Chapter 5

I shook my head and pulled her back.

I thought she wouldn't do anything rash, but after she left at noon, she still went to find Milton.

I waited for her, sick with dread the whole time.

It wasn't until seven that evening that I got a call from the hospital.

“Ms. Yvonne, your mother was in a car accident. She's in the ICU right now, and we're doing everything we can. Please come as soon as possible to sign the critical-condition notice.”

The phone slipped from my hand and hit the floor.

I leaned against the wall and slowly sank down.

I forced myself to the ICU, signed the notice, then called Milton.

He didn't ask what had happened. After a long silence, he only said he'd be there in half an hour.

I sat on the bench, frantic, waiting a long time. When I saw Milton, everything in me broke, and I wanted to lean on him without thinking.

But his first words pinned me to the spot.

“Yvonne, sign the accident settlement release.”

My voice trembled. “What did you say?”

“Your mother wouldn't let it go all afternoon. Maud's depression flared up, she got worked up, that's the only reason she drove into her. Sign it first, and we'll figure out the rest together.”

The pain in my heart tore me open.

I clutched my head and sobbed until I nearly came apart.

Just then Maud rushed over, eyes red, and threw herself into Milton's arms.

“Milton, I was so scared just now……”

My body wouldn't stop shaking.

One door away, my mother hung between life and death. Out here in the hallway, the two of them had their little romance.

I braced myself against the wall and slid slowly to the floor.

Milton turned back and held out the accident settlement release.

“Vonnie, be good. Sign it first.”

I was about to speak when a nurse ran out holding a fresh critical-condition notice.

“Is Yvonne here, the family? The patient's heart rate has dropped sharply. We need a signature on the second critical-condition notice.”

I forced myself up, took the pen, my hand shaking hard.

Once I'd signed, I couldn't hold on any longer.

My vision went black, and I passed out completely.

When I came to, I yanked the IV out of my hand and ran like a madwoman to the ICU doors.

But the ICU lights were off.

The nurse sighed. “We couldn't save the patient. She passed two hours ago.”

I stood in the hallway, lost, my mother's aching words from that morning echoing in my ears.

I closed my eyes, and I could almost feel her right beside me.

But when I opened them, there was only me in the empty hallway.

The tears finally fell.

I ran, shaking, to the morgue cold storage, desperate to see the one person who loved me most.

But when I got there, the clerk checked the records and told me the body had already been claimed.

I froze where I stood.

Just then Milton called and told me to come back.

He said, “Vonnie, come back and sign the accident settlement release.”

It felt like hot oil poured over my heart.

I opened my mouth, and it took me a long moment to find my voice.

“Milton, my mother is gone.”

He was silent for a few seconds.

“I know.”

He knew, and still he wanted me to forgive the one who got my mother killed.

In that instant, all my grief felt like a joke.

I wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes and told him, word by word, “I won't sign.”

The moment I said it, Milton spoke again.

“Your mother's body is here with me.”

“Vonnie, if you still want to see her one last time, be good and sign.”

My head snapped up. My hand shook so badly I could barely hold the phone.

“Milton, that's my mother. She's the only family I have.”

He drew a deep breath.

“I know, but I can't just abandon Maud.”

“Vonnie, I don't want to hurt you. Don't push me.”

The man who once said he'd protect me forever.

In the end, it was his own hand that drove me to the edge, with nowhere left to go.

My sobbing rang through the hallway, hopeless.

Milton's tone didn't waver in the slightest.

“I'll give you three minutes to think it over.”

“If you haven't signed in three minutes, I'll have them wheel your mother in for cremation.”

He used my deepest wound as his bargaining chip.

Not caring in the least whether it would destroy me.

The minutes ticked by, and in the video Milton sent, my mother's body had already been wheeled up to the cremation furnace.

“Ten seconds left.”

I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek, until I tasted blood in my mouth.

“Milton, stop.”

“I'll sign.”

Milton sent the electronic accident settlement release he already had ready.

“Sign it.”

Tears fell onto the phone, one after another.

With a shaking hand, I signed my name.

Milton finally let out a breath.

“Vonnie, I know you're hurting. Once this is behind us, I'll make it up to you with a wedding, and from now on——”

I cut him off.

“Milton, there is no from now on for us.”

“I will never forgive you. Not in this life, not in the next, not through all eternity.”