Chapter 13: On My Terms

"Of course you'll do it," I said.

Roderick's whole body went slack with relief.

"And you'll do it on my terms."

Clifton stepped toward me with both hands out.

"Leah, my dear, I can't tell you how grateful..."

"Stop there," I said.

He stopped.

"I'm not doing this for you. You don't get thanked, and you don't get to stand in the room when it happens."

"He is my son."

"Then you should have acted like his father six years ago instead of acting like Roderick's."

My sister's hand settled on my shoulder.

It kept me in the chair, because I wanted very badly to stand.

Roderick looked at his father.

"Go home, Dad."

"The boy needs..."

"He needs a donor, and he has one. He doesn't need you here. Go home."

Clifton looked around the waiting room.

A second nurse had joined the first, and both of them were watching him.

He buttoned his overcoat, and he walked to the elevator without the basket and without looking back.

Roderick knelt beside my chair, so that his face was lower than mine.

"Tell me the terms."

"Three," I said. "You tell me before every call from that floor, and we decide together."

"Yes."

"Junie hears about this from both of us, after it's over, and not from a nurse or a cousin."

"Yes."

"And you do it because a six-year-old is dying. Not because you think it buys you a place back in my bed."

His mouth moved, and for a moment nothing came out.

"If I say yes to all three, do I get you back?"

"No. That's the whole point of the third one."

"Then yes," he said. "I'll take that."

"Go sit with our son."

He went, and my sister wheeled me back to my room, and she didn't say anything until the door was shut.

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