Chapter 9: One Rule

On Monday I stood up to give my first audit briefing to the Fund's board, and the room tilted sideways.

I put a hand on the table and sat back down.

Willem was across from me before the chair finished moving.

"We're done for today," he told the board. "Claire, where's your iron?"

"In my bag."

"When did you last eat?"

"Breakfast."

"It's two o'clock."

"I forgot."

"Okay," he said. "Get your coat."

"I'm fine."

"You've sat down twice in one meeting. Your aunt called me an hour ago and told me to drive you to your appointment."

"My aunt called you?"

"She got my number from the receptionist. She's terrifying."

"She's a retired school secretary."

"That's what I said."

He drove a gray sedan with a clean back seat and a booster seat folded in the trunk.

I noticed that and said nothing.

"It's my sister's," he said, watching the road. "I take my niece on Thursdays."

At the clinic the nurse took my chart and looked past me at him.

"Dad can come in for the scan," she said.

"I'm not the father," Willem said.

"I just work for him," I said at the same time.

"Oh," she said. "That's worse."

She wrote something on my chart and did not look up again.

Willem studied the ceiling tiles as if they had been installed that morning.

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