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She couldn’t separate the woman who asked her to sacrifice her future from the mother who sat in front of her right now. She couldn’t separate the girl who had to give up her dreams from the girl who needed to help her family; she just couldn’t.
    It was not long before Richard woke up again. Even though the medications had made it harder and harder for him to have clear thoughts and moments of clarity, he tried to be completely present and surprisingly energetic in the conversation.
    “So, Dave? Is that right?” he asked.

CHAPTER 7
    Dave knew that Kim’s good cheer was only a pretense. Beneath that façade, there were hidden feelings of guilt and hurt and they came up prominently whenever she saw Judith. What was with these women? — Dave often wondered. Why couldn’t they let things go when they clearly wanted to?
    As he stood there, making small talk with Judith, he felt himself being measured for every word that came out of his mouth. He had not been in a situation like this in a long time — twenty years to be precise, when he had started his business — but the feeling now was more uncomfortable than it was back then. At that time, he had just been looked upon as incapable boy and judged for every breath he took. But today was different.
    And why was it different? Why was he willingly facing this discomfort? The answer came to him the next instant — if he allowed himself to be in this wretched position, it said just one thing about him. He loved Kim.
    “Yes, Dave,” said Dave and stretched out his hand to shake Richard’s. But Richard merely lifted his hand, gesturing him to come closer for a hug.
    Standing close to them, Kim couldn’t believe her eyes. There were no questions, no arguments. Richard would never have hugged another man, let alone a man who was dating one of his daughters. The sight was so overwhelming that she couldn’t control the stream of silent tears. She could not control them, no matter how hard she tried.
    Dave proceeded to hug Richard, and as he did so, he heard him mumble in a voice that was barely audible, “Thank you for bringing her.” Dave just shook his head. He felt an instant camaraderie with this ailing man. His heart felt heavy with the thought that if this man had more time, then they would have perhaps liked each other’s company.
    The rest of the afternoon, Richard kept oscillating between sleep and wakefulness, and whenever he was awake, he would tell Dave about Kim. He told him how she had always wanted to do things the way they were not supposed to be done. He told her how she had run off one evening as she was not given permission for a night out at Beth’s, and had spent all evening hiding in the backseat of his car. “Did you know I had seen you climb in the car, Kim?” he asked. “That was why we never went looking for you.” He chuckled, and the hollow noise echoed in his chest. “And when she saw we had not come for her even by dinnertime, she came back in and announced that we had proven we loved Sammy more than her and had not even noticed her gone.”
    He looked at Dave. “She was so adorably mad at us. You see she didn’t know that Beth was down with fever and we didn’t want her to worry about her best friend. So we didn’t tell her why she couldn’t go over. But Kim…” he looked at Kim and then back at Dave. “You sure you want her? Well she can be a handful.” Another chuckle escaped his mouth, making that hollow echo sound again. “She is the best thing that could have ever happened to us.”
    He looked at Judith now and raised his frail hands. He slipped those hands into hers and laced her fingers. “She will resist and will be mean as hell, but you must know by now that that meanness is only a pretense.”
    Then he grinned at Kim, looking at her knotted eyebrows and the little pout that had formed on her lips, just like the many times it had when anyone spoke of her like a child.
    “Look after her, Dave, even when she