Chapter 13: When the Music Stops, the Voice Remains

Some people vanish when the storm hits. Others find a way to stay — even if it's just by heart.

Stephen had known both kinds.

There was a girl once. She said she’d be there. She said she’d call. But when things got hard — when he got sick, when his memory began to break, when the silence from Honey hurt more than his tumor — she disappeared.

No anger. No explanation. Just distance.

But this chapter isn’t about her.

This chapter is about the one who didn’t leave. Who stayed when the world collapsed.

Sheri.

Not blood. Not romantic. Not tied by law. But a daughter in every way that mattered.

Sheri knew how Stephen spoke before the seizures. She could tell, from just a text, when his hands were shaking. She noticed when he forgot words, when his balance faltered, when his voice slowed. And she never made him feel ashamed.

She called him “Daddy.” She told him, “I’m not going anywhere.”

She saw the full weight of what he carried — and instead of running, she stepped in. Quietly. Fiercely.

When Honey vanished — when even emails went unanswered — Sheri was the one who watched it happen in real time.

She saw Stephen writing those messages. Saw him re-reading them. Saw him whisper to himself:
“Maybe tomorrow.”

She didn’t try to fix it. She didn’t slander Honey. She just stayed.

There was a day Stephen broke down. No drama. Just quiet collapse. He looked up and said:
“You’re the only one who still sees me.”

Sheri didn’t flinch. She replied:
“You’ll always be seen. And not just by me.”

She was the one who told the truth when Stephen doubted himself:
“She’ll remember you. Even if she can’t say it now. You are her home.”

And in the will, when he left everything in place — the life insurance, the estate, the documents — he gave Sheri something else:

Custody of memory.

She would be the one to hand Honey the envelope. To tell her gently, “He left this for you.” To say,
“You meant more than you’ll ever know.”

Because Sheri didn’t just protect Stephen’s body. She protected his story.

And so in the end, this chapter closes with two women:
One who disappeared when it mattered.
And one who stayed, not because she had to,
but because she chose to carry love through to the end.