“All right,” Mom said.
“I’m handling the hospital separately.
Your surgery comes first.”
For the first time since Ethan admitted what he’d done, I felt air reach the bottom of my lungs.
“Mom—”
“You and the baby are first.
Everything else comes after.”
Ethan seized on that.
“See? It’s fixed.
Her mother can replace it.”
My mother went silent.
Then she said, “Ethan, did you just describe stealing one hundred thousand dollars from your hospitalized wife as something I can fix by paying twice?”
He looked away.
Mara muttered, “This is insane.”
My mother’s papers shifted again.
“Clara, I need you to answer one more thing.
Did Ethan tell you where the money went?”
“Mara’s debts.”
“Directly to Mara?”
I looked at Ethan.
“Where did you send it?”
He rubbed both hands over his face.
“It doesn’t matter.”
My mother’s voice sharpened for the first time.
“It matters very much.”
Mara stepped between him and my bed.
“He paid people I owed.
That’s all.”
“How much did you owe?” I asked.
She hesitated.
That hesitation told me there was more.
“Mara?”
“A lot.”
“One hundred thousand dollars?”
“Approximately.”
My eyes dropped to her bag.
She followed my gaze and flushed.
“Don’t start with the bag.”
“You came into my hospital room carrying something you bought today after my surgery money disappeared.”
“I used my own card.”
“Then show me.”
Mara laughed, but the sound was thin.
“I don’t have to prove anything to you.”
My mother interrupted.
“No, you don’t.
The bank records will do that.”
Ethan lunged for my phone.
A nurse entered at exactly that moment.
She stopped when she saw him leaning over me.
“Sir, step away from the patient.”
He straightened immediately.
“We’re just having a family discussion.”
The nurse looked at the monitor, then at my face.
“Mrs.
Bennett, do you want them in here?”
Nobody had asked me that yet.
