The ICU waiting room was frozen in a kind of artificial stillness that felt cruelly inappropriate for the moment. The lights hummed softly overhead, too bright, too clean, illuminating chairs that were never meant for people to sit in for hours while their lives quietly threatened to collapse. My father was behind those doors, surrounded by machines that breathed and beeped in his place, and every second stretched like a thin wire pulled too tight.

I sat with my hands folded in my lap, staring at the floor, replaying memories I wasn’t ready to lose—his laugh, his advice, the way he always answered the phone with warmth even when he was tired. When my phone vibrated, my heart leapt violently. For a split second, I was sure it was the hospital. Instead, it was my husband. “Send me $20,000. Now. It’s urgent.” The words felt unreal, like a typo my brain refused to correct. I reread them twice, then three times. My fingers hovered as I typed back that I was in the ICU and my father might not survive the night.