They Chose My Sister, Then Learned She Was Dying novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Cal's POV: Nineteen

Cal's POV

I watched Clifton Hallam's shoulder drop and I knew where the punch was going.

I didn't move.

I had told myself in the elevator that if it came, I would let it, because he needed to land one.

It caught me on the cheekbone and turned my head.

The waiting room was nearly empty, three people in plastic chairs and a vending machine humming against the wall.

Nobody got up.

"Get out of my face," Clifton said, breathing hard. "You don't know a thing about my family."

"I know you told a church your daughter was dying," I said. "And I know what you said when I told you Maisie was."

My cheek throbbed.

I turned my head back and looked at him.

"I'm not done, Mr. Hallam. Sit down and I'll finish. Or don't, and I'll finish standing."

Joyce was in the chair behind him with her coat buttoned wrong and her purse in both hands.

She was looking at the blood on my lip.

"Clifton," she said. "Clifton, sit."

He sat. It surprised me more than the punch had.

"I had a brother," I said. "He was nineteen."

I kept my voice low, because I use it on families all the time, and it works.

"His liver quit at seventeen. Same kind of disease as Maisie's. He was on the list for fourteen months."

Joyce's mouth moved.

"My blood type didn't match. My mother's didn't, my father's didn't. We had one chance, and nobody in our house could take it."

"I'm sorry," Joyce whispered.

"I'm not telling you for sorry."

I wiped my lip with my thumb.

"After the funeral, my father stood in the kitchen and said the list chose wrong. He said it for years. Like there should have been a better kid in line ahead of mine."

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