I closed my eyes. “You said Friday.”
“I tried to extend it.”
“Then tell me what happens if I can’t pay.”
“She’ll be transferred to a lower-level long-term care facility.”
My hand tightened around the phone. “So she stays alive, but loses the program that might help her wake up.”
“I wish I had another answer.”
“So do I,” I said.
I hung up before I cried in Adrian’s hallway.
The next morning, I arrived at his house with my hands shaking so badly I burned his toast.
“You’re smoking up the kitchen,” Adrian said.
“I’ll make more.”
“Kirsten. You’re crying.”
He rolled closer. “Is it Lisa?”
That broke me.
“They’re moving her,” I said. “Not to rehab, like I hoped. Somewhere that can keep her stable, but not give her what she needs.”
“How much?”
“Don’t.”
“How much, Kirsten?”
“Too much. More than I can make. More than I can borrow. More than I can beg without losing the last piece of myself.”
Adrian looked down at his hands.
Then he said, “Marry me.”
I stared at him. “Excuse me?”
“Marry me, Kirsten.”
“That isn’t funny.”
“I’m not laughing.”
“You’re twenty.”
“I know.”
“I’m forty-three. I’m your employee.”
“I can hire someone else.”
“You are grieving, injured, lonely, and angry at oatmeal. That is not a proposal. That is panic with paperwork.”
His jaw flexed. “I’m not asking for romance.”
“That makes it worse, honey.”
“Vivian controls most of my trust until I’m twenty-one. She refuses what she calls emotional spending.”
“Lisa isn’t emotional spending.”
“I know.” His voice dropped. “My personal medical account and household fund are separate from the main trust. Vivian can delay almost anything I request alone. But if I’m married, my spouse can co-sign emergency medical expenses with me. She can still fight it, but she cannot bury it quietly.”
I stepped back. “No.”
“Kirsten.”
“No. I won’t marry a man for money, especially one with his entire life ahead of him. You deserve more, Adrian. You deserve to live.”
“You wouldn’t be using me.”
“Yes, I would.”
“Then use me.”
He said it as if the words cost him something. As if he already knew I would hate him for offering.
“Use the money. Use the name. Use whatever gets Lisa into that program.”
“Don’t talk about my daughter like she is a bill.”
“I’m talking about her like she is alive.”
That silenced me.
He looked at my phone on the counter. “If you leave here unmarried, what happens tomorrow?”
I looked away.
“They move her,” I whispered.
“And if you marry me?”
I hated him for placing my pride against Lisa.
“Why would you do this?” I asked.
His eyes flickered toward the window. “I can’t tell you everything yet.”
“Then my answer is no.”
“Please, Kirsten. I need one day of trust.”
My phone buzzed again. Hospital billing.
I thought of Lisa lying still while strangers decided what kind of chance she deserved.
Then I closed my eyes.
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