Chapter 16: Who Sold Me

My mother was sitting up in a chair by the window when I got to Room 412, eating butterscotch and glaring at a tray of green gelatin.

She looked better than she had on Sunday.

She looked at my face, and then she looked at the tall man behind me in the doorway.

"Sit down, both of you," she said. "You're blocking my light."

Harvey set down the coffee he had carried up and took the second chair.

"Mallory told me to ask you who sold me," I said.

My mother put down her candy.

"That girl always did know where to put the knife," she said. "She just never had the nerve to use her own."

"Mom."

"Give me a minute, Til. I've been rehearsing this for five days, and it still comes out wrong."

She folded her hands.

"Six years ago, at the Christmas party at the dealership, Russell introduced you to that Fosdick boy."

"I remember. He brought me a drink."

"Russell had told him your name before you ever walked in."

I stared at her.

"He had a photograph of you in his wallet, from the Fourth of July. Russell gave it to him."

The room was very quiet.

"Cory's father had just bought up the dealership's loan," my mother said. "He called it a favor between families."

"The same loan."

"The same one. Every time you wanted to wait to marry, Russell came home and said the Fosdicks were getting impatient."

"I thought that was Cory."

"It was the interest on the note." Her voice shook. "While you were engaged, Mr. Fosdick took less. When you set a date, he took nothing for a year."

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