The Spare They Came Begging For novel · Chapter 13 of 32

Chapter 13: Two Kidneys

Conor let go of me first.

He didn't step away, though.

He stood half a pace behind my shoulder.

"Dr. Albright," he said.

"Dr. Mahoney." My father's eyes went to the loose ponytail band in the gravel, then back up. "I'd like a minute with my daughter."

Conor looked at me.

Not at him. At me.

"I'm fine," I said.

"I'll be on the stairs." He picked up my hair band, put it in my palm and closed my fingers over it. "Holler if you need a bigger person."

The door banged shut behind him.

My father walked out onto the roof.

He'd never been to Harbor before.

I could see him noticing things. The rust on the railing. The lawn chair on its cinder block. The cigarette butts in a coffee can.

"So this is where you work."

"This is where I take my breaks. I work four floors down."

He stopped by the broken lawn chair and put a hand on the back of it.

Up close he looked older than he had at dinner.

His collar was too loose. He'd cut himself shaving.

"Verity's fistula failed on Wednesday," he said. "They put a catheter in her neck. She's dialyzing through a tube in her jugular, Clare."

I knew what that meant better than he thought.

Infection risk. Clots. One bad night.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I mean that."

"She's frightened. She won't eat." He took his glasses off and cleaned them on his tie, which he did when he didn't want to look at a patient's family. "The Globe story. The phone calls. Her sponsors pulled out of the podcast. Your mother hasn't slept."

"My mother forged my name."

"I know."

It was the first time he'd said it.

He said it so quietly the air conditioners nearly took it.

"I'm not here to defend that," he said. "I'm here to ask you to think about it again. Not for your mother. For your sister. Just think about it."

"I've thought about it for twenty-eight years."

"Clare."

"I'm giving a kidney to a man who drives a bus."

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