Hattie's mouth kept shaping my name without sound. Her hand had gone slack in mine.
Odette: Stay with me. Breathe, Hattie. Breathe.
Bernice: What did you do to her, you little stray bitch?
Suki: Mother, people can hear you.
She did not lower her voice. She wanted the hall to hear.
Bernice: You worked her up until her heart gave out.
She slapped me. Her ring split my lip against my teeth.
Odette: I was holding her hand. You were late.
Blood ran down my chin. She grabbed my jaw and squeezed until my back teeth hurt.
Bernice: You think this room was yours? You were the help. The help doesn't get to play family.
Bernice: Get the county transfer papers. She's going to the public ward tonight.
Odette: She's having a stroke. She cannot be moved.
Bernice: Then she can have it on a cot with a curtain for a door.
I believed her. My stomach dropped because I knew she could do it.
Bernice: One word from you and she goes tonight.
Rowan: Take your hand off her.
Bernice let go, but she did not step back.
Bernice: This is family business, Mr. Rothwell.
Rowan: She's in my family's room. That makes it mine.
Bernice: One phone call and I move her.
Rowan: One call from me and the board asks why you moved a stroke patient to die in a hallway.
The phone in her hand shook. Dr. Kell came in with his coat still buttoned and looked at Hattie, not at the argument.
Kell: Stroke. We're losing time.
Bernice: No surgery. She's seventy-eight, and this girl is not making medical decisions.
Kell: Who is her next of kin?
Bernice: I am her emergency contact.
Rowan: You are a name on a form. I am the one paying for the room.
Bernice: You let that girl play doctor and Hattie pays for it.
Odette: I want her alive. You want someone to blame.
My voice came out flat and steady. Dr. Kell looked at me across the bed.
Kell: You saw the drug reaction. You saw the stroke. What do you see now?
Odette: Clot. Left side. She needs surgery now.
Bernice: Don't you dare listen to her.
Kell: I'm listening.
He said it without turning his head.
Bernice: You'll ruin your name for a stray.
Kell: My name is already on this chart.
He pulled the consent form from the desk.
Rowan: You touch that phone and I'll have security walk you out.
Bernice: You can't.
Rowan: Watch me.
Kell: My name goes on the surgery. If she dies, it is on me.
He held my eyes across her bed, and for the first time all night, nobody else got to decide.
Odette: Take her. Now.