Chapter 18: Olivia's Health Decline

The paintbrush clattered to the floor, slipping from Olivia's trembling fingers like water. She stared at her hand, willing it to remain steady, but the tremors seemed to gain in ferocity. Frustration bubbled up inside her, threatening to spill over in a torrent of tears and rage. "Come on," she muttered through clenched teeth. "Not now. Please, not now." But her body, once her greatest ally in the creation of art, was now a turncoat. A playground for the imagination that usually lay before her on canvas now mocked her as it was half done. Splashes of color blurred before her eyes; the room tilted slightly as the wave of dizziness came over her. Olivia stumbled to the couch, falling onto it with a deep sigh. Closing her eyes only made her wait for when the world would stop spinning. Opening them again, she saw the calendar that was hanging on her wall. Treatment days circled in red stared back out at her, jarring reminders of what was happening inside her body. With a colossal effo