The words hang in the air, thick and heavy. I stare at Grace or ==Seraphina==—processing what she just said. Alexander shifts beside me, arms crossed, but for once, he’s not making some sarcastic remark. He’s just watching her, waiting for her to continue. She exhales slowly. “It’s called Adult ==Metachromatic== ==Leukodystrophy==,” she finally says. “==MLD==. It’s a rare genetic disorder that causes a buildup of fatty substances in the brain and nervous system. The buildup damages the ==myelin== that protects nerve cells, leading to progressive loss of function. It starts when you’re young but can take years to show real symptoms. and there’s no cure; I’m gotta get worse and worse till eventually I’ll spend every day in the hospital. At best, I probably have a year, maybe 2 left.” A shiver runs through me. The room feels like it’s caving in. My vision blurs at the edges, and my chest tightens as if the air has been sucked out. Grace—no, ==Seraphina==—is dying. And I didn’t know. Everything around me suddenly feels false, like the ground beneath me isn’t real. My heart breaks for her, for the weight she’s been carrying alone. How did I not see it? How did she manage to hide something so big? “Grace…” I choke on her name, shaking my head. “How long have you known? Why didn’t you tell us?” She gives me a sad smile, the kind that barely reaches her eyes. “My parents knew it was a possibility. When I didn’t get it as a baby, they had hope. But when I was thirteen and went for my annual check-up, everything changed. Nothing was the same. Hospitals, sympathy, get-well cards, endless tests. It was like my life suddenly had an expiration date. I just wanted to be normal, even for a little while. I figured I’d say something eventually… when it got real bad.” My throat tightens. “You came here knowing you only had a little time left?” She shrugs. “Yeah. I wanted to experience life. I wanted to make friends who didn’t see me as fragile or doomed. I wanted to just… be. Even if it was temporary. My family does own the school so it wasn’t really difficult” “Wait,” I say, something clicking in my brain. “Your family is the ==Everharts==. You’re ==Seraphina== Grace ==Everhart== ==Riveron==. As in ==Riveron== University? Your family basically owns this place.” ==Seraphina== shrugs. “It’s a name. Doesn’t mean much to me.” I blink. “Doesn’t mean much? Your family practically built this school! And yet you ended up in a random dorm room, with a random roommate…” My voice trails off as I realize the absurdity of that. “Why tell us now?” My voice is barely above a whisper. ==Seraphina== hesitates, then glances at the document Alexander printed out. “Because I think this fits into everything that’s happening. I don’t think it’s a coincidence. and it seems you’d have put the pieces together eventually.” Alexander finally speaks up, his voice quieter than usual. “You think your illness is connected to Jasmine? To Lillian’s father? To my family?” She exhales, running a hand through her hair. “I don’t know. But my family has secrets, and I’m starting to think they go deeper than I ever realized. The university. The way my parents handled my diagnosis. The fact that Lillian was assigned to a room with a girl who just happened to be her now missing sister. It doesn’t add up.” I swallow hard, my mind racing. “Do you think your parents knew? That Jasmine was my sister? That we’d all be connected somehow?” The silence stretches between us, suffocating—the air in the room shifts. The thought is horrifying. Did her parents slip up? Did they knowingly put me in that room with my missing sibling? Or worse—was it intentional? I feel sick. My mind races, trying to piece everything together. “We need to find out if this was a mistake… or something worse.” Grace nods, swallowing hard. “If my family had anything to do with this, I need to know. I’ll help. Whatever it takes.” Alexander sighs, running a hand through his hair. “This just keeps getting more complicated, doesn’t it?” I glance at him, my jaw tightening. “It was never simple to begin with.”