Chapter 7: Trending

I stood up and picked up my latte.

For a second I thought about throwing it.

Lisette saw me think about it. She smiled wider.

"Go ahead," she said softly. "There are two nurses with phones right there."

I set it back down.

"You'll do what you want," I said. "You always have."

"That's not a no."

"It's not a yes either."

I walked out of the cafeteria in my green dress, and I didn't look back, and my legs held all the way to the elevator.

She posted it at 6:40 the next morning.

I was asleep in the recliner. Ollie woke me by shaking my foot.

He didn't say anything. He just held out his phone.

Nine minutes long.

It had the part I hadn't known she had, Jameson's voice on the phone, clear as a bell.

I watched it once, standing in the hall with my thumb shaking, and I understood that every stranger in Charleston would hear him say it.

The caption said, The moment Charleston's top children's surgeon met the son he abandoned. Full story on my page. #CrumbAndMe

It was on my page. My face was the profile picture.

By eight it had four million views.

By nine, the hospital's switchboard was jammed.

The nurse with the purple glasses came in to take out Benji's IV. She kept glancing at the window.

"There are news vans out front," she said in a low voice. "Three of them. And a bunch of ladies with signs."

"What do the signs say?"

She hesitated.

"One says JUSTICE FOR CRUMB."

Benji sat up and looked offended.

"I don't need justice. I need pancakes."

Ollie made a noise and turned it into a cough.

Discharge papers came at ten.

Jameson came at ten past.

He was in scrubs and a fleece, no white coat. He looked like he hadn't slept since Tuesday.

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