“You know I wouldn’t miss this!” She hugged Josh gently. He giggled and Emma watched him, smiling.

At the sound of Josh’s giggle, the band that had been cinching tighter and tighter around Nate’s chest this last month eased just a little. As long as Josh was okay, that was all that mattered.

They followed Katie to their private room. Dr. Palmer came in as she was giving Josh a dose of Tylenol and Benadryl. “It’ll reduce his chances of having an allergic reaction to the preservative the T-cells have been frozen in,” Katie explained.

“You ready to go to battle, Captain Smiley?” Dr. Palmer fist-bumped Josh.

“Let’s do this!” Josh made lightsaber noises, slashing his pretend weapon through the air.

Katie fixed a line into the catheter connected to Josh’s port. It was attached to a huge machine, where the T-cells had been warmed and readied for injection.

“Is that it?” Josh asked, eyes wide.

Katie laughed. “That’s it.”

“Now what do we do?”

“This will only take about two minutes, but you’ll have to stay here for a few hours so we can make sure you’re all good, okay?”

“I s’pose so.” Josh rested his head back in the chair, his eyes drooping.

“You feeling a little sleepy?” Katie asked.

Josh nodded.

“That’s perfectly normal. It’s the Benadryl. Go ahead and get some rest.” She turned to Nate, Emma, and Moira. “I’ll check on him every half hour, but ring the bell if you need me. If everything goes well, we’ll let him go home in three hours. Hopefully the new T-cells will start killing the cancer cells within a week.”

After she and the doctor had gone, Moira stood and announced she was going to grab a coffee from the family room, leaving Emma and Nate in a thick silence punctuated only by Josh’s gentle snores.

Katie bustled back in with an envelope. “Jill up at the front desk asked me to give you your receipt.” She handed the envelope to Emma and left.

Nate looked at Emma. “Receipt for what?”

Emma’s face had drained of all color. She swallowed hard, her eyes darting around, like she was looking for somewhere to run. She was trying to come up with a lie.

Before she could react, he swiped the envelope out of her hands.

“Nate!” she protested, grabbing at it, but he’d already slit the envelope open and was holding the receipt in his hand.

He couldn’t seem to make sense of it, though.

Emma had paid Cascade Regional Hospital $98,004.

Nate’s fingers went numb. The receipt fluttered to the floor as he tried to comprehend what he was seeing. Where the fuck had Emma gotten $98,004?

“Emma,” he whispered. “What have you done?”

Emma’s face had gone stony, her jaw set. “I think it’s best if you don’t know.”

CHAPTER 36