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“No, you first,” I stated firmly. My heart flew so fast that I was getting lightheaded, and Eli’s glinting eyes became two sharp pinpricks. “I want proof that my mother’s bills are paid for this month, and written proof that the bills will be taken care of until the end of her days.”
Part of me hoped that my demands would be too much and Eli would have to leave in order to give me what I wanted. As I spoke, he set down his cup and reached into the inside of his jacket, pulling out a rolled up wad of papers.
Unfurling them, he smoothed them out on the table.
“You’re asking for a lot, you know,” he remarked smoothly, his voice like butter. “Anyone would think I was made of money.”
“I’m risking a lot,” I snapped back. “But if you’re telling me that something like this is beyond you then, well that’s too bad. That’s the price.”
“I didn’t say I couldn’t,” Eli snapped back, finally showing something other than slimy cockiness. “Merely making you aware of what you stand to lose if you try to double-cross me.”
I rolled my eyes. “Sounds like you’re scared.”
“On the contrary,” Eli smirked. “I have a lawyer on a ten thousand dollar retainer so even if you did try to screw me over, Callie. I’d have you lost in the justice system just like that.” He snapped his fingers, his smirk turning cold, then he slid the papers past the sugar packet stand and onto my side of the table.
In truth, I didn’t know what I was looking at. There were several invoices, and the eye-watering amount of each monthly bill at my mother’s new facility was enough to make my nausea swell once more. I didn’t make that much in a year, never mind a month. There were several signatures, Eli’s and who I presumed to be his lawyers, all over the document. From the dates I could see, it looked legit.
“Are you happy?” Eli asked, drumming his fingers lightly on the table.
Maybe I should have brought my own lawyer. Taking the papers, I bundled them up and stuffed them into my bag.
“Sure.”
“And the patent?”
As I picked the pen drive out of my bag, it felt heavy, like a lead paperweight. How could something so small hold so much power to damage so many people?
“Here.” With a heavy heart, and a heavier conscience, I slid the pen drive across the table and into Eli’s waiting hand.
His face lit up like a child at Christmas, and he toyed with the device. He eyed me carefully.
“Everything I want is on here?”
I nodded. “Everything I could find.”
His smile widened, almost resembling a puppet with how it stretched from ear to ear. “A mighty find pleasure doing business with you, my dear.”
I stood, throwing my bag over my shoulder. “Whatever. I never want to see you ever again, do you understand?”
Eli looked up at me and merely smiled.
“Can you describe your symptoms for me?” The Doctor in front of me pressed another tissue into my hand, her face twisted slightly in worry.
The moment I walked into her office, the smell of antiseptic and sterilization turned my already churning stomach, and I threw up into the waste paper basket. She’d been gentle about it, giving me some water to wash out my mouth and a few tissues to dry the sweat clinging to my skin.
“Well,” I croaked, my throat burning with each word. “There’s the sickness. Sometimes it’s near-constant. I keep having hot flushes that I thought was just the summer heat but now I’m not so sure. I’m peeing a lot and my chest is really tight sometimes. I think it’s stress.”
She nodded along, typing into her computer as I spoke.
Behind her, white slatted blinds drifted in the light breeze coming in through the window. Each time they moved, I glimpsed Bianca’s car out in the parking lot. Just the sight of it brought me comfort and I ached to be in her arms. To cry about all of this and then drown in some wine.
“How are your eating habits?”
“Not great,” I murmured. “I’ve been off a lot of my usual foods but like I said, the work stress is piling on me.” And my mother. And Eli.
She nodded again, typing quickly. “I’d like to run a few tests if that’s okay?”
“Of course.”
