“Charles is saying the extra hospital bills are my responsibility.”
Grant pressed his hand against the kitchen counter.
“What does your lawyer say?”
“I never hired my own lawyer.”
The admission left a silence neither could bridge.
Melissa said she had signed the documents after meeting with a lawyer recommended through Charles’s office.
She had believed the explanation that the legal arrangements were routine.
Now she had been given a set of forms to sign before leaving the hospital, including a reimbursement acknowledgment she did not understand.
“Don’t sign anything you don’t understand,” Grant said.
“Can you come?”
He looked at Lily, who was still waiting for help with her homework.
“I can make sure you’re connected with an independent attorney and that the children are safe.”
“Please don’t make this about what I said to you.”
“I’m not going to.”
He called Joanne and confirmed she was returning to the hospital.
Then he arranged for his sister Denise to stay with the children while he traveled there.
He did not drive to the hospital as a husband arriving to claim a victory.
He drove there as someone who had once promised to care about Melissa’s well-being, even though the marriage had changed.
When he entered the room, she looked much smaller than he remembered.
Her hair was pulled back carelessly, and the flowers on the windowsill were already wilting.
She began to apologize.
Grant raised a hand gently.
“Let’s get you through the immediate problem first,” he said.
He wrote down the names of the hospital social worker and patient advocate.
He asked Melissa whether she wanted him present while she spoke to them.
She nodded.
He did not touch her documents without permission.
By the time Joanne returned, they had a list of questions and a plan to find legal advice.
Melissa watched Grant fold the list into his pocket.
“I thought you would hate me,” she whispered.
He looked at her for a long time.
“I’m hurt, Melissa, but I don’t want you harmed.”
She covered her eyes with one hand.
It was the first honest conversation they had managed in months.
Chapter 24: A Contract Is Not a Family
The hospital patient advocate explained which decisions required medical consent and which could wait for legal review.
An independent attorney named Rachel Sloane agreed to meet Melissa after a referral from a local legal network.
Rachel began by asking who had represented Melissa when she signed the agreement.
