Chapter 5 - What She Had Chosen
Lauren wanted to explain her father's pain medication, the overdue bills, the way Cole had stood behind her chair while she signed.
All of it mattered.
None of it changed the answer.
“I believed him,” she said. “But I also knew I hadn't checked.”
Maya nodded once.
“We'll be precise about both.”
She referred Lauren to a criminal defense attorney and told her to preserve everything. No calls to former charity staff. No attempts to get people to agree on a story.
When Daniel returned with coffee, Lauren asked him to sit.
“I said I had reviewed the transfers. I hadn't.”
He stared at the paper cup between his hands.
“I read your statement.”
“Cole said Dad could lose his medical care if the charity got sued. He said your theft would drag us all under.”
“So you decided I was disposable.”
Lauren flinched.
“I decided not to ask questions.”
“Same result for me.”
She didn't defend herself.
Beyond the glass, a nurse adjusted Owen's blanket. Ordinary kindness continued while Lauren sat inside the wreckage of her own.
“I'm sorry,” she said.
Daniel stood.
For one awful second, she thought he would leave.
Instead, he moved to the doorway where he could see the children without entering their room.
“My mother died while I was inside. They let me watch her funeral on a screen.”
Lauren couldn't speak.
“I don't know what to do with your apology yet.”
“You don't have to do anything with it.”
He looked back at her then.
“Find the original.”
The twins improved through Christmas Day. That evening, Maya helped Lauren arrange a room with a family-support program for after discharge. Daniel offered to cover a few immediate expenses through Maya's office, with no conditions.
Lauren accepted diapers. She declined a hotel suite he couldn't actually afford.
“I borrowed my sister's SUV,” he admitted. “I'm sleeping on her couch.”
For the first time, she saw the cost of the help he was offering.
Near midnight, an unfamiliar number sent a message.
Don't let him clean out the study.
Then a second.
He says he'll blame you for everything.
Lauren typed one question.
Who is this?
May you like
The reply came before she could set down the phone.
Sierra.
