Chapter 17 - The Sentence on the Page
I read Ruth's handwritten instruction until the words stopped looking like words.
"Unavailable," I said. "Not sick. Not bleeding. Unavailable."
Daniel took the paper from me. "Mom was planning to keep you from stopping the deal. Maybe she didn't know what would happen to you."
I stared at him.
He exhaled hard. "Listen to me. That's not a defense. She had a chance to help you, and she chose something else. I know that."
"I need you to say it without looking for a softer explanation," I told him.
He nodded. "My mother abandoned you when you were begging for help."
The words hurt both of us. But for the first time, I didn't feel as if I had to prove my pain.
Over the next several days, Ortiz gathered the phone records, nursing notes, camera clips, forged documents, and witness statements. She warned us that investigations take time and that charging decisions weren't hers alone. Avery separately worked to stop the property transfer and protect the business from new borrowing.
I hated how ordinary the days still looked. Lunch arrived on a plastic tray. Nurses changed dressings. Daniel forgot where he'd parked. Sofia gained an ounce, then lost half of it. Our lives were a mess of tiny numbers and enormous consequences.
June visited every afternoon. One day she brought a stuffed yellow duck with a crooked wing.
"This thing looks like it's been through a fight," I said.
"Then it belongs with your daughter."
I laughed for the first time in a week. Then I cried because laughing pulled at my incision. June stayed and held the duck until I could breathe normally again.
That night Daniel told me his mother had hired a lawyer. Through counsel, Ruth wanted a private meeting to "clear up misunderstandings."
"You don't have to see her," he said.
"I know."
May you like
I looked through the glass toward Sofia's incubator and thought about the hours I'd spent calling into a dark hallway.
"Tell them I'll listen," I said. "But she doesn't get to decide what happens afterward."
