Chapter 2 - The Price of a Perfect Wedding
At the hospital, a physician ordered imaging while a nurse cut the damaged brace away. My right foot tingled faintly, but the swelling around my knee looked like a second joint had grown beneath the first.
The orthopedic specialist didn't pretend it was minor. The reconstruction had torn, the meniscus was damaged, and there was a fracture near the joint.
“You need another operation,” she told me. “Recovery may take six months or longer.”
Six months. I was a marine claims adjuster. My work took me onto cargo ships and through industrial ports, where you couldn't inspect a damaged crane from a wheelchair. I had a sixty-five-thousand-dollar commission scheduled in two weeks. By morning, that job would belong to someone else.
While the nurse settled my leg, Mom texted: “Sloan cried because you ruined the rehearsal. Apologize by nine or stay away.”
Not a single question about my condition.
I saved the message alongside the video and called Greer, the former supervisor who had taught me how to investigate expensive disasters without panicking.
“I'm in the hospital,” I said.
She went quiet, then asked what I needed.
“A lawyer. Someone to get me home. And someone who won't tell me I'm overreacting.”
“You've got all three,” Greer said.
Before hanging up, she gave me the same advice she'd given me on my first major insurance case. “Keep the original files. Don't delete a damn thing.”
I opened my banking app to make sure the emergency corporate card in my handbag hadn't been compromised. During the confusion, my parents had insisted on carrying the bag for me. I'd recovered it before leaving, but their sudden helpfulness had bothered me.
A pending transaction glowed on the screen.
$42,500.00 — ESTATE CATERING & EVENTS.
The merchant was Sloan's wedding venue.
My stomach tightened. That card was for legitimate work emergencies, not my sister's champagne and imported flowers. I locked it, called the issuer, and reported the charge as unauthorized.
The representative said the payment had been processed with the physical card at 8:14 p.m.—while I was lying on the floor and my father had my handbag.
May you like
Then she mentioned a second authorization attempt for another fifteen thousand dollars.
Someone hadn't merely borrowed my money. Someone had decided my injury was a useful opportunity.
