Chapter 4

Dad and I stayed at a hotel that night. The next morning, I took him to another hospital for the same endoscopy process. This time, we had the result in two hours: a stomach polyp, not cancer. The fear I'd been carrying finally began to ease.

Yale called throughout the morning and sent messages when I didn't answer.

[Xandra, we're adults. Don't run away from home over one little thing.]

Apparently, anything involving Dad and me was little. Paige and Helen were another matter.

[Paige likes that limited-edition coat of yours. I gave it to her since you aren't wearing it.]

The coat was brand-new. I'd saved it for our first visit to Dad after the wedding. Before I could get over that, another message arrived.

[Paige wants to be your bridesmaid, but she doesn't have a dress. I gave her your champagne-colored one.]

It was the only dress I had for the reception. Yale hadn't asked about Dad once, yet he'd found a way to bring Paige into every message. I left them unanswered and kept my attention on Dad's procedure.

As they took him into the procedure room, a nurse hurried over. "Ms. Sutton, we still need payment for your father's procedure."

"I put down $4,500 yesterday."

"The payment didn't clear. The money was withdrawn from the account this morning."

I'd paid from our shared account. Yale was the only other person who could have emptied it. My savings were already gone, spent on the house down payment and the wedding planner's deposit. Without that money, I couldn't pay for Dad's procedure.

Yale answered when I called. "Did you take the money I set aside for the hospital?"

"Yes."

"Put it back. Dad's procedure is today."

"Too late. I bought Helen a gold bracelet with it and spent what was left on clothes for Paige."

"Then how am I supposed to pay for Dad?"

"Take out a loan. Or borrow it."

"Yale, Dad paid $200,000 toward your medical training. Now he needs a procedure, and you won't give him $4,500?"

He paused. "I could give it to you. I'm choosing not to. This is your punishment for going to another doctor. How do you think that makes me look to my colleagues?"

The nurse called to me again. I forced down my anger. "Please lend me the money for the procedure. We can discuss everything else afterward."

"Fine, if you sign something first."

"What?"

"Helen likes our house. She wants to retire there. Sign it over to her."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because you've loved me for ten years. You're not going to give me up now."

Sunlight poured through the windows, but I felt cold spread all the way down to my feet.

Yale had pushed Dad and me out of our home and taken the money set aside for his care. Now he wanted the house itself.

I ended the call and phoned the bank, hoping to borrow against the property. The representative apologized. "We can't approve another loan against this house, Ms. Sutton. A $45,000 home-equity loan was opened yesterday."

My hand shook around the phone. Yale had planned for my refusal. If I wouldn't sign over our house, he could borrow against it, put the money toward another one, and leave me with the debt.

I called an old family friend, Daniel Brooks, back home. Within five minutes, he'd sent me $7,500, and I hurried to the nurses' station.

Elsewhere, Yale was discussing where to buy Helen's new house with her and Paige.

"Won't Xandra be upset that you borrowed against the house?" Paige asked.

"No. We're getting married tomorrow, and she can't wait to marry me. She won't make a scene now."

Helen patted his shoulder. "You're a senior doctor. She's just a junior office worker. She should thank her lucky stars you want her. You have the upper hand."

Yale nodded.

By eleven the next morning, the food had been served at the wedding venue, but every seat reserved for the bride's side was empty.

Xandra and her father hadn't come either. Yale's coworkers were the only guests at the tables.

Cold sweat broke out across his forehead as he called a mutual friend, Jordan Miller.

Jordan answered him angrily. "You took Xandra's house and her father's surgery money, you bastard. Who would marry you after that?"