Chapter 16: What the Form Says

Mara's POV

Ansel told me what Luther had said in the ramp, and I didn't ask how he'd made Luther say it.

"The donor form," I said. "Who paid."

"That's all he gave me."

I went to the closet in Hattie's spare room and took down the blue folder from the transplant clinic.

I had never opened it twice.

I spread the pages on Hattie's quilt, and Ansel sat on the edge of the bed and waited.

The first form was the one I remembered.

It was my consent to donate, dated September twenty-ninth, and the signature was mine, round and quick.

Near the bottom was a box I had ticked myself: "My identity MAY be shared with the recipient if I choose."

I had ticked it because I thought Brynn would want to know.

I turned the page.

The next form was dated October twenty-eighth, a week before the surgery.

It said the donor's identity was to be withheld from the recipient permanently, "at the donor's request."

At the bottom was a signature that looked like mine to anyone who had never watched me write.

The M had a loop I have never made in my life.

Beside it, in the witness box, one line in blue ink said: "Family representative: C. Sjoberg."

I read it twice.

"I never signed this," I said.

Ansel took the page from me gently.

"This is the form that told the hospital to say 'no family match,'" he said.

"She said she'd handle the paperwork so I could rest." My voice came out very small. "She brought me a pen in the hospital, Ansel."

"Mara."

"She told me she'd bring the discharge sheet to sign. She never did."

I couldn't stop turning pages.

On the last one was a table headed "Responsible party, donor expenses."

It said: "Recipient's insurance. Group plan, Sjoberg Creative, LLC."

Nothing on it said the company had advanced a cent.