My slipper was already sodden with blood. A stark crimson stain neither of them had noticed.
Why would they? Vera had occupied the throne in Harrison's heart for years. There was no room left for me.
I took a taxi to the hospital alone.
My wrist—injured earlier protecting Vera—trembled so badly I couldn't grip the intake forms. The paper fluttered to the floor. I bent to retrieve it, but my fingers failed me again.
The line behind me grew restless. Their impatient stares stripped away my composure, and I felt the hot prick of tears threatening to spill.
A small hand snatched the paper from the floor and held it out, steady and sure.
"Ma'am, if your hand hurts, why are you here alone?"
I looked down. A girl, no older than ten.
Her name was Bonnie Abbott. She explained she was an orphan who worked as a "hospital runner," helping patients navigate the system. Her fee was a flat twenty dollars.
Twenty dollars. Blake spent more than that on snacks in a single hour.
Impulsively, I transferred two hundred to her account. Almost immediately, my phone buzzed. She'd sent back one hundred and eighty.
"I only did twenty dollars' worth of work," she said firmly, eyes serious. "I can't take ten times what I earned. Money doesn't fall from the sky."
My vision blurred. Blake only ever complained his allowance was too small; he never considered the cost of earning it. Yet this child, who had nothing, understood the value of every cent.
Bonnie gave me her number for next time. I smiled through the ache in my chest and thanked her.
I returned to the empty house. I'd just collapsed onto the sofa when my phone rang. Harrison.
His voice was ice.
"Sara. I told you to meet us. Why aren't you here? Vera's stomach flared up because we waited. She's on an IV right now."
He didn't wait for an explanation.
"Get to the hospital immediately. You need to apologize to her. Bring a fruit basket on your way."
Then Blake's voice piped up from the background, sharp and piercing.
"Dad, tell Mom not to get mangoes! Auntie Vera is allergic."
The boy's childish voice stabbed straight through me.
"Mom is way too vicious. She did it on purpose to make Auntie Vera sick just so she'd be hospitalized."
Blake's voice shrilled through the phone speaker, dripping with a malice no child should possess.
"She's just mad about the parent-child activity. I don't want such a petty mom. I want Auntie Vera to be my mother!"