Chapter 1

The hospital air was cold, too clean.

It smelled like death trying to hide.

I ran down the hall, my lungs burning.

A doctor stopped me, his face grim.

"Mr. Miller? Ethan Miller?"

I nodded, unable to speak.

"I'm so sorry. Your father, Michael... he passed away an hour ago."

The words hit me, but didn't sink in. Not yet.

"What? No. He was getting the procedure today. I have the money."

The doctor looked down.

"He collapsed this morning. His heart gave out. Mr. Miller, your father hadn't been taking his prescribed medication for some time. The expensive ones for his condition."

My blood ran cold.

The medication. The money. Izzy.

Dad did this for Izzy's debt.

He killed himself to help my girlfriend.

A nurse, her eyes soft with pity, handed me a folded piece of paper.

"He left this for you, dear."

I unfolded it with trembling hands. Dad's familiar handwriting, now shaky.

"Ethan, my boy," it started.

"If you're reading this, I'm gone. Don't be sad for too long. Use the money we saved for Izzy. She's a good girl, just down on her luck. Build a good life with her. That's all I want. Love, Dad."

A good girl.

The irony was a bitter taste in my mouth.

The money, $50,000, felt like lead in my jacket pocket.

It was every cent we had, plus loans I'd taken, extra shifts I' d pulled alongside Dad' s overtime at the garage before he got too sick.

He thought Izzy was worth it.

Worth his life.