floor smelled of peppermint tea and

ad somehow fought for one pane of glass overlooking the East River. On the sill sat a row of potted succulents, each labeled in a child's careful handwriting. On the wall, beside t

Mr. Gallo had said, "Kiddo, take two," and meant it. She sat in the leather chair

d I'll tell you in order. And if at any point

s all

e had a yellow notepad, and a pen, and a way of looking at Isabella that was neither pi

morning. Seventy-five thousand dollars, wired directly from a law firm's escrow account in your

out of her in a long

called our billing director to ask whether it was a mistake. I have worked here

a said

se I think it needs saying. If something unusual is attached to that money, if you ever feel uncomfortable about what it's

felt her eyes sting. She looked at the crayon

. But I think he's, I think it's legitim

did not press. "Seco

esponse rate I'd call poor, and a remission, if she gets one, that doesn't last. This trial uses a targeted drug that attacks the specific mutation

or

n't round it

e you if

rs, which is a window. A stretch of time in which her blood counts are stable enough to consider a transplant.

that costs a mil

r registry search fees, the conditioning, the hundred days of monitored recovery afterward, or any of the care in between. That's where t

th her thumbnail. It was a habit

res a financial guarantee for the balance before the response assessment

y-eigh

es

have a

y. A little under a month." Dr. Shah's voice softened. "I'm tel

m that came over her whenever the numbers became unbearable, as th

she said. "After the fi

a match, if one exists in the registry. Your mother is of mixed European descent, which is a modest advantag

he doesn'

her eyes and di

d. "I will be honest about it. I will not let he

er. A tug dragged a long barge down its middle, sl

Her voice came out steady.

and for a moment, briefly, put a hand on Isabella's shoulder. "She talks about you constantly, yo

. Nobody

someone h

the doctor sharply. But Dr. Shah's face

ir from the window, with a blanket over her knees and her head tipped back against the vinyl, asleep. Her

chair beside her and sat

o the port beneath her mother's collarbone. She watched it fall. One drop, a

four hours. At a cost she did not know and could ea

rs. Three hundred

698.63. Thirteen thousand, six hundred and ninety-eight dollars and s

xty in tips. She was being offered, for the price of a year of her life, a figure so large that it ceased to beha

's hands on the piano key

Kingsley saying, becaus

text on her phone at mi

ell across

"like you've been hit by a bus.

a lanyard swinging against her chest. She had come straight from a night shift.

bella sai

ith the heavy grace of a woman who has worked fourteen hours on her feet. She looked at Maggie

ng to do it

did not

to ask Mrs. Petrakis for the extra credit project and you went all, all zen about i

n't tol

u've de

'm going t

ion suite than they had in her head. Tessa studied her for a

," sh

ka

st week when I was on the oncology float, and I did the math, too, and I can't argue with the math." She leaned back. "So here's what's going to happen. I'm goin

s reas

hreaten him. Once. I

ke to s

o, I have to sign something, right? A con

ed. "How did y

. Very scary. Said Mr. Kingsley's counsel would be in

used sound, and it surprised her, and it made her mother

iscovered it in her pocket on the train home and sat staring at it between Fifty-Ninth and Atlantic, trying to work out wheth

eld i

. "Did you steal a

rrowe

how l

t how to give it b

reverently. "You're goin

led of concrete and old paint. Somebody had written a faded HANG IN THERE on the wall

with her phone in her hand and

h. She knew the two numbers engraved beneath the address, the first for the office

lls for the day. In five days, her mother would lie in a chair and a clear bag wou

clearly, with her chin up, from the doorway of a law firm at three in the morning

man. She was the kind of wo

di

d ring there was a click, and a

closed

r," she said. "I'm s

d Gideon Marsh. "You are

and she steadied it. "Thursday,"