Chapter 4: What My Sister Had Given Away
“What recording?” I asked.
Nicole’s lips parted, but Mom hurried across the lobby before she could answer.
“Please,” Mom said.
“Can we discuss this privately?”
Maya held up one hand.
“Nobody leaves until we establish who accessed the account.”
Mom took my arm.
“Paige, tell them this is a family misunderstanding.”
I pulled away.
“Someone used my illness to collect six hundred thousand dollars.”
“Aaron may have made bookkeeping mistakes.”
“Bookkeeping mistakes don’t need my medical records.”
Mom’s fingers tightened around her purse.
“Think about Nicole’s children.
If you push this, their father could go away.”
The lobby tilted beneath me.
I reached for the desk, but my hand missed the edge.
“So that’s what you’re asking?” I said.
“I went through treatment alone, and now I’m supposed to protect the man who sold my suffering?”
“Paige, I didn’t mean—”
“You mean exactly that.”
My legs folded.
Before I reached the floor, Nicole caught me beneath the arms.
“Get her a chair,” she shouted.
“Now.”
A woman in a navy resort uniform hurried over with a chair and a glass of water.
Her name badge read **LEILANI — GUEST MANAGER**.
“Everyone step back,” Leilani said.
“She needs room, not questions.”
“I’m fine,” I whispered.
“No,” Leilani said, kneeling beside me.
“You don’t have to be fine because other people are uncomfortable.”
She placed the water in my shaking hands and stood between me and Aaron.
“This guest paid for the reservation.
Mr.
Carter, you have no room here and no permission to approach her.”
Aaron laughed.
“You’re a hotel employee.”
“And you are trespassing.”
Two security officers moved behind him.
His smile disappeared.
Nicole crouched beside my chair and took off her cardigan.
She wrapped it around my shoulders.
“I gave him the documents,” she said.
Mom gasped.
“Nicole!”
“I thought he needed them for a family medical grant.
He said the grant could reimburse Paige’s expenses.”
I looked at her.
“Why didn’t you ask me?”
“Because he said you’d refuse help out of pride.”
“You knew I paid those bills myself.”
“I knew.”
The word landed between us.
Nicole’s eyes filled.
“Say the rest,” I told her.
She rubbed her wedding ring with her thumb.
“I was angry that everything had become about you.
Every call from Mom started with your treatment.
Every holiday changed around your appointments.
Aaron said I had three children and nobody noticed how tired I was.”
“So you handed him my life?”
“Yes.”
Dad turned his face away.
Mom sat down without being asked.
Nicole continued, each word quieter than the last.
“I saw the first donation report.
I knew he had raised more than he told you.
I asked him to close it.”
“What did he say?”
“He said our mortgage was behind and the children would lose their home if I interfered.”
Aaron raised his voice from across the lobby.
“She enjoyed that house.
Don’t let her pretend she was a prisoner.”
Nicole stood.
“You told me the money was a loan.”
“And you believed me because believing me was convenient.”
She flinched as if his words had struck the air between them.
Maya placed a printed transfer record on the desk.
“Mrs.
Carter, eighty-four thousand dollars went into an account controlled by your mother.”
Everyone looked at Mom.
Dad stepped away from her.
“What account?”
Mom’s purse slipped from her lap.
A bank card fell onto the marble floor.
May you like
Nicole stared at it.
“Mom,” she whispered, “why is Aaron’s company name on your card?”
