“Look, Clarissa. I still love you. You are the mother of my child, but honey, I don’t have that kind of money. I don’t want you to die or nothing, but I really don’t have that kind of cash lying around,” Cole said with tears in his eyes. “I’m glad you’re doing better; you hadn’t told me that before, or maybe I just didn’t understand. But fifty thousand dollars is just a lot of money.”
What am I going to do now? My worst fears are confirmed.
“I understand. We’ll figure something out.”
I started to sob.
“Hey, hey. Don’t cry. Don’t do that. You know I hate when you do that. I’ll figure something out. You know that.”
“Thanks, Cole. I knew I could count on you,” I said sadly, drying my tears with the handkerchief Ralph had given us.
“Okay, you relax here. I’ll have Ralph drive you back to the hotel. In the meantime, I’ll get you something to eat and drink from the vending machine.”
I nodded.
Cole walked off and disappeared when he made a turn toward the vending machine. I made eye contact with Ralph and signaled for him to come over. He gestured for me to wait.
I then saw Cole give Ralph a sandwich and a drink. He motioned for him to take it to me. He stayed talking to Rocco. Then he took out his phone and dialed someone.
Who is he calling?
Ralph walked over to me and gave me the sandwich and a Diet Dr. Spencer, my favorite.
Cole knows me so well,I thought.
Ralph sat in front of me.
“So what’s happening, Mom?”
“I told you not to call me that. Stay in character, dammit,” I said. I was very aggravated. This rookie could ruin everything with his big mouth.
“Sorry, Mrs. Bennett.”
“That’s more like it,” I said.
There was a pause.
“Listen, Cole bought the whole story of my tumor. I think he may consider helping us out with the fifty thousand dollars.”
“Mom,” he whispered. “What the hell? I thought you were going to get him to put me on his will and then give me fifty thousand dollars for child support or whatever. I told you that wasn’t going to work.”
“Stop calling me Mom. And I didn’t know what else to do. That was the only idea I had at the time. I don’t see you coming up with any brilliant ideas.”
“Well, I’m tired of it, Mrs. Bennett. This whole thing stinks. What is Dad going to say?”
“Well, I’m doing the best I can. It’s not my fault he doesn’t have insurance, and he got a brain tumor.”
It broke my heart when he broke the news to me.
John has always been the love of my life. I didn’t believe him at first, but the brain scans and MRIs that were done in front of me didn’t lie.
“I told him to stop drinking and to cheer up when I dropped him off at the bus station. I assured him everything was going to be alright,” Ralph said.
I let out a big sigh.
“Mom, we really don’t know how long he has. And we need that money for his operation down in Mexico and everything,” Ralph said as he shook his head. He really looked sad.
“Well, I need you to cheer up and look alert. You’re going to raise suspicion looking and acting like this. So man up,” I said sternly.
