“I created it through Halden. They have the access protocol.”
His expression shifted from concern to something closer to frustration.
“You gave a private firm all of this?”
“Not the medical evidence. The financial records.”
“You should have told me.”
“Why?”
“Because I’ve spent six months terrified that every text you sent me might be the last one.”
The room seemed to shrink.
Ruiz rose.
“I’ll give you a few minutes.”
She spoke briefly to Priya and left.
Liam waited until the door shut.
Then he looked at me.
I had seen my brother angry many times.
At residents who falsified notes.
At insurance companies that denied emergency procedures.
At himself when our father’s diagnosis came too late for treatment.
This was different.
This anger had nowhere to go.
“You told me you were making a plan,” he said.
“I was.”
“You told me you had an apartment arranged.”
