Chapter 15: Infusion Day

She stayed.

In the morning Willa drove back to the Corwin house in yesterday's dress, with her shoes in her hand.

The housekeeper let her in without a word and without a look.

On the kitchen table stood a covered bowl and a note in Daphne's neat hand.

I took Mom to her appointment early. Eat something. Love, D.

Willa read it twice.

Then she read the word appointment a third time.

She called her mother's phone, and her mother answered on the sixth ring, breathless.

"Where are you, Mom?"

"Nowhere. At the clinic. Daphne drove me, you don't need to come."

"Which clinic?"

A pause. "Saint Anne's. Third floor. Willa, honestly, I'm fine."

"I'm on my way."

The oncology ward at Saint Anne's had pale green walls and a fish tank in the waiting room.

Her mother sat in a reclining chair with a needle taped into the back of her hand and a bag of clear fluid hanging above her.

She looked smaller than Willa remembered. She had a scarf tied over her hair.

Daphne sat on a stool beside her, reading aloud from a magazine.

She looked up and smiled, warm and unsurprised.

"There you are. I told Mom you'd come."

"I did not tell her to," said her mother.

"I know." Willa crossed the room and knelt by the chair. "Mom. Tell me."

Her mother looked at Daphne, and Daphne stood up at once.

"I'll get coffee," she said, and touched Willa's shoulder on her way out.

When the door closed her mother sank back in her chair.

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