Chapter 2 - THE FUND MY MOTHER COULD NEVER ACCESS
Victor did not explain inside the diner.
He asked Rosa if we could use the back office.
I said no.
Rosa said yes.
Traitor.
We sat around a desk barely large enough for payroll envelopes.
Victor remained standing.
I kept the marked bill.
“Talk.”
He looked irritated by the command.
Then almost amused.
“Westbridge Patient Relief is connected to a Romano charitable foundation.”
I stared.
“Connected how?”
“Seed funding.”
“That means Alessandro knows.”
“No.”
“His name is on half the buildings in this city.”
“His family’s name.”
Interesting distinction.
Victor explained.
Twelve years earlier, Alessandro’s mother died after a long cancer treatment.
The Romano Foundation created several patient-support initiatives afterward.
One of them became Westbridge.
Transportation.
Medication assistance.
Oxygen support.
Home nursing.
Exactly the services my mother had been denied.
“How much does the foundation give them?”
Victor hesitated.
“About eight million a year.”
I laughed.
Not because it was funny.
“My mother got denied over six hundred dollars.”
His expression tightened.
Then he said:
“That’s why the marked cash matters.”
Westbridge’s emergency fund had a manual cash reserve.
Rare.
Used for crisis assistance when patients needed immediate travel, medication, hotel lodging.
Bills in that reserve were stamped with the blue caduceus for internal tracking.
I looked at the hundred.
“So Alessandro had emergency patient money.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did he take it?”
Victor’s face hardened.
“No.”
“You sound certain.”
“I am.”
I believed that he believed it.
Not the same thing.
Then:
“Who controls Westbridge?”
“Executive director. Finance office. Foundation liaison.”
“Names.”
Victor stared at me.
“You always speak like this?”
“I’ve spent fourteen months calling insurance companies.”
That almost made him smile.
Then he gave me one name.
Dr. Nathaniel Price.
Westbridge executive director.
I knew it immediately.
His signature appeared on two denial letters.
“Who else?”
“Foundation liaison is Paul Romano.”
I stopped.
“Family?”
“Alessandro’s cousin.”
There it was.
Victor continued:
“Paul oversees charitable disbursements.”
“So Alessandro’s cousin controls the fund.”
“Yes.”
“And marked cash ended up in Alessandro’s wallet.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Victor looked toward the hundred again.
“That’s what worries me.”
Then my phone rang.
Mom.
I answered immediately.
Her breathing sounded wrong.
“Mom?”
“Sweetheart, don’t panic.”
Never a good beginning.
“My oxygen company called.”
“What happened?”
“They’re picking up the portable unit tomorrow.”
I stood.
“What?”
“Westbridge canceled the assistance guarantee.”
My hands went cold.
“They can’t.”
“They said funding ended.”
I looked at Victor.
“Who called you?”
“Some man named Price.”
Dr. Nathaniel Price himself.
The executive director personally called my mother?
Why?
Then Mom added:
“He said someone reviewed my file tonight.”
“Tonight?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“He wouldn’t say.”
I stared at Victor.
We had discussed Westbridge less than ten minutes earlier.
Somebody had reacted already.
Then my phone buzzed with an email.
WESTBRIDGE PATIENT RELIEF.
Subject:
FINAL BENEFIT TERMINATION — MARIA BENNETT.
Timestamp:
10:48 p.m.
Two minutes after Victor entered the diner.
I showed him.
His expression went flat.
“We were watched.”
Rosa whispered:
“By who?”
Victor looked toward the front windows.
Then the parking lot.
A silver sedan sat across the street with its lights off.
The instant he noticed it, the engine started.
The car pulled away.
Victor reached for his phone.
I caught his sleeve.
“No.”
He looked at my hand.
“What?”
“You call Alessandro’s men, whoever is watching learns we noticed.”
For several seconds, Victor studied me.
Then he lowered the phone.
“You think like someone who’s done this before.”
“No.”
I folded the hundred tighter.
“I think like somebody who’s tired of powerful people deciding what I’m allowed to know.”
Then Victor said the sentence that changed the entire problem.
“Claire, Westbridge did not run out of money.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Alessandro approved twelve million dollars in additional funding last month.”
My mother had been denied while the fund held millions.
May you like
The money had not disappeared.
Someone had redirected it.
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