Too Late to Love Me A Mother's Deadly Regret

On my first birthday after being reclaimed by my birth parents and brought into the James family, I spent fifty cents on a slice of cake scraps for myself.

After I donated bone marrow to my younger sister, Aileen James, the pain never left me.

I made one last wish by the light of a single candle. Then the agony tore through me again, bone-deep and blinding. I curled up against the corner of the table to wait it out, and I never woke up.

When my pulse stopped, the room went dark.

Mom came through the door holding Aileen's hand.