"I'm okay," Lisa said softly, noticing his stare.
Malik didn't answer right away. "You weren't okay five minutes ago," he said.
She gave a small smile, the kind that tried to make things lighter than they were. "That's called getting older," she said. "Happens to the best of us."
Malik shook his head. "No, it's not." The words came out sharper than he meant them to.
Lisa's smile faded just a little. The silence between them stretched. Outside, a car passed on the main road, its tires crunching over gravel before fading into the distance. Somewhere, a screen door slammed. Life kept moving. Inside the trailer, time slowed.
Malik walked to the counter and picked up the envelope he had noticed earlier, the one she had tried to slide under a stack of old mail. He turned it over in his hands; the hospital logo stared back at him.
"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked quietly.
Lisa's eyes dropped to the table. "It's nothing," she said.
"It's not nothing." He opened the envelope. The number on the paper didn't make sense at first. Then it did. And when it did, it hit him harder than anything Tyler had ever said. "How are we supposed to pay this?" Malik asked.
Lisa let out a slow breath. "We'll figure it out."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only one I got right now."
Malik looked down at the bill again, then back at her. "You need to go back," he said. "You need to see a doctor."
"I already did."
"Then go again."
Lisa shook her head gently. "Baby, they already told me what they can do," she said. "And what it costs."
Malik clenched the paper in his hand. He thought about the $1,000, about how easy it would have been, about how it would have taken care of at least part of this. His chest tightened.
"You should have taken it." The words slipped out before he could stop them.
Lisa looked up sharply. "What?"
"The money," Malik said, his voice low. "You should have taken it."
A flicker of something crossed her face—surprise, then something deeper. "No," she said firmly.
"You don't even know—"
"I know exactly what you're talking about," she cut in.
Malik's jaw tightened. "It could have helped," he said. "It could have."