The world seemed to tilt on its axis and this time, there was no one standing steady enough to catch me. The ground felt like it was moving.
Dr. Julian. Our doctor. Our family doctor. The man who'd patched up my scraped knees when I fell down when I was six. The man who checked my temperature when I had the flu and I couldn't go to school. The man who sat with Mom through every hard day since Dad "died." He brought us soup. He checked Mom's blood pressure. He was at every birthday, every Christmas, standing in our kitchen with a smile.
He wasn't just a stranger pulling strings from the shadows, far away. He wasn't a nameless investor in another country. He was part of our lives. Part of our daily life. Part of our family. We trusted him.
"You?" Dad breathed, stepping forward. His voice
