Harvey Guillén

Not because he's stubborn, well, okay, partly because he's stubborn, but also because Stephen spent three decades hiding who he was, being the good son, the good husband, the good father.

The straight guy.

And the only times he's ever gotten to breathe have been with Jimmy and Phillip.

So, for Steven, losing Phillip isn't just losing a boyfriend.

It's losing the only version of himself that feels real.

Which is why this escape has to be different.

Permanent.

Stephen can't just break out again.

He needs to make the prison system let him go.

Stephen is in the prison library one day, figuring out his next escape when he comes across the special needs parole.

It's a Texas program that allows for the release of terminally ill inmates.

Stephen gets an idea.

He uses a typewriter to forge medical documents, fake lab results showing he's HIV positive.

Then he uses the prison's internal mail system to slip them into his official medical file.

Next, he has to look the part.

Over the course of 10 months, between 1997 and 1998, Stephen performs the role of a dying man.

He starts losing weight, a lot of weight.

He uses laxatives almost daily, barely eating, making himself look skeletal.

He shuffles when he walks and winces like everything hurts.

He develops a cough.