The Perfect Plan

Fabiola and Alice had seen her through the sprint of freezing her eggs “just in case” and her emergency hysterectomy—only to find out two weeks after surgery that the pathologist had misread the biopsy report, which was benign. She felt a stab of sorrow thinking about how, when Vivi was younger, her face would light up whenever Fabiola entered a room, as if her happiness was suddenly complete. Fabiola could see how intense she must be with her clients. “A criminal investigation? Liz’s face was a shifting canvas of shock, hurt, and anger, before it finally settled into a tight, closed-off expression.