Pregnant for His Lover's Cure, I Sent Him a Jar and Divorce Papers novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Dad Signed Too

Camille confronts Frank in Pasadena. He says she owes Bianca. Her bank cards are frozen.

My father's house in Pasadena has a porch I learned to cross on tiptoe.

I crossed it at eight the next morning with my chin up, and Declan stayed in the car at the curb.

My key still worked.

Frank was in his study with the door open and a cup of black coffee going cold.

He didn't stand.

"Sit down, Camille."

"I'd rather stand."

"You've embarrassed this family in front of two hundred people. Gavin's mother called me at midnight."

"Gavin planned to take my baby's blood for Bianca," I said. "You signed the form as a witness, Dad. Did you read it first?"

He set his cup down carefully.

"I read it."

I had thought I was ready for that.

I wasn't.

"You knew," I said. "You knew what he wanted from me."

"I knew your sister is dying."

His voice was flat and patient, the voice he used when I was ten and had asked why Bianca got the bigger room.

"Cord blood is the best chance she has. It costs you nothing. A needle in a cord after the baby is out."

"It costs me my say over my own child."

"It costs you a few minutes." He leaned back. "Your mother and I took that girl in when she had no one. You owe her, Camille."

"I owe her what?"

"Whatever she needs."

That was the sentence I had heard my whole life, in different words.

I almost said thank you for finally saying it plainly.

The wheels squeaked in the hallway behind me.

Bianca rolled in, in a white cardigan with a blanket across her knees, her face pale and smooth.

She stopped the wheelchair next to my father's desk.

"Cam," she said. "Oh, Cam, I'm so glad you came."

She held out her arms, and I let her hug me, because Frank was watching.

Her grip was strong.

Her wrists were brown from the sun, with a white band on one of them where a watch had been.

The pale on her face stopped at her jaw.

Her nails were done in a fresh pink, no chips.

"I didn't sleep," she said, and her eyes filled. "I kept thinking it was my fault. You're so angry, and it's all because of me."

"Bianca, where's your chart?"

She blinked.

"My chart?"

"Your medical file. I'd like to read it. The diagnosis, the counts, the match report."

Frank stood up.

"That's private."

"I'm the donor's mother. The clinic can't take my baby's cord blood on a match for a patient I've never seen the paperwork on."

"It isn't yours to read," he said.

"Why not?"

"Because I said so."

I looked at Bianca.

She looked at her hands in her lap.

"It would only frighten you, Cam," she said, very softly. "The numbers are awful. Let Gavin handle it."

I thought about the stairs at the party.

I thought about the glass of champagne she had carried down them.

I didn't say any of it.

I had learned long ago that Frank only believed what Bianca confirmed.

"I'm not signing anything," I said instead. "Not the donation, not a release. I'm not giving her the cord blood."

My father sighed through his nose.

"Gavin said you'd be difficult. He called me at six this morning."

He opened his desk drawer and set something on the blotter.

My house key, the one I had kept on my own ring since I left for college.

He had taken it off the board by the kitchen door.

"He has frozen your cards," Frank said. "Every one. Joint, personal, the one I opened for you at twenty-two. You have no money until you sign what the clinic needs."

"The card at twenty-two is mine."

"It's linked to his account. Everything is. He told me to tell you, and I'm telling you."

He pushed the key an inch toward me.

"You don't live here anymore. Not until you come to your senses."

I took the key.

I didn't leave it on the desk, and I didn't throw it.

I put it in my pocket and walked out past the wheelchair.

Bianca called after me, tearful and light.

"I love you, Cam."

I got into the car, and my hands didn't start to shake until the door was shut.

Declan didn't ask.

He pulled away from the curb, and after a block I held out my phone.

The banking app said, Access suspended. Contact the primary account holder.

I had eleven dollars in my coat pocket and a baby who needed me to eat lunch.

"All right," I said. "What does a person do next?"

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