Condemned by My Sister novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: The Girl

The children's ward was on the fifth floor, and the walls were painted with fish.

Marianne stood outside room 512 for a full minute with her hand on her bag.

A woman in a rumpled cardigan came out and shut the door behind her.

She had dark circles under her eyes, and she held a paper cup of coffee.

"You're the donor," she said.

"I am."

"The coordinator told me you were coming."

"I came as soon as they let me."

"Why?"

It was not a hostile question.

It was the question of a person who had been asked to hope a great many times.

"She's nine," the woman said. "We've had three matches since last spring."

"The first one moved away. The second one got scared the week of the transplant."

"The third one asked how much the hospital would pay him."

Marianne stood with her hands folded the way she had at the prison gate.

"I'm not going to ask for anything," she said. "I'll be here when you need me."

"Everyone says that."

"I know."

"No," the woman said, and her voice rose. "You don't know. You come in here in a nice coat, and you get to feel generous. Then it's me who sits with her when it falls through."

"I'd like you to go home. Please. We'll call you."

I had never seen Marianne told no by someone she could not outrank.

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