Chapter 13: The Visitor List

The nurse behind the glass looked up and saw us.

Her face filled with relief.

"Mr. Fontana," she said. "These people say they're family."

Teresa turned around.

She looked at my wheelchair first, then at the hospital gown under my cardigan.

Then she smiled the way she used to smile at me over the lilies.

"Louisa. You look exhausted, dear."

"What are you doing here?" Leo said.

"Visiting my grandchildren." She tapped the counter with one gloved finger. "This young woman says I'm not on some list."

"You're not," Leo said.

"Then put me on it."

Angela pushed her sunglasses higher into her hair.

"We drove all morning," she said. "I'm not standing in a hallway that smells like hand sanitizer for nothing."

Two more nurses had come to the station.

A father in a paper gown stopped by the sink with his hands still dripping.

The man with the briefcase opened it on the counter and took out a folder.

"Mrs. Fontana has a legal interest in the welfare of the Fontana heirs," he said. "We'd like copies of their medical records."

"They're not Fontana anything," I said. "Their name is Lambert. It's on the cards."

Teresa's mouth went thin.

"A name can be changed."

"Not by you."

Leo walked up to the glass.

He didn't raise his voice.

He never did.

"Who's in charge of the visitor list?" he asked the nurse.

"The parents," she said. "Both of you."

"Then I'd like to make a change."

"Of course."

She pulled a clipboard out from under the counter and slid it through the gap in the glass.

Leo uncapped the pen clipped to it.

Teresa watched him.

"Leo," she said. "Don't be dramatic."

He found the line with her name on it.

Someone, probably Leo himself on the first night, had added the grandparents by habit.

He drew a line through it.

Then he drew a line through Angela's.

Then he wrote something beside each line and initialed it.

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