Chapter 95 The Only Relative
The front door of the Vane house had barely clicked shut behind Alex and Mark before they saw Sarah sitting at the far end of the library, the glow of her phone screen casting a sharp, blue light over her face that made her look older and more tired than she had an hour ago.
She did not look up when they entered, and she did not ask how the basketball game went or if the guys at the court were still talking about the Harrington board.
She was staring at a single text message with a look of pure, unmoving irritation, her thumb hovering over the glass as if she wanted to crush the device. Alex walked over to her and set his car keys on the table, and he could tell by the way her jaw was set that the peace of the afternoon had been broken by something far more personal than a city council zoning update.
"You look like you just received a subpoena from a ghost, Sarah, what happened while we were at the courts?" Alex asked, his hand resting on her shoulder as he leaned down to see the screen.
"It is a ghost, Alex, or at least someone who should have stayed in the past where I left him," Sarah said, her voice was a flat, jagged line of frustration and she finally tossed the phone onto the oak table. "The county hospital just called me, and they followed it up with a message because I wouldn't pick up the phone for a restricted number."
"The hospital? Is this about Richard or Helena?" Mark asked, he stepped closer to the table, his face clouding over as he saw the name that was highlighted in the message.
"It has nothing to do with the Harringtons, Mark, it is about your father," Sarah said, she stood up and started to pace the small area in front of the window, her arms crossed tight over her chest. "Apparently, Joseph’s health insurance provider denied the claim for his long-term recovery, and since he has no family left who will take his calls, the hospital administration decided that I was the only person left on his emergency contact list."
"Joseph? I haven't thought about that man since the day of the accident, and I assumed the Harrington lawyers were the ones handling his care since they were the ones who hired him to spy on us in the first place," Alex said, his voice was a low growl of disbelief.
"The Harringtons dropped him the second he stopped being useful to them, Alex, and once he hit that guardrail and lost his mobility, he became a liability they didn't want to pay for," Sarah replied, she stopped pacing and looked at her son, her eyes full of a hard, smart anger that had nothing to do with grief.
"He told the nurses that I was the only person who would answer, he specifically asked them to reach out to me because he has no money and no place to go once they discharge him tomorrow morning."
"He has a lot of nerve asking you for help after he tried to sell your design files to Helena," Mark said, his voice was quiet and he looked at the floor.
"I am not paying his bills, and I am not giving him a room at the studio, because I spent ten years getting away from his gambling and his lies, and I am not letting him crawl back into my life just because he ran out of options," Sarah said, she looked at the phone as if it were a physical threat. "I am mad that they even had the audacity to call me, I am the ex-wife he tried to ruin, not his social worker."
"The hospital doesn't care about the history, Sarah, they just see a patient with no insurance and a name in a file," Alex noted, he picked up the phone and read the message from the billing department.
"They are looking for a guarantor, someone to sign for the physical therapy and the transition to a care facility."
"He can go to the state facility, or he can call the people he was working for before the crash, but he is not my responsibility anymore," Sarah told him, her voice was a firm, authoritative sound that didn't leave any room for a compromise.
"I’ll go," Mark said suddenly, he looked up from the floor and his expression was settled, a look of peer-level maturity that made Alex and Sarah stop talking.
"You are not going to that hospital to bail him out, Mark, you have the equipment delivery tomorrow and you have the clinic foundation to worry about," Sarah said, her eyes widening as she realized what her son was suggesting.
"I’m not going there to bail him out, Mom, and I’m definitely not going there to pay for his mistakes," Mark replied, he walked over and took the phone from Alex’s hand.
"I’m going there because I was the last person who saw him before he went into surgery, and I want to hear what he has to say for himself now that he doesn't have a Harrington paycheck to hide behind."
"It’s a trap, Mark, he’s going to use your guilt to get to your mother’s money," Alex warned, his hand tightening on the back of a chair.
"I don't feel guilty, Alex, I feel like I need to close that door so it stays shut for good," Mark said, he looked at his mother and his gaze was steady and honest.
"You stayed at the Vane house and you fought the board, and you won your independence, so let me handle the part of the past that belongs to me."
Sarah looked at her son, and she saw the man she had raised, the one who wasn't afraid of the ugliness of the world and the one who knew how to handle a person like Joseph without losing himself.
She didn't want him to go, and she wanted to delete the message and pretend the hospital had never called, but she realized that Mark was right. He needed to see the ghost for himself so he could finally walk away from it.
"Fine, you go, but you don't sign a single piece of paper, and you don't give him my phone number, and you tell him that this is the last time any member of this family is coming to see him," Sarah said.
"I know the rules, Mom, I’ve been watching you handle the Harringtons for months, so I think I can handle one broken man in a hospital bed," Mark said, he grabbed his jacket from the chair and headed toward the door.
"Do you want me to come with you?" Alex asked, stepping forward.
"No, stay here and keep my mom from throwing her phone into the ocean, I’ll be back in two hours," Mark replied, and he walked out of the library, the sound of his boots fading as he headed toward the driveway.
The library went quiet again, and Sarah sat back down at the table, her hands trembling slightly as she looked at the blueprints that were spread out next to her phone.
She felt a surge of a new kind of anger, an anger that Joseph could still reach across the city and disrupt the peace they had fought so hard to build. Alex walked over to her and pulled her into his arms, his presence a restorative, heavy weight that made her feel safe.
"He won't let Joseph win, Sarah, he’s too smart for that," Alex whispered against her hair.
"I know, but I hate that he has to see him at all, I hate that the past never really stays dead in this family," she replied.
They stayed in the library for the next hour, trying to focus on the lighting specs for the North End, but the air felt heavy with the anticipation of what Mark would find at the hospital.
Sarah kept looking at the clock, her mind racing through the thousands of ways Joseph could try to manipulate her son, and she realized that the Exit Strategy was still being written by people she hadn't invited into the room.
The phone on the table buzzed again, but it wasn't a text from the hospital, it was a call from the Vane gate security. Alex hit the speaker button, and the voice that came through was sharp and urgent.
"Mr. Harrington, there is a man at the gate who says he’s from the county sheriff's office, and he’s asking to speak with Mark Hayes regarding an incident that happened at the hospital ten minutes ago," the guard said, and Sarah felt her heart drop into her stomach as she looked at Alex.