Chapter 23: Sold

"Say it," I said, "and make it short."

Rocco stirred beside me and opened one eye.

"The partners meet at ten at the Children's Ward," Thurston said, on the speaker.

His voice kept breaking.

"The hospital board is there. They're voting me out, and the bank is selling the firm."

"I know. I watched your lawyer say it."

"Please come. Tell them it was Silvio. Tell them I'm not what you think."

"What do you think I think?"

"That I'm a bad man."

I looked at the ceiling.

"Ten o'clock," I said, and I hung up.

Rocco had propped himself on one elbow.

"You're not going alone."

"I'm taking my husband," I said. "He can sit in a chair and look expensive."

The boardroom of the Children's Ward was a long white room on the third floor.

A big window looked out over the old parking structure.

On the table sat a pitcher of water and a stack of papers with the hospital crest.

The ward's director sat at one end, a tired woman with her glasses pushed into her hair.

The three partners of Goldsborough Harbor sat along one side.

Thurston sat alone on the other, in the same gray coat he had worn at the wedding.

Margot stood by the window.

She wore a blue cleaning smock with the hospital's name on the pocket.

Her hair was tied up in a scarf, and her hands were rubbed raw.

There was a bruise on her forearm where a bucket had swung.

She looked at me, and she gave a very small nod.

"Mrs. Danieli," said the director, rising. "Thank you for coming. We were just about to begin."

"What are we voting on?"

"The firm's status as a donor. And the matter of the pledge."

"The week," I said.

"Yes." The director looked down at a folder.

"Seven days of service, starting last Monday at six. Mrs. Goldsborough reported every morning."

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