Chapter 5 - WHAT HE BOUGHT
Emily's first demand the next morning wasn't revenge.
It was pancakes.
“Real ones,” she told Rosa. “Not the wet circles they serve here.”
Lily giggled, then looked startled by her own laugh.
We ate breakfast around Emily's bed. For ten minutes, the room felt almost ordinary.
Then Dana Brooks arrived with a notebook and ruined that illusion.
Dana was an attorney Ortiz had suggested we contact. She listened without interrupting as Emily described the crash, the months she could barely track time, and the papers Ryan brought when she began speaking again.
“What did he say they were?”
“Bills. Permission for therapy. Things to keep our house.”
“Did anyone explain them without him there?”
Emily shook her head.
Before the accident, my sister had owned a small commercial cleaning company. She started with a used vacuum and a dented van. By the time Lily began kindergarten, she employed eighteen people.
Ryan handled the books.
“He told us he sold it to pay your final medical bills,” I said.
Emily's face tightened.
“He told me it was still mine.”
Dana wrote that down.
“We need the actual records. What he told each person may be different.”
Rosa brought the patient file Emily had requested. Some pages were missing; the nursing notes referred to attachments that weren't there.
One form said Emily refused family contact.
“I didn't sign that,” she said.
Another said a relative had confirmed that visits from James would upset her recovery.
My mother's signature sat at the bottom.
I called Mom from the hall.
“How long?”
“Please let me explain.”
“How long have you known she was alive?”
Mom began crying.
“Six weeks.”
I leaned against the wall. In the room, Lily was telling Emily about losing a tooth at school. Six weeks of little things they should have shared.
“He said she didn't recognize anyone,” Mom whispered. “He said seeing Lily would make her worse.”
“So you went to his wedding?”
“I thought if I kept him calm—”
I ended the call.
When I returned, Dana was reading an email on her phone.
Emily's old office manager had answered her inquiry.
The company hadn't been sold yet.
May you like
The closing was scheduled for Monday morning.
And the seller's documents said Emily had personally approved every dollar.
