My Wife Sent Me to a Psych Ward, So I Gave Her a Big Surprise novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Introductions

Damon's POV

Maura walked into the bank with the complaint in her handbag and her chin up.

She had shown it to me at eleven the night before, standing in her kitchen in her coat.

"Walk away by Tuesday," I read off the sticky note.

"Say it," Maura said.

"No," I said.

"That's all I wanted to hear," she said, and put the pages back in her bag.

Now it was Tuesday at ten, and we rode the elevator to the credit committee floor with my mother between us in her green coat.

The boardroom had a long walnut table, five people on one side of it and Brooks on the other.

He sat beside the lawyer in the camel coat and did not look up.

"Mr. Ostrow," said the chair of the committee, a gray woman with reading glasses on a chain. "Mr. Teller's counsel has told us you are unwell and unable to represent your shares."

"I'm standing here."

"He has also told us that the recordings you plan to play were made by a nurse under a board complaint for illegal recording and concealment."

The lawyer folded his hands. "An interested and compromised witness, ma'am. Her license is under review."

Brooks looked up then, and found Maura's face, and smiled.

I started to answer.

Maura touched my arm.

"May I?" she said to the chair.

"Is that Ms. Garvey?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Go ahead."

Maura stayed standing, with her hands loose at her sides.

"The hospital filmed every family-room visit," she said. "There's a sign on the door. Damon has a legal right to his own file, and I gave him a copy. That's all I did."

"And the concealment?"

"Last November a doctor asked me to witness his signature on a discharge. I did. I'd sign it again."

"You didn't tell his wife."

"His wife called every month and asked one question, and the hospital answered it truthfully." She turned and looked at Brooks. "He didn't tell her either. He had the letter eleven months. There's a note in his own handwriting that says so."

The lawyer started to speak.

"I'm not finished," Maura said. "You can suspend my license. I'll still be a nurse. I sat with that man for three years, and I'd do it again tomorrow, with or without a license."

Nobody at the table moved.

I stood up.

"Madam chair," I said. "Before the recordings, I'd like to introduce Ms. Garvey properly."

"We know who she is."

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