Never In Another Life novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: What It Costs

Declan's POV

My mother's study still smelled of lemon polish and old paper.

I had not stood in it since the night the police took me out through the front door.

She sat behind her father's desk with her back straight and a cup of tea she had not touched.

Her lawyer sat at her elbow.

She had aged ten years in three days.

"Thank you for coming," she said.

"I came to say something."

"Sit. Please. First, hear what I have."

I stayed standing.

She slid a folder across the desk.

"The board has voted," she said. "I am out as chair. Tomorrow the papers will say whatever they like."

"I read the papers."

"Lakeshore General needs a head of cardiac surgery. The trustees approached me this morning, quietly. They would take you back."

I looked at the folder without opening it.

Fourteen months in a cell and a clinic classroom had taught me what a job like that was worth.

I had wanted it every night.

"What do they want?" I asked.

"A statement."

"Saying what?"

"That the Foundation acted in good faith. That I acted in good faith."

Her voice did not shake.

"That the deletion was a private family decision made under grief. And that you hold no grudge."

"And Margo's trial?"

"You would testify to what you saw in the video. Nothing more. Not what I did."

I understood.

It was a very good offer.

It would give me back the hands I had trained for twenty years, the hospital, the name, and a house with a lawn.

All I had to do was say my mother had been a frightened woman and not a liar.

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