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Jonah held me back.
“Go on,” he said, laughing. “I’d love to press charges.”
“I don’t understand,” Ellie said, stunning me. “We still had sixty days to come up with the money. We would have been fine after we took the cattle to market.”
“You guys were in foreclosure?” I asked.
She nodded, ashamed. “We were. We mortgaged the ranch to pay for Cricket’s medical fees. She needed it but we overextended ourselves. We were relying on the ranch’s profits to put us in the black again.” She turned to Dominic. “The bank said we had sixty days.”
“My employer,” he said, righting himself and fixing his tie, “otherwise known as Spencer’s father, has purchased the bank to which you owe. He’s decided, as a matter of discretion, that it would be best to cut our losses now and try to sell the ranch on our own. He feels it would be most prudent to recoup the loan.” He smiled cordially, making me want to kick his teeth in. “It’s all here in your eviction papers.” He gestured toward Emmett. “Well,” he said, taking a deep breath and turning toward me. His eyes burned with poison. “Maybe next time you won’t try to screw over your father.”
Dominic left the room and we all sat silently, numb.
“Oh my God,” I said, feeling ill.
I sagged against the wall. Next to me was a trash can, and I bent to vomit into the bag, emptying the contents of my stomach and heaving in disgust with my father.
I sat back up, walked to the sink, rinsed out my mouth and slid against the wall, sitting on the hospital floor.
“I’m going to fix this,” I told the deathly hushed room. “I’m going to fix this somehow,” I kept repeating over and over.
Emmett read the start of the eviction notice. “We have ten days.”
“I’ll fix it, Emmett,” I told him.
“I don’t think you can, son,” he told me kindly, making me want to wretch again.
“I will. I will fix this.” I looked at the shocked faces around me, including Bridge’s. “I am so sorry that we tainted your lives like this.”
“Stop,” Ellie pleaded. “You aren’t responsible for your father’s actions, Spencer.”
“If I’d never shown up at your doorstep, you would have been fine,” I said, dumbfounded. “I never should have contaminated your lives.”
Bridge started crying. “I’m so sorry,” she grieved, and Jonah hugged her tighter.
“Spencer?” I heard to my side. I turned. It was Dr. Caldwell. “We need to admit you.”
“What?” Bridge asked, sitting up.
“I’m, uh, I’m giving Cricket a kidney.”
I stood and squeezed Emmett’s shoulder. “I will fix this,” I told him. He clasped my hand so kindly that I almost lost it.
“I can’t believe you’re doing this for my granddaughter,” he said. “Thank you. With everything I have, thank you.”
I shook my head at him. “No, Emmett, thank you for allowing me to.”
I hugged Ellie and she whispered a prayer into my ear. She too thanked me for my sacrifice. I couldn’t believe them, these people I had ruined the lives of. They were so unbelievably generous that it humbled me.
“Jonah, Bridge, if you’ll see me soon. I’d like to arrange for a few things? I’ll need your help.”
“Of course,” Bridge answered.
I walked to Cricket’s side and pressed my hands into her skin. I leaned over and kissed her mouth before whispering in her ear. “I love you. I’ll see you tomorrow. I hope to save your life the way you have saved mine.”
Dr. Caldwell led me to an admitting desk. An orderly made me sit in a wheelchair, which I thought ridiculous, but since I was officially a patient there, they didn’t want to take the risk of my falling or something else inconceivable. They wheeled me into a room a floor below Cricket’s.
As soon as I was in the room, I picked up the phone and dialed my father.
