Severed Mother-Daughter Ties novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Donor Wing

Chester Pemberton threatens to pull his pavilion's funding, Kristen sets her terms and Wylie calls her another claimant. Lacey's heart function drops and the outside surgeon is days away.

I took her fingers off my sleeve one at a time.

They were cold, and she let me.

"I'm Colleen Pemberton," she said. "Lacey is my daughter. What's your name, Doctor?"

"Shirley," I said. "The director of medical affairs will speak with you."

The elevator doors began to close.

She stood in the gap and looked at my face until the steel cut her off.

Twenty minutes later, I found two people in my office.

The director sat in the visitor's chair with his jaw tight.

A man in a navy overcoat stood at my window with his hands behind him.

He did not turn around when I came in.

"Dr. Shirley," the director said. "This is Chester Pemberton."

"Mr. Pemberton."

"My wife says you looked at her as if she had robbed you," Chester said to the glass.

"I don't remember it that way."

"I wrote a check for the floor you're standing on."

"I know. I've worked here for six years."

He turned then.

He was sixty-eight and heavy through the jaw, with a face that had never been told no at a table.

"Whatever your problem with my family costs, I'll pay it," he said. "Name it."

I have never wanted to laugh less in my life.

"I don't have a price, Mr. Pemberton."

"Everyone does."

"Then I'm the exception you didn't plan for."

The director cleared his throat. "Kristen, Mr. Pemberton has mentioned the pavilion's next gift."

"He's mentioned that he could pull it," Chester said.

"If I operate on your daughter, I'll be operating on a family I can't be fair to," I said. "My hands will be steady. My judgment won't be."

"That's the whole reason I'm stepping back."

Chester looked at the director, and the director looked at the carpet.

"Then you're telling me my daughter has the best surgeon in the building, and she's walking away."

"I'm telling you she'll have the best surgeon in the country."

I opened my laptop and turned it toward him.

"There's a surgeon in Cleveland who trained me. She has done this repair nine times, and I've seen every one."

"I'll call her myself tonight. I'll go through the imaging with her, line by line, and I'll stand in the gallery if she wants me there."

"I won't touch the knife and I won't touch the plan."

Chester stared at the screen.

"Your jet can have her here by Friday," I said.

The door opened behind me without a knock.

"Dad, you told me you'd wait for me."

The man who came in was tall and wide in the shoulders, and his dark hair had gone grey at the temples.

His eyes went straight to me.

"This is Wylie," Chester said. "My son."

"Dr. Shirley," I said.

"The one with the personal conflict." Wylie did not offer his hand. "Colleen told me in the hall."

"The conflict is mine, and it's on file with the ethics committee."

"I run the foundation my stepmother started," he said. "Do you know how many women have walked in with a story about this family?"

"I don't."

"Forty-one. In ten years, I've learned that anyone with a story about the Pembertons wants something."

"I'm a surgeon, Mr. Pemberton. I don't want anything from you."

"Everyone says that before they name it."

I closed the laptop.

"Then ask the hospital for my file," I said. "It's six years long, and there's no story in it."

His gaze dropped to my left wrist, to the pale scar where my sleeve had slid up.

I pulled the cuff down.

He noticed that, too.

"Wylie," Chester said. "Enough."

"It isn't enough until Lacey's in the OR."

"It will be," I said. "With someone better than me."

Neither of them answered.

Dustin Dray appeared in the doorway behind them with a tablet against his chest.

He didn't bother to say hello.

"Kristen, I need you in the hall," he said.

I followed him out, and he shut the door.

"Lacey's last echo came back," he said quietly. "Her function dropped another ten points overnight."

"The Cleveland surgeon can't fly in until Friday."

"At this rate, she has days," he said.

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