Year Five The Perfect Goodbye Plan novel Chapter 245

Laird Jordan, gravely ill, spent most of his days in the hospital room with his eyes closed, drifting in and out of uneasy rest.

The low murmur of conversation between Silvia and her assistant jolted him awake. His body was so frail now, he couldn’t even sit up on his own; with effort, he managed only to lift his head slightly, casting a wary glance at the two strangers by his bedside.

“Are you… here to see someone else?” His voice was thin and weak.

He was past fifty now, pushing sixty, and the illness had ravaged him. His face was gaunt, skin stretched tight over bone, giving him a haunted, almost skeletal look. Propped against the pillows, every shallow breath seemed to cost him dearly.

He assumed anyone coming into the ward these days must be family of one of the other patients. “I’m afraid they’ve all stepped out,” he added, his words trailing off as he let his head sink back onto the pillow. “It’s just me in here for now. You’ll have to wait a bit.”

His eyelids drooped; exhaustion threatened to pull him under again.

“Mr. Jordan, we’re actually here to see you,” Silvia said, her tone cool but clear, snapping him back from the edge of sleep.

He stared at Silvia in bewilderment, searching his memory for any recollection of these visitors, but after a long moment, he came up empty. Studying their faces, he shook his head and managed a tired, self-mocking smile. “I’m afraid my memory isn’t what it used to be. Would you mind telling me—how do I know you?”

There was a pause. Silvia pressed her lips together, her gaze lingering on the man before her, a man beaten down by sickness, almost unrecognizable from the person he must have once been. A wave of sadness washed over her—a whole family, undone.

She had intended to launch straight into her questions about Gray, but now the words caught in her throat. Laird Jordan looked too pitiful.

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