“It’s being taken care of,” the nurse says gently. “You don’t need to worry.”
I laugh, a short, brittle sound. “That’s not really how this works. It is my job to worry, to know what is going on. You can't just make choices like that without my approval.”
Julian places his hands on my shoulders, firm and steady.
“Lucy,” he says quietly. “Look at me.”
I don’t want to.
I really don’t.
But my body responds before my pride can intervene.
I lift my head, and his steel-grey eyes hold mine, unflinching, grounded, almost fierce in their certainty.
“Breathe. I have it,” he says. “I have you.”
I need to blink back tears that I refuse to let fall.
“I’m going to make sure your mother is taken care of,” he continues. “And you. And your sister.”
I shake my head. “I can’t... Julian, I don’t want to owe you this. I could never repay...”
He reaches up and tucks a loose curl behind my ear.
The gentleness of it steals my breath.
“This isn’t about owing,” he says quietly. “And you don’t have to decide anything tonight. That's not what this is about. Let me help you.”
For a second, I just stare at him. At the man who left me at a gala table full of strangers. At the man standing in front of me, now, like the ground under my feet won’t give out if I lean on him. He is standing here, telling me he will hold me up and catch me if I fall.
But how do I believe that, trust him?
I close my eyes.
“I don’t know how to do this,” I whisper.
“You don’t have to,” he says. “I do.”
They take my mom for tests.
A nurse leads us down a hallway I’ve never been allowed into before. Emily follows behind us, a curious look on her face.
I know what that look says, and I am in no way prepared to address it with her. I am just as confused as she is.
The room they brought us to doesn’t look like a hospital. It looks like a hotel suite that has somehow ended up with medical equipment.
Gentle lighting. A seating area. A private bathroom bigger than my entire kitchen.
I feel dizzy.
Claire arrives not long after, carrying bags.
Shopping bags.
Emily stares. “How did you... it’s... It’s past midnight.”
Claire smiles faintly. “Money tends to bend time.”
