A Painful Reminder

Elara's heels clicked against the sterile hospital floor, her mind a whirlwind of thoughts about the meeting she'd just left. Her steps faltered when a familiar, overly confident voice rang out behind her.

"Elara," the voice drawled, the kind of tone that made her shoulders immediately tense. "Fancy seeing you here."

She turned slowly, already bracing herself for the onslaught of annoyance that was Eirik. He stood there, his perfect hair slicked back like he'd borrowed a gallon of oil from a nearby car garage, his smirk so smug it could power a city's worth of streetlights.

"What do you want, Eirik?" she asked, crossing her arms.

Eirik chuckled, a sound so grating it might as well have been nails on a chalkboard. "No need to be so cold, darling. I was just here to pay my respects to Gerald. You know, as a concerned… friend of the family."