Chapter 21 - Jonah comes home somewhere else
Five months after Elena entered Mercer House, Jonah left the hospital.
Not cured.
Better.
His liver function had improved enough that transplant was no longer under immediate consideration.
He required specialist follow-up.
Medication.
Physical therapy.
Dietary monitoring.
Blythe had already been discharged six weeks earlier.
Neither child returned to Mercer House.
I bought nothing.
For once.
We rented.
A four-bedroom house near the hospital.
Unremarkable.
New construction.
Environmental testing completed before move-in because I had become exactly the kind of father who asks for reports.
Blythe hated the kitchen.
“Too white.”
She was right.
Jonah chose the downstairs bedroom because stairs still tired him.
Blythe chose the room beside mine.
Their first night, Jonah asked:
“Are we poor now?”
I stared.
“Why?”
“This house is small.”
I laughed so suddenly it hurt.
“No.”
“How rich?”
“Enough that you never need to ask that at six.”
He considered.
“Can we get pizza?”
“Yes.”
Money understood correctly.
Elena visited.
Not live-in.
Not staff.
She had refused every job offer I made.
The first:
Care coordinator.
“No.”
Second:
Family assistant.
“No.”
Third:
“You realize I can pay you enough that this is irrational.”
She stared.
“Do you hear yourself?”
Genevieve would have enjoyed that.
Eventually Elena accepted one thing.
Reimbursement for documented legal expenses Genevieve’s situation had caused beyond the original $25,000.
Through counsel.
Written.
No secret gratitude payment.
She also accepted part-time work from an independent patient-advocacy nonprofit I funded anonymously only after its board hired her without my involvement.
Rebecca called this arrangement:
“Lawson learning not to buy people.”
May you like
Painful.
Accurate.
