Chương 10
Dr. Patel crossed his arms.
“Then I would document that.”
My eyes burned.
“Would you say Boston is unreasonable?”
“No.”
“Even if it’s experimental?”
“Experimental does not mean irrational.”
He chose the next words carefully.
“She is eligible for evaluation because there is a medically supportable reason to evaluate her.”
I pressed my lips together.
“Thank you.”
“Do not thank me for facts.”
Then he walked away.
Calvin watched him go.
“I like him.”
“So do I.”
Dana’s phone rang.
She answered immediately.
“Yes, Dana Wu.”
She listened.
Her eyes moved to Calvin.
“No, I’m not representing the buyer.”
Another pause.
“I’m contacting you because there may be material misrepresentations in the financing and collateral documents.”
She walked a few steps away.
Calvin lowered his voice.
“We need the petition.”
“How?”
“Vanessa sends it, or we find the filing.”
“Can you check now?”
“Yes.”
He pulled out his phone.
I sat beside Holly.
For the next ten minutes, the room filled with small sounds.
Typing.
The hiss of oxygen.
The wheels of a cart in the hallway.
A child crying somewhere nearby.
Holly opened her eyes once and looked at me.
I leaned close.
“Busy morning.”
She squeezed my fingers once.
I smiled.
“That was not a yes-or-no question.”
Another squeeze.
“Bossy.”
Her eyes closed again.
I rubbed lotion into her thumb.
The strawberry smell rose between us.
My mother had hated artificial strawberry.
She always said it smelled like a candy factory losing a lawsuit.
The memory arrived so suddenly I almost heard her voice.
I wanted her there.
Not the version of her everyone praised at funerals.
The actual woman.
Impatient.
Suspicious.
Too willing to correct people in public.
The woman who had apparently seen something in Derek before I did.
I was angry with her for being dead.
It was a childish anger.
I let myself have it anyway.
Calvin looked up from his phone.
“I found a filing.”
My stomach dropped.
“Filed when?”
“Yesterday afternoon.”
“By Derek?”
“By counsel.”
“What counsel?”
He frowned.
“Martin Pell.”
“Do you know him?”
“Yes.”
The way he said it bothered me.
“Is he good?”
“He is aggressive.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“He is competent.”
“Great.”
Calvin scrolled.
“It’s an emergency petition for temporary guardianship and appointment of a financial conservator.”
“Who does he want appointed?”
Calvin’s eyes moved across the screen.
Then he stopped.
“Not himself.”
“What?”
“He names a professional fiduciary.”
“Who?”
“Ruth Ellison.”
Dana ended her call and came back.
“Who is Ruth Ellison?”
Calvin looked at her.
“A licensed professional guardian.”
“Connected to Derek?”
“I don’t know yet.”
I felt strangely relieved.
“If he isn’t trying to appoint himself, maybe this isn’t about stealing the trust.”
Calvin looked at me.
“Do not get comfortable.”
“What?”
“He is asking the court to suspend your authority over medical and financial decisions pending review.”
The relief vanished.
“On what basis?”
He scrolled.
“Alleged reckless depletion of family assets.”
My hands went cold.
“Because of Holly’s treatment.”
“Yes.”
“What else?”
Calvin’s mouth tightened.
“Alleged emotional instability.”
I looked away.
“Of course.”
“Documented marital conflict.”
“The slap.”
“Possibly.”
“What else?”
He hesitated.
“An allegation that you concealed material information about Holly’s prognosis and refused to consider palliative recommendations.”
I stared at him.
“That is false.”
“I know.”
“No one recommended that we stop treatment.”
“Then it can be rebutted.”
“Who said it?”
“It cites statements from Derek.”
“That is not evidence.”
“Not by itself.”
“Anyone else?”
He scrolled farther.
His face changed.
“What?”
“There is an attached declaration.”
“From who?”
He did not answer immediately.
“Calvin.”
“Vanessa.”
The room seemed to narrow around me.
I stood.
“No.”
He turned the phone toward me.
Her name was there.
Vanessa Reed.
Signed declaration.
I could barely read the text.
The words blurred.
“What did she say?”
Calvin read silently for several seconds.
Then he looked at me.
“She says she observed you become increasingly erratic as Holly’s condition worsened.”
I laughed because the alternative was something worse.
“Erratic.”
“She says you refused practical discussions about finances.”
“Practical discussions.”
“She says you threatened Derek.”
“I threatened to leave him.”
“That may be what she means.”
“What else?”
Calvin’s jaw tightened.
“She says you repeatedly insisted Holly would recover despite medical evidence.”
“That is a lie.”
Dana pulled a chair closer.
“Sit down.”
“I don’t want to sit down.”
“Then don’t.”
I hated her for saying exactly what I needed.
Calvin kept reading.
“She says she became concerned that your decisions were being driven by grief rather than medical reality.”
My throat closed.
For a moment I could not speak.
Then I whispered, “She signed that.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“The declaration is dated three days ago.”
Three days ago.
Vanessa had brought me soup three days ago.
She had sat beside Holly’s bed and complained that the cafeteria charged six dollars for a sandwich that tasted like a sponge.
She had rubbed my shoulders while I cried in the bathroom.
Then she had gone somewhere and signed a statement claiming my love for my daughter made me unfit to care for her.
I turned toward the window.
Cars moved far below.
People parked.
People left.
Someone crossed between buildings carrying a red umbrella though it was not raining.
The whole world looked offensive in its normality.
My phone buzzed.
I did not want to look.
Dana did.
“It’s Vanessa.”
I opened the message.
A photograph loaded.
It showed several pages spread across a desk.
The guardianship petition was on top.
Under it was another document.
A letter.
I enlarged the image.
There was my name.
Then Holly’s.
Then a sentence stating that I had rejected a physician’s recommendation to transition Holly to comfort-only care.
My pulse hammered.
“That never happened.”
Calvin leaned closer.
“Who signed it?”
I scrolled down.
The signature was supposed to belong to Dr. Patel.
I stared at it.
“That’s forged too.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he just told me Boston was medically supportable.”
May you like
Calvin took the phone.
Another message appeared from Vanessa.
