“Well, for now we can at least pay off the debts from her mother and grandmother’s care,” said Cam.
A few minutes later, Ella, Charlotte, and Jean walked in with the box of receipts. They were tagged with colorful tabs, divided and alphabetized. It was of no surprise to the men at all.
“I hope you have good news for us,” said Cam. “We damn sure could use some.”
“I think we do,” said Charlotte. “There’s one piece that’s confusing but we’ll get to that. The hospital was willing to work with us considering we found two instances of gross over-charging on their part.”
“They over-charged that poor woman?” asked Ben.
“It’s not uncommon, honey,” said Ella. “People often don’t think to review their hospital statements line-by-line. You’ll glance over a charge of a thousand dollars for gauze dressing and not realize that they were charging you for an entire case. It’s not wine, for goodness sake, it’s dressing.”
“I can’t believe this. Those women wouldn’t have known to look for little things like that,” said Adam.
“Well, we took care of that and paid the hospital bill off. The largest bills were from the oncologist and the costs for her radiation and chemotherapy. It was astronomical and I’m not saying that lightly,” said Charlotte.
“All totaled,” said Jean, “it was near two-hundred thousand. We paid that off as well and started a fund for other women that couldn’t afford to pay for their treatments.”
“I love that,” nodded Cam. “It’s the last thing these women should worry about.”
“We asked Ms. Rose if she would want to undergo reconstructive surgery but she said at her age, she’s not interested in, uh, showing the tata’s again,” laughed Ella.
“I love that woman. She reminded me of grandma when we were there,” said Adam.
“Everything else was relatively normal,” said Jean. “The pharmacy bills, the nursing care at home, transportation costs, all of it. It’s done now.” They slowly turned to see Edie still standing outside staring into the distance.
“Well, shit,” muttered Cam. “It wasn’t about her mother’s debt. It wasn’t about taking care of her grandmother. What the fuck was this about?”
“That’s for you guys to figure out,” said Charlotte. They packed everything up and started to leave when Adam called out to her.
“Wait, you said you had one thing that was odd. What was that?” he asked.
“Oh, we’re still trying to figure it out. There’s a bill here for a mammogram that was done a month ago. Ms. Rose wouldn’t have had a mammogram at this point.”
Cam’s face dropped and he looked at Jean. For a moment, Jean just stared back unsure of what the younger man was thinking.
“Holy shit,” said Cam. “It’s not for Ms. Rose, the mother. It’s for Edie. Edie Rose.”
“Fuck me,” said Ben. He turned to see Edit standing at the window of the office. Ben slowly opened the window wide.
“That’s it, isn’t it sweet Edie. You got scared after your mother’s diagnosis and finally were able to get your own mammogram. It was positive wasn’t it?”
The wailing and screams nearly cracked the glass of the office. The team covered their ears, others running toward the ghostly figure and the room full of people.
“It’s alright now, Edie. We’ve taken care of everything,” said Adam. She sobbed and sobbed, shaking her head.
“I couldn’t make them go through this again,” she said quietly. “I didn’t want them to see me go through treatments and lose my hair and lose weight. We couldn’t afford it. I couldn’t afford it. I’d have to quit my second job and where would that leave us? At least this way they’d be taken care of.”
“Oh, Edie, honey,” said Ella. “Suicides don’t usually pay out on life insurance policies. But we’ve taken care of this. We’ve taken care of your mama and your grandmama. It’s all alright now, Edie.”
“I’m so ashamed. I’m so sorry that I did this to them,” she said shaking her head. “I went for a walk to clear my head that night. I didn’t even realize how far I’d gone when I was suddenly standing on the bridge. Traffic was driving by and honking, yelling at me to get off the bridge.”
“And you listened,” whispered Charlotte.
“I thought it was a sign. I was there and people were say get off,” she shook her head, crying again. “It’s the only time in my life that I felt like giving up and I had no other option but to do exactly that. I regret it. I regret it with my whole heart.”
“You’re free now, Edie,” said Cam. “We’ve figured out why you jumped off that bridge, we’ve cleared your mother’s and grandmother’s debt, and we’re going to make sure that they’re taken care of going forward. We’ll explain it all to them.”
“Father Donan says that if you take your own life it’s a sin and you’ll go to hell. Am I going to hell?” she asked.
