She waved.

Samuel froze.
Then she smiled—softly, shyly—
and something in the boy brightened.

From that day on, Samuel returned.
They talked through the open window, shared chalk drawings on the garden stones, played card games through the bars, and laughed in a way Hannah hadn’t in years.

Samuel became her secret joy.
Her real friend.
And the only person who noticed something strange about her “treatment.”

Hannah wasn’t getting better.
She was getting weaker—
not from illness,
but from the way Veronica and a private physician, Dr. Lennox, kept insisting she needed more “rest,”
more “adjustments to her routine,”
and more medications that turned her dizzy and tired.