She kissed Olivia’s cheek like one would sign a document—formally, carefully, without emotion.
“You missed the first board meeting of the quarter,” she said. “But I assume you’re caught up on the minutes.”
“I read them,” Olivia replied evenly.
She had. But she also couldn’t care less about the budget discrepancies right now. Not when her throat was still raw from crying in her sterile shower. Not when the desert still echoed in her chest.
“Good.” Evelyn turned back to her chair. “Dinner is at seven.” She paused. “Catherine called. She and Sloane are in Malaysia, I believe. Something about volcanoes. Typical.”
Olivia blinked. Volcanoes? That felt like a parallel universe.
Evelyn sat down again and opened her journal. “And Rosalind…” Her voice clipped. “Texted. Briefly.”
Olivia’s phone buzzed in her coat pocket. She pulled it out.
One message, from Roz. “Survived?”
That was it.
No welcome back. No missed you. Just that. Olivia laughed under her breath. It was a dry, sandpaper sound.
She heard a shuffle of movement down the hall.
Lillian.
She appeared in the doorway, blouse half-buttoned, her blonde hair a bit too unkempt for Evelyn’s standards. She looked like she’d sprinted here in between rounds.
“Hey,” Lillian said, breathless.
Olivia opened her arms, and Lillian hesitated just a beat.
Then she stepped in.
The hug was real but short. Her sister’s arms were warm, but her body already leaned away like she had somewhere else to be.
“Sorry,” Lillian said as she pulled back. “I’ve got thirty patients and no attending backing me up today.”
Olivia gave a soft smile. “Still breaking yourself in two to be all things for everyone?”
Lillian didn’t answer, just smiled tightly and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear.
“Welcome back,” she said. “Sort of.”
And then she was gone, heels clicking down the hall toward the garage.
Olivia stood there, the silence reclaiming the space behind her, Evelyn’s voice filling it in its place.
“You’ll need to prepare for the advisory panel next week. Dr. Kapoor made a mess of the ortho numbers.”
“Of course,” Olivia said automatically.
But her voice felt strange in this place now. It was brittle, too loud and too quiet all at once.
She wandered upstairs, the family portrait at the landing still frozen in a time she didn’t recognize anymore: Catherine’s perfect posture, Roz’s rebellious smirk, Lillian’s wide-eyed hope, and Olivia’s carefully neutral mask.
That girl was gone now.
And she wasn’t sure who this new woman was becoming.
