Chapter 3 - The Boy With the Green Dinosaur
Josie did not show Toby the messages.
She showed hospital security.
That was the first decision she made.
The second was calling Mara, not Luca.
Mara answered on the first ring.
“Where are you?”
“Children’s.”
“I know. What happened?”
Josie read the texts aloud.
Silence.
Then Mara said, “Screenshot them. Do not respond. Send them to me and hospital security.”
“I already showed security.”
“Good.”
“I don’t want Relli people storming the pediatric floor.”
“You have a colorful imagination.”
“I met Luca yesterday.”
A pause.
“Fair.”
Ten minutes later, hospital security confirmed no immediate threat had been identified. The number was spoofed. They documented it.
Luca did not arrive.
Josie was relieved.
She was also, annoyingly, disappointed.
He called.
“Is Toby okay?”
“For tonight.”
“Good.”
“You didn’t come.”
“You told Mara you didn’t want people storming the pediatric floor.”
Josie glanced through the glass at Toby coloring a dinosaur.
“She told you that?”
“She enjoys humiliating me.”
“Healthy workplace.”
“I’m trying.”
His voice changed.
“Josie, the texts mention HeartBridge.”
“I noticed.”
“They knew about your son.”
“Yes.”
“That means either your application was accessed or someone learned about him another way.”
“I want to know which.”
“So do I.”
“But not by pulling his file for me.”
“I heard you the first time.”
She closed her eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize for making boundaries clear.”
That stopped her.
Toby waved from the bed.
“Mama!”
“I have to go.”
“Tomorrow is covered.”
“What?”
“You’re not expected in.”
“I’ve worked one day.”
“And your son is in a hospital.”
“I can come after discharge.”
“No.”
There was the word.
Josie stiffened.
Luca corrected himself immediately.
“The office can function without you. Stay with him if that’s what you want.”
Better.
“Thank you.”
When they returned home after midnight, Mrs. Hattie had left soup on the stove and fresh sheets on Toby’s bed.
Josie stood in the kitchen after he fell asleep.
The eviction notice remained on the refrigerator.
Twenty days now.
She touched the paper.
A new job did not fix the past.
It only created a future if she could survive long enough to reach payday.
Mrs. Hattie shuffled in.
“You’re thinking loud.”
“I’m not talking.”
“You never needed to.”
Josie showed her the texts.
Hattie’s face changed.
“You quit.”
“What?”
“That job.”
“No.”
“Baby—”
“No.”
Josie sat down.
“If I quit every place someone decides I don’t belong, eventually I won’t belong anywhere.”
“This isn’t pride. This is danger.”
“I know.”
“Then act like you know.”
“I am.”
Mrs. Hattie studied her.
“What are you going to do?”
“Document everything.”
“Your mother would approve.”
That hurt.
Josie looked at the refrigerator.
“I wish she was here.”
“So do I.”
Hattie sat across from her.
“There’s something I never told you.”
Josie frowned.
“That sentence should be illegal after midnight.”
“It’s not about Toby.”
“Then say it.”
Hattie looked toward the hallway.
“Your mother knew the Relli name.”
Josie went still.
“What?”
“Not Luca. His father.”
“You’re sure?”
“I heard her say it once. Years ago. At the diner.”
Josie’s pulse quickened.
“What did she say?”
“She said, ‘Men like Relli always think the waitress can’t hear them.’”
“That’s it?”
“That’s all I remember.”
“Hattie.”
“I’m seventy-one. I’ve earned the right to forget unhelpful details.”
Josie stood.
“When?”
“Twelve, maybe thirteen years ago.”
“My mother worked nights then.”
“Yes.”
“Who was she talking to?”
“A man in a gray coat.”
“What man?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did she seem scared?”
Hattie thought.
“No.”
“Angry?”
“Yes.”
That sounded like her mother.
Josie barely slept.
At nine the next morning, Mara called.
“We found something.”
Josie stepped into the hallway so Toby could not hear.
“What?”
“Priscilla accessed twenty-three HeartBridge applications over eighteen months.”
Josie’s stomach dropped.
“Why?”
“She had no legitimate reason.”
“How many were denied?”
“Eighteen.”
“Out of twenty-three?”
“Yes.”
Josie closed her eyes.
“Toby?”
A pause.
Mara’s voice softened.
“Yes.”
Josie gripped the wall.
“When?”
“Two days before the denial letter.”
“Did she change anything?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“Find out.”
“We are.”
Josie looked through the doorway at Toby.
He was sitting cross-legged on the bed, green dinosaur beside him, watching a science video with the volume low.
“Eighteen kids,” she said.
“Yes.”
“Not just him.”
“No.”
That mattered.
It turned fear into anger.
Anger Josie understood.
By Monday she returned to work.
Luca’s first words were, “How’s Toby?”
“Annoyed that I won’t let him play soccer.”
“Reasonable.”
“Whose side are you on?”
“His.”
She almost smiled.
Then she closed his office door.
“Mara told me about the eighteen applications.”
His face hardened.
“Yes.”
“What’s being done?”
“Independent review.”
“Internal?”
“External accounting firm and outside counsel.”
“Good.”
“You sound surprised.”
“Your last name.”
He leaned back.
“Also reasonable.”
She told him what Mrs. Hattie remembered.
His expression changed.
“My father used to hold breakfast meetings in neighborhood diners.”
“Which diner?”
“What was your mother’s?”
“Doyle’s on Atlantic.”
Luca stared at her.
“What?”
“My father met there.”
Josie’s pulse jumped.
“How often?”
“Years ago? Frequently.”
“Why?”
“It was neutral. No offices. No cameras people cared about.”
“Waitresses.”
He looked at her.
“What?”
“My mother said men like Relli think the waitress can’t hear them.”
Silence.
Luca stood.
“Come with me.”
“To where?”
“Records.”
The secured archive held old expense ledgers from before Luca became chairman.
Mara met them there.
They searched by vendor.
Doyle’s Diner appeared forty-two times between 2008 and 2014.
Then Josie saw a scanned receipt.
Her mother’s handwriting across the bottom.
PAID — M. WHITAKER.
On the back, someone had written:
BLUE BOOTH. THURSDAY. BRING HEART LIST.
Josie’s skin went cold.
“Heart list?”
Luca took the page.
“That doesn’t belong in a restaurant expense.”
Mara looked at him.
“What was your father funding then?”
He frowned.
“Community medical grants. Quietly.”
Josie’s heart started pounding.
“Heart surgeries?”
“I don’t know.”
They found another document.
A handwritten note from Luca’s father.
Miriam has the real list. Do not let Adrian see it.
Josie stared.
“Miriam was my mother.”
Luca went very still.
Mara whispered, “Adrian Relli?”
Luca’s cousin.
Chief operating officer.
The man scheduled to arrive for the Thursday family meeting.
Josie looked at Luca.
“What real list?”
May you like
His face had turned cold.
“I think we’re about to ask my cousin.”
