Chapter 5: The Person Who Made the Call
"Who?" I asked.
Chloe sat back down.
She set her phone on the cushion beside her and pressed her fingers together.
"His name is Robert Hale," she said.
"He's a transplant coordinator at the hospital.
He processed Julian's initial donor application."
"Why would he report it?"
"Because six months ago, Robert Hale was on the shortlist to receive a significant research grant from the hospital foundation.
Julian was on the review committee." She paused.
"Julian voted against him.
The grant went to someone else."
I looked at her steadily.
"You think this is retaliation."
"I think Robert Hale has been waiting for an opportunity," she said.
"And now that Julian isn't here to defend himself — "
"He took it."
Chloe nodded.
I stood up.
I needed to move.
I walked to the window and stood looking out at the street — the same street Julian had walked down a hundred times, the same gate he used to push open with his shoulder because the latch always stuck.
"What does the complaint actually claim?" I asked.
"That Julian concealed a personal relationship with the recipient.
That the surgical team may not have had full information.
That the transplant should be reviewed." She hesitated.
"They're not threatening to reverse anything — Nora's kidney is not at risk.
But they could make things very difficult for the doctors who performed the surgery.
And they could damage Julian's name."
My son.
Thirty years old.
Not yet two weeks in the ground.
And someone was already building a case against him.
"Does the hospital know yet that Nora is Julian's daughter?"
"No.
Only you and I know that.
And Nora, in the way children know things."
I turned from the window.
"Then we tell them."
Chloe blinked.
"What?"
"We tell them the truth.
Julian didn't conceal a personal relationship out of self-interest.
He concealed it because he was protecting his daughter from a grief she was too young to carry, and protecting me from the same.
There is no conflict of interest in a father saving his child's life.
There is only love."
Chloe stared at me.
"If we go public with this," she said carefully, "Nora's life changes.
She grows up knowing her father d!ed saving her."
"She already knows something," I said.
"She asked you whether to tell me.
That child is carrying this."
Chloe looked at Nora, who had migrated back to the armchair and was pretending to read while very clearly listening.
"Nora," Chloe said gently.
"Come here."
Nora set the book down and came.
She stood between us with her hands at her sides, very straight, the way she stood when she thought something important was about to happen.
"Do you understand," Chloe said, "that Julian was your daddy?"
"Yes," Nora said.
"How long have you known?"
Nora thought about it.
"He told me the day before the operation.
He said he was going to give me something very important, and that it was something daddies do." She paused.
"He said I didn't have to call him Daddy if I didn't want to.
He said we could just be friends who loved each other."
My hand went to my mouth.
"He said one more thing," Nora continued, looking at me now.
"He said that if anything happened, I should find his mom.
Because she would want to know me."
The room blurred.
"He sent you to me," I said.
Nora nodded.
Very certain.
Very calm.
"He said you make good soup."
A sound came out of me that was not quite a laugh and not quite a sob.
Chloe made the same sound at the same moment, and for a second we were both undone in the best possible way.
Then my phone buzzed on the side table.
A number I didn't recognize.
I almost let it go.
I answered.
"Mrs.
Hartley?" A man's voice.
Measured.
Professional.
"My name is David Osei.
I'm a patient advocate at Mercy General.
I'm calling because I've been made aware of a formal complaint filed this afternoon regarding your son's donor procedure." A pause.
May you like
"I want you to know — before this goes any further — that I knew Julian.
And I think you should hear what I have to say before Robert Hale's version becomes the only one on record."
