Chapter 2
I moved Lily and Anna inside a café before asking anything else.
Not because I wanted privacy.
Because Lily was cold.
One of my men bought her hot chocolate and a dry towel. Anna kept apologizing for accepting both.
That irritated me.
People who have been denied enough begin apologizing whenever someone gives them anything without humiliation attached.
“You don’t owe me an apology.”
Anna looked embarrassed.
“I’m not used to…”
She stopped.
“Help?”
She nodded.
Lily was counting the wet coins my bodyguard had recovered from the puddle.
She lined them across a napkin.
Every quarter mattered.
I watched her.
“How much do you need?”
Anna’s face tightened immediately.
“No.”
I looked at her.
“No what?”
“We’re not asking you to pay for it.”
“I didn’t say I would.”
That surprised her.
Good.
I wanted answers before gratitude complicated them.
“How much?”
She swallowed.
“Enough that I stopped checking the total every day.”
That was an answer.
Not a number.
Better.
The surgery itself was partially covered.
The problem was everything around it.
Specialist fees.
Therapy.
Equipment.
Time off work.
Transportation.
Then the hospital foundation had originally approved supplemental assistance.
Three weeks later, it disappeared.
“Who told you?”
“A coordinator.”
“Name?”
“Sarah Bell.”
I memorized it.
“Reason?”
“Funding priorities changed.”
I looked at Maura’s calendar again.
One date was marked with a handwritten M.
Not hospital print.
Someone had written it.
I showed Anna.
“Recognize this?”
“No.”
Lily leaned closer.
“That’s the day Mommy cried in the car.”
Anna closed her eyes.
The canceled review.
I looked at Lily.
“What happened at the hospital?”
“A lady said not yet.”
“What lady?”
She pointed toward the window.
Not at Maura.
At Maura’s reflection.
My body went still.
Anna looked at her daughter.
“Lily?”
“She had shiny earrings.”
Maura wore diamonds.
Maybe coincidence.
Maybe not.
I asked Anna:
“Was Maura at the hospital that day?”
She thought.
Then slowly nodded.
“I saw her near the elevators.”
There it was.
May you like
The calendar was no longer disturbing.
It was operational.
