But without it, she has maybe six months." Amara felt something crack open in her chest. "“I’m sorry.” I’ve been trying to figure out how to pay for it. I have some savings, but not nearly enough. I thought I thought if I did well on the Turner project, there'd be a bonus, a big one. Enough to at least make a dent." She wiped her eyes again.
"But you got the bonus instead, which is fair. Your analysis was better. You deserved it. “Claire, I know I’ve been awful to you.” “I know.”" Her voice broke. "I saw Ethan hire you personally, and I was jealous.
I thought you didn’t deserve to be here. I thought you only got the job because because of his father, because you were a charity case. So I tried to make you fail. I disabled your auto-save. I gave you impossible deadlines.
I took credit for your work. “I know.”" "“Of course you do. You’re not stupid.”" Claire looked at her. "But you never said anything. You never told Marcus or Ethan.
You just kept working, kept being better than me. And now my mom is dying and I can’t save her and I have no one to blame but myself." Amara sat very still. She thought about the envelope in her desk drawer, the check for $$10,000. She’d already deposited it, but she hadn't spent most of it. It was sitting in her account, safe and untouched, the first real savings she’d had in two years.
She thought about her mother, about those final weeks when the experimental treatment might have saved her, but they didn’t have the money. About how she’d had to watch her mother die, knowing there might have been another option. She thought about what her mother would tell her to do. "“Where is your mom getting the surgery?”" "Memorial Hospital, Dr. Patterson." "“When?”" "two weeks, if I can come up with the money." Amara pulled out her phone.
She opened her banking app and transferred $$9,000 to her checking account. Then she stood up. "“Come with me.”" "“What?”" "Come on." They walked to the bank on the next block. Inside, Amara asked for a cashier's check. The teller printed it out, $$9,000, made out to Memorial Hospital.
Amara handed it to Claire. Claire stared at it. "What is this?" "It’s for your mom's surgery." "This is This is $$9,000. “It’s most of my bonus. I can’t take this.”" "“Yes, you can.”" "“No.”" Claire tried to hand it back.