When the Billionaire Begs novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Not Going Back

At eight the next morning two guards stood in the lobby of St. Jude's and put out their arms.

"Ms. Farris, you can't go up," the older one said. "I'm sorry. It's on the sheet."

"I'm her daughter."

"It says guarantor's instruction."

"Then show me the instruction."

He turned the clipboard toward me.

The signature at the bottom was Veronica's, in black ink, and the time stamp said four minutes after her car left my curb.

Stellan had walked in behind me.

He said nothing and did not touch me, and I was grateful for both.

I took a folded paper out of my bag.

It was the healthcare proxy my mother had signed before the stroke, naming me and nobody else.

I had carried it in my wallet for three years and never once had to use it.

"The guarantor pays a bill," I said. "He doesn't own a patient. This paper says who decides who sees her."

The guard read it twice.

Then he walked to the desk, picked up the phone, and spoke very quietly to someone upstairs.

He came back with his shoulders lowered.

"The hospital counsel says the proxy outranks the sheet," he said. "Go up, Ms. Farris. I'm sorry."

"Thank you."

"I didn't like that order," he muttered.

I rode the elevator alone, because Stellan said he would wait below.

On the fourth floor my mother's door stood open, and Carlton was standing in front of it.

He wore yesterday's suit, and his tie hung loose, and there were gray hollows under his eyes.

He turned and saw me, and the whole controlled face came apart.

"Claire."

"You signed the order."

"My mother signed it. I let her." He took a step toward me. "I didn't know about the visitors. I only found out at midnight."

"You froze the account."

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