Page 77 of The Golden Hour

She has been pure sunshine through this whole experience, a safe and trusted person to look toward for help. She’s so damn tired of being failed by doctors in her life.

“Truly,” Honey says, holding back tears. “Thank you.”

Dr. Farah’s expression softens, then she glances toward Mason.

“Dr. Carpenter, could I talk to you for a minute?”

Instead of answering right away, Mason looks right at Honey.

“Are you okay if I step out?”

Honey ignores the tiny fluttering that he asked first before just leaving, that he checked on her first. It is just because he has not done that in a while, she reminds herself.

Honey nods.

“Yes, we’re okay.”

Mason’s lips tilt upward into a soft smile at her words, and with one last glance, he follows Dr. Farah out of the room. Honey can see them through the glass window. She cannot hear what they are saying, but she watches Mason carefully anyway.

He raises his hand to his mouth, and Honey instantly knows that he is anxious about something. But then he lifts both hands and scrubs them down his face, and she knows he is not anxious.

He is angry.

Whenever Mason got irritated in the past, at a professor or a colleague, he would scrub his hands over his face as if he were trying to literally wipe the anger from his expression. He once told Honey he never wanted her to think he was angry at her.

What is he angry about?

“Daddy just sent this,” Melissa says, standing from the couch and walking over to Honey’s bed.

Honey reluctantly tears her eyes away from Mason to see what her mother is showing her on the phone.

Pictures of the nursery, completely done and all the furniture and decor brought over from her house. There’s also a brand-new queen-sized mattress in her bedroom to replace the twin she slept on until she moved out for college. Her dad even put a golden-yellow comforter on it, making her smile.

“What do you think, Honeybee?”

“It’s perfect,” Honey says, feeling relief and excitement at the prospect of leaving this hospital.

And never returning.

Her mother then taps her phone a few times before showing Honey an email.

“That attorney Ellen found got back to me,” Melissa says quietly. “We have a meeting in two weeks scheduled.”

Honey’s mouth goes dry at that.

The malpractice suit that they will be filing against the hospital and Dr. Mortimer.

Because someone needs to pay for this. If only to keep it from happening again to some other unheard pregnant mother. Marlene’s well connected in their community and has already been speaking to people about Dr. Mortimer, who’s on a leave of absence now.

Honey formally requested her medical records from St. Mary’s while Mason was out getting them food. There was a reason they wanted to request them without him in the room, as the attorney advised.

And Ellen, surprisingly. She came to meet Daisy a week ago, fussed over Honey, and then slipped a business card for the attorney discreetly into Melissa’s hands.

Before she left, she winked and warned, “Let's keep this to ourselves for now.”

The hospital administrator who came in to speak to Honey and Melissa about the records request had been visibly pale throughout the conversation, seeming to know exactly why they were requesting them and what they were going to do with them.

They promised to have the records in her hands as soon as possible.