Audrey's expression darkened further. She shoved Dana in front of her. "Son, stop wasting your breath on them! You're not setting foot in that operating room until we have the money in hand!"
Dana looked at his mother, then at me. His eyes were full of conflict and venom.
I knew what he resented. It wasn't his mother's greed. It was the fact that I'd brought Sabina in and derailed their plan.
The standoff played out right there in the hospital corridor.
Audrey had a death grip on Dana's arm, and my heart clenched tighter with every beep of the monitors inside the sterile ward.
"Dr. Lambert," I turned to the doctor standing nearby, his face just as grave, "if we proceed with a second transplant right now, what are Cliff's chances?"
Dr. Lambert let out a sigh. "Mrs. Fox, the situation is complicated. Because the first transplant was interrupted, the child's body has already mounted a stress response. If we force another attempt now, the risks will be significantly higher than the first time. And... we can't guarantee the donor won't back out again midway."
His words sent me plunging into an ice-cold abyss.
I looked at Dana. His mother had him shielded behind her, as if he weren't going in to save a life but to lose one.
"Dana." I spoke slowly, each word deliberate, every trace of emotion stripped from my voice. "I'm asking you one last time. The marrow. Are you donating it or not?"
His gaze wavered. His lips parted, but before he could get a word out, Audrey cut in. "Yes! Of course he's donating! The second that money hits our account, my son walks right in!"
Her greedy stare locked onto the two suitcases at Sabina's feet.
"Fine." Sabina smiled. She crouched down and flipped open one of the cases.
Red bills, stacked tight, blazing like a fire that seared every pair of eyes in the hallway.
Audrey's breathing went ragged.
"You want the money? You can have it." Sabina pulled another document from her bag. "Sign this agreement first."
"What agreement?" Audrey's voice turned wary.
"A donation agreement." Sabina held the document out in front of her, her tone ice-cold. "It states, in clear terms, that this five million dollars is a voluntary gift from Sarah Fox to Dana Gilbert, entirely unrelated to Cliff Gilbert's medical treatment. Mr. Gilbert may choose to accept the gift and then, of his own free will and at no cost, complete the bone marrow donation for his son. Or he may choose not to accept."
Audrey froze. Dana froze.
Neither of them had expected Sabina to pull a move like this.
By reclassifying the transaction as a gift, the entire legal nature of the exchange shifted.
If they took the money, there would be no way, legally, to tie it to the bone marrow donation.
And if Dana took the money and then reneged, he'd be guilty of fraud.
"You... this is extortion!" Audrey was shaking with rage.
"Takes one to know one." Sabina folded her arms and regarded her coolly. "Compared to using your own grandson's life as leverage, I'd say we're being remarkably civilized."
The murmurs around them grew louder. Stares and pointed fingers closed in from every direction, and Dana looked like he wanted the floor to swallow him whole.
He finally snapped. He shoved Audrey aside, stormed up to Sabina, and hissed through clenched teeth, "Enough! What do you people want? Do you have to make this into a public spectacle?"
"A spectacle?" I walked up to him slowly, looking straight into those eyes that had once held me captive. "Dana, the moment you decided to trade your son's life for money, we were past the point of keeping up appearances. Now you have two choices. Sign the paper, take the money, and save Cliff. Or we'll see each other in court."
I saw the shock in his eyes. The fury. And beneath it all, a flicker of something harder to catch.
Panic.
