Sign the Papers Mr. Langford novel Chapter 459

His mind flashed back to the year Daisy spent in rehab overseas.

Back then, she refused to do her physical therapy. Whenever the nurses came to get her, she would curl up in bed and refuse to speak. Julian would coax her through video calls, telling her to push through just one more time, promising she could rest once she finished today's session.

Daisy had stared into the camera, her eyes bloodshot and swollen.

"Julian, you all tell me to push through, but I'm the one who hurts."

He hadn't been able to say anything for a long time after that.

He was a doctor. He was used to quantifying pain on a scale, used to telling patients which pain to tolerate and which required intervention. But to Daisy, pain was just pain. She wasn't a set of recovery metrics that needed to be optimized.

Later, they switched to a different therapist.

The first time that therapist met her, she only asked, "Where do you want to start today?"

Daisy had replied, "I don't want to start."

The therapist nodded. "Then let's just sit for five minutes."

Those five minutes hadn't cured any illness.

But they were the reason Daisy was willing to take another step the next day.

That was exactly what drew him to Stellaris.

They had built the "I don't want to" into the system.

This wasn't Wren's personal crusade.

It was about patient rights.

Two sharp knocks on the office door pulled him out of his thoughts.

Daisy peeked her head in, holding a takeout bag.

"Julian, you skipped lunch again, didn't you?"

Julian looked up. "What are you doing here?"

"Check-up," she said, setting the food on his desk. "And figured I'd swing by to see if that anonymous email made you cry."

Julian leveled a flat look at her. "Do I look like I'd cry?"

Daisy sat across from him. "You cried on the balcony when Dad yelled at you when we were kids."

Julian sighed. "I was eight."

"History is evidence."

She laughed at her own joke.

But as her gaze drifted to the clinical statement on his desk, her smile slowly faded into something more serious.

"Did the hospital give you trouble?"

"They just followed protocol and asked some questions."

"Did they ask if you like Wren?"

Julian's pen stopped moving.