Chapter 15: The Auction

Hannah's POV

The doctor examined me at my father's dining table, with a pot of coffee between us and Eli in the doorway.

He was sixty, soft-spoken and tidy, and he opened a notebook before he said good morning.

The woman in the navy suit took a chair by the wall and uncapped a pen.

"I'd like to start with orientation," the doctor said. "Can you tell me today's date?"

I told him the date, the day and the year.

"Who is the president of the United States?"

I told him that too.

"And can you describe how you've been sleeping since your father died?"

"Badly for two years," I said. "Better since Friday night."

Eli's face did not move.

The doctor wrote that down.

He asked about my appetite, about my accounts, about the dinner.

I answered every question plainly, and each answer made him look a little less sure of the page he had come with.

"You froze your husband's cards in front of his family," he said at last. "Do you feel that was proportionate?"

"I stopped paying for them. That's all a freeze is."

"Do you feel angry?"

"Yes."

"Are you often angry?"

"For the first time in six years," I said. "Yes."

He nodded and looked down at his notebook.

"May I ask you one question, doctor?"

"This is my examination."

"It's one question." I slid a single sheet across the table. "Who pays your fee?"

He did not pick it up.

"Mr. Danner's counsel retained me."

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