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“Abel!” a childish voice squealed.
I turned the office chair and found Reid waddling toward me, his favorite stuffed dinosaur locked under his arm.
A smile tugged the corners of my lips. ‘Abel’ was Reid’s best attempt at saying my name.
“Hey, baby. Is your show done?”
He nodded. “Fruit.”
“You want your fruit snacks?” I asked, knowing he wouldn’t be referring to the actual thing.
Reid nodded, his green eyes bright.
I smiled and swept him into my arms. “Let’s go.”
After I’d gotten Reid his snacks and a cup of water, I pulled out my cell phone. My fingers hovered over my mother’s name.
How should I tell them Dad could get his treatment without attracting a whole bunch of questions?
“You,” Reid said.
I glanced up and found the little kid extending a fruit snack to me.
“No thanks.” I smiled, shaking my head. Reid had a habit of digging his nose and I didn’t trust where that hand had been.
“Take,” he insisted.
“You’re as pushy as your dad, aren’t you?” I accepted the gift and pretended to eat it. “Mm, it’s good. Thank you for sharing.”
“Welcome,” he said and went back to happily munching.
As I watched Reid, an idea popped into my head. Just like I’d balked at accepting the fruit snack from Reid’s hand, my parents would reject massive amounts of money from mine.
Unless… I gave them the illusion it was from another hand.
“Reid, you’re a genius!” I squeezed his cheeks and kissed him.
He swatted me away.
I laughed and grabbed my cell phone, moving on my idea while he was occupied with his snack. Dialing the hospital’s numbers on autopilot, I called Dad’s doctor.
“You want me to tell your parents they got a grant from someone else?” Doctor Juarez croaked a few minutes later.
“They won’t look into it, Doctor. Trust me. My mom has too much on her plate to worry about anything but Dad’s health.”
“Why don’t you just tell them the money’s from you?”
“Because they’d waste too much energy asking where it came from.”
“And where did it come from, Angel?”
I paused. “Doctor Juarez, is that really the issue here? My dad is about to give up on receiving treatment. He’s going to die if he goes that route.”
“You do know he may die even if he does receive chemo, right?”
“At least I’ll know we tried everything.”
“If you’re sure about this…?”
