She pushed the papers back across the table to me.
“People will think I’m taking your side,” she said.
“You can keep all your concerns in the statement,” I said. “Every one of them. I’m not asking you to take my side.”
“And you can get out of my kitchen.”
Her voice broke. Completely.
“I thought I was giving her something good,” Nora said. “That day. With the roses. I thought I was helping her be happy. And you… you…”
She couldn’t finish.
I looked at the box under her hand. I remembered how carefully she’d fixed that scarf on her sister’s head. Twice. Smoothing it with her fingers.
For a moment, I wanted to tell her we’d both done the right thing. That we’d both just wanted to make Alicia happy. That it was okay.
It would have been so easy. And then I could have asked for her help afterward.
But I’d spent too many nights trying to make that answer fit. And it never did.
“I thought I was helping too,” I said. “I still made a decision I shouldn’t have made. You didn’t. I did. That’s the difference between us.”
Nora wiped her face with the sleeve of her sweatshirt.
She was quiet for a long time.
“And if they let you go back?” she asked. “To the hospital? What happens the next time some dying kid asks you for something you shouldn’t give them?”
I started to promise her I’d never make that mistake again. Never, ever.
Then I stopped.
That was just another reassurance. Offered because I wanted her to feel better. Because I wanted her to like me.
“I’ll ask for help before I answer,” I said. “I’ll go to somebody who isn’t me. Every time.”
Nora picked up her phone off the counter.
Then she put it back down again.
“What you did was wrong,” she said.
“I know.”
“And I’m not deleting the complaint.”
“I know.”
She picked up the phone again.
Adrian Hawthorne is a celebrated author and dedicated archivist who finds inspiration in the hidden stories of the past. Educated at Oxford, he now works at the National Archives, where preserving history fuels his evocative writing. Balancing archival precision with creative storytelling, Adrian founded the Hawthorne Institute of Literary Arts to mentor emerging writers and honor the timeless art of narrative.