Her lips were open.
Then her eyes moved toward her father.
It wasn’t an angry look.
Not yet.
It was the look of a man who lost the place he was standing on for a second.
“Dad?”
What she promised
Stefan started talking fast.
For financial problems.
For people who push him.
For an opportunity that only seemed scary if you didn’t understand it correctly.
I could barely hear it.
“Emma, what did you promise?” I asked.
She was shaking.
To be a donor.
The room seemed to shrink.
“To what?”
He looked at the money.
Then he bowed his head.
On a kidney.
I don’t remember if I immediately sat down, or if I grabbed the railing first.
I only remember that Stefan said:
The operation has not yet been done.
I squeezed my eyes.
Those words brought me back.
Not yet.
My daughter was in front of me.
