“Cancer.”
Eleven months.
For eleven months I had been sending money while my wife was sick.
And no one had told me.
Advisory services
Vivian argued that the treatment was expensive and that there were no guarantees.
But wherever I looked, I could see my money.
New soils.
A huge TV.
Leather furniture.
Granite countertops.
The SUV outside.
Derek’s new phone.
Your new business.
Clara had broken sandals and a blouse that I remembered buying him six years ago.
Foreign currency and currency exchange
I looked at my mother.
Pregnancy and Maternity
“How much of my money did they use for their treatment?”
Vivian finally admitted that they had paid for some visits.
Clara corrected her.
“Two.”
I looked at her.
“Two?”
He nodded.
Two visits in eleven months.
I helped Clara stand up and told her we’d go to the hospital.
Vivian immediately blocked the door.
Advisory services
He accused me of having disappeared for four years and coming home to treat my own family as criminals.
I slowly lifted my sleeve and showed him the burn scars and cuts he had after years working in the workshop.
“I worked whole nights. I slept in a room with four other men. I spent two Christmases completely just so that none of you would lack anything here.”
Vivian stared at me.
Communication Teams
“And we didn’t lack anything.”
I looked at Clara.
Thin.
Weak.
Barely able to stand.
Then I looked at my mother again.
“To her yes.”
Derek blamed me for going away.
Vivian said Clara had looked for all that.
Clara clung to my shirt, waiting for me to explode.
I didn’t.
Pregnancy and Maternity
