PART 4
Grady stood abruptly.
“Stop.”
His voice surprised both of us.
“You don’t get to do that.”
Kelsey stared.
“You lied to me,” he continued.
“You told me the SUV was ours.”
“It was going to be!”
“You told me the townhouse deposit came from your parents.”
She said nothing.
He looked at me.
“Mom…”
His eyes were red now.
“Did you really pay the deposit?”
I nodded once.
“I never wanted you to feel ashamed.”
He sank back into the chair as if someone had cut the strings holding him upright.
“How much?”
“Enough.”
“No. Tell me.”
“Twenty-four thousand.”
His shoulders shook.
Kelsey whispered, “I was protecting us.”
“From what?” he asked.
“My mother-in-law.”
Her answer hurt more than I expected.
Not because it was cruel.
Because she actually believed it.
Corbin quietly interrupted.
“Mrs. Whitlow… regarding today’s decision.”
He was reminding me why I had come.
The lease.
Three years of payments.
One signature.
One choice.
Grady looked at me.
“Please don’t take the car today.”
Kelsey opened her mouth.
He raised his hand.
“No.”
He kept looking at me.
“I deserve whatever lecture you’re going to give me.”
“I probably do.”
“But don’t punish us both before I know the whole truth.”
I looked through the finance office window.
Outside, my silver SUV sat beneath a row of fluttering dealership flags.
For thirty-five months, I had believed I was keeping my son’s family safe.
Now I wasn’t even sure whose family I had been protecting.
I closed the lease packet without signing it.
“I’m not renewing it,” I said.
Kelsey gasped.
Grady lowered his head.
“But I’m not turning it in today either.”
Both of them looked up.
“I want answers first.”
Corbin nodded.
“We can extend the decision seventy-two hours.”
“Good.”
I stood, picked up my purse, and walked toward the exit.
Just before the automatic doors opened, my phone rang.
The caller ID read:
St. Matthew Medical Center.
The same hospital printed on the parking tag hanging from that mysterious white sedan.
I answered.
A calm voice asked, “May I speak with Karen Whitlow? I’m calling regarding Dr. Nathan Ellis and the emergency contact information he listed under your family’s vehicle records…”
And my heart stopped.
The words “your family’s vehicle records” made me stop with one hand still resting on the dealership door.
I turned around.
Grady was watching me.
Kelsey was watching Grady.
And suddenly, nobody in that showroom seemed interested in the SUV anymore.
“Who is this?” I asked.
“My name is Melissa Grant. I’m a patient services coordinator at St. Matthew Medical Center.”
I looked at the white sedan visible through the dealership windows in my memory.
“Why are you calling me?”
“There appears to be some confusion regarding an emergency contact.”
“For Dr. Nathan Ellis?”
“Yes.”
My fingers tightened around my phone.
“I don’t know Dr. Ellis.”
There was a pause.
“That’s what concerns us.”
I glanced at Grady.
He had gone completely pale.
Kelsey whispered, “What’s wrong?”
I covered the phone.
“Both of you stay here.”
Grady stood.
“Mom—”
I raised my hand.
“Not one word.”
Then I stepped outside.
The dealership doors closed behind me.
The September air was cool against my face, but I barely noticed.
“Ms. Grant,” I said, “please tell me exactly what you can tell me.”
“I need to be careful because of privacy regulations. But Dr. Ellis listed a vehicle associated with your name as one of his emergency transportation contacts.”
“My name?”
“Yes.”
“What vehicle?”
She gave me the plate number.
It was my SUV.
The same SUV sitting thirty feet away from me.
I closed my eyes.
“Is Dr. Ellis a patient there?”
“Yes.”
“Is he currently there?”
Another pause.
“He was admitted yesterday.”
My stomach tightened.
“Is he okay?”
“He’s stable.”
I exhaled.
“Then why are you calling me?”
“Because he specifically asked us to contact you if his condition changed.”
“Why would a stranger do that?”
“We don’t know.”
I looked through the glass.
Grady was arguing with Kelsey now.
Neither could see me clearly.
“Did he tell you who I am?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
Melissa hesitated.
“He said you were the only person who might believe him.”
My breath caught.
“Believe him about what?”
“I can’t discuss his medical situation over the phone.”
“I understand.”
“But there is one thing I can tell you.”
“What?”
“He gave us your full name.”
She paused.
“Then he said something unusual.”
“What?”
“He said, ‘Karen Whitlow doesn’t know me yet. But she will.’”
The call ended.
I stood in the parking lot staring at nothing.
When I returned inside, Grady immediately approached.
“Mom, what did they want?”
I looked at him.
“Who is Nathan Ellis?”
“I told you. I don’t know.”
“Then why did you look terrified when I mentioned his name?”
“I wasn’t terrified.”
“You were.”
Kelsey stepped between us.
“Karen, this is getting ridiculous.”
I looked at her.
“Was Nathan Ellis at your townhouse?”
Her face changed.
Only slightly.
But I saw it.
Grady saw it too.
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