“I……I'm sorry.”
“Louder!” The live chat flooded the screen.
“I……I apologize. It was my fault.”
Wyatt forced the words out through his teeth, then turned on his heel and stalked off.
Sienna wired me the money right then and there, hugged Toby, and cried all over again. The stream shot straight to number one across every platform.
I gripped my phone, staring at the seven figures that had appeared in my account, my throat tight.
Grandma's surgery was finally covered.
The chat was all telling me the same thing.
“Quit now, girl! This dump of a hospital doesn't deserve you!”
I wanted to leave too.
But my internship still had a week to go.
Without that internship certificate, I couldn't get my degree.
One week. I could grit my teeth and get through it.
What I didn't expect was that early the next morning, Sienna came rushing back into the hospital with Toby in her arms.
“Faith! Toby won't eat again at home! I already swapped all the kibble bags for clear ones, so why still won't he eat?”
I froze for a second.
Wyatt poked his head out of the exam room, and the moment he saw Sienna had come looking for me again, his face darkened.
He ran Toby through another full checkup, then walked back out with a cold smirk.
“Everything's perfectly normal. So, Faith, aren't you supposed to be so brilliant? How come your little trick isn't working this time?”
Sienna didn't want her followers to worry, so she kept the stream running. Tens of thousands of people were watching.
Toby was set down on the exam table, curled into a tight ball, not making a sound.
I leaned in close and asked softly.
“Toby, what's wrong? Why won't you eat again? Tell me, and I'll help you.”
Toby said nothing.
Wyatt was filming the whole thing beside me.
“Come take a look, everyone. This is our hospital's little intern. She got lucky and guessed right once, and now she's putting on a whole psychic act. Well? Found the cause yet?”
People in the chat started to doubt.
“Yeah, why isn't it working this time?”
“Last time was probably just a blind squirrel finding a nut, right?”
“What about that million-dollar reward? Shouldn't she give it back?”
Wyatt shoved his phone right up into my face.
“Can't find the cause, can you? Fine. If you can't explain it this time, I won't sign your internship certificate, and you can kiss that degree goodbye.”
“Oh, right. And shouldn't that bracelet be mine too?”
I clenched my fists.
But Toby stayed silent.
The coworkers crowded around started whispering to one another, someone murmuring.
“Probably really was just luck.”
“She's an intern. How could she be that good?”
“Right? A million dollars would feed her for years. Of course she's faking it.”
“I knew she was a con artist!”
“A million dollars! She actually dared to take money like that?”
“My heart breaks for Sienna. Just got her hopes up and then had cold water dumped on them.”
Sienna looked at me, the trust in her eyes crumbling little by little:
“Faith, that million dollars……if it really was just luck, I hope you'll give it back to me. I can pretend none of this ever happened.”
But that money, I'd already paid forward for Grandma's surgery.
The pressure bore down on me like a mountain.
I held Toby, my palms slick with sweat.
And just when I was about to crack.
Toby suddenly moved.
A faint little voice rose up.
“The reason I won't eat is……”
The instant I heard that voice, I froze where I stood.
