, sitting in silence for a long time before she whispered, "I made her sad again."

Julian sat down across from her. "Her being sad doesn't automatically mean you were wrong."

Daisy looked up at him. "Is that what you tell your patients too?"

"It's what I should be telling my own family even more."

Daisy managed a weak laugh, but her gaze quickly dropped again. "Julian, I'm not trying to be a rebel. I'm just terrified that if I stop speaking up, 'patient' will be the only identity I have left."

Julian watched her closely, withholding his reply.

He clearly remembered the first time Daisy woke up after her initial surgery. Her face had been paler than the pillow beneath her, but her first question wasn't about the pain, nor was it asking for water.

She had asked, "Julian, will I still be able to draw?"

He had been seventeen at the time.

Back then, the York family hadn't been weighed down by this suffocating heaviness.

Their father, Samuel York, was an engineer at the city medical device factory, and their mother was a middle school teacher. Julian was at the top of his class, and Daisy loved to draw. They hadn't been wealthy, but their weekends were spent at the park, and they survived the scorching summers by chilling watermelons in ice water.

Then Daisy was diagnosed with complex congenital heart disease.

Their savings bled out into hospital bills like water down a drain.

Desperate to build a nest egg for her surgeries, Samuel took on freelance repair jobs for out-of-town equipment companies. He traveled relentlessly for three straight months. On his final trip home, he was killed in a pileup on the highway.

After that, Julian's entire life was violently wrenched onto a different track.

He had originally intended to study mathematics.

Instead, he applied for medical school.

It wasn't born out of some grand, noble ideal.

"What about me?"

"Did you become a doctor to actually change things, or just to prove that Dad's death wasn't completely in vain?"

Julian's fingers flinched ever so slightly.

The running water from the kitchen sink echoed in the background. Martha either hadn't heard the question, or had heard it and was too terrified to step out.

The living room lights cast a warm glow, yet left that piercing question nowhere to hide.

A long time passed before Julian finally answered. "It used to be the latter."

"And now?" Daisy whispered.

Julian's eyes drifted toward the bookshelf, landing on the battered toolbox their father had left behind.

Inside lay a rusted screwdriver, a frayed equipment maintenance manual, and an old photograph of Samuel York taken on the factory floor during his youth.

"Now, I'm trying my best to make it the former."