Chapter 4
Mallory pulled out a wad of cash from his wallet and shoved it into Orson's hands.
"Alright, that's enough. Go hire a housekeeping service and get things cleaned up first. I'll figure something out," Mallory said.
Orson took the money and finally calmed down.
"That's more like it. Mallory, don't go soft on this. You need to show Lindsay who's boss, or she'll really start thinking she's hot stuff," Orson said.
Mallory didn't say a word. He just waved his hand wearily, turned around, and drove off.
Orson, clutching the cash, hummed a little tune to himself with a smug grin, hailed a cab, and left as well.
I emerged from the shadows, watching them leave, my heart ice-cold.
They probably thought money could solve everything.
Long-term care for someone in a vegetative state was a whole different ballgame compared to hiring a regular hourly cleaner.
It wasn't just hard on the body. It was emotionally exhausting, too.
A random hire with no real connection or sense of duty would not keep up with this job.
Sure enough, in the evening, I got a call from an unknown number.
I hesitated for a moment, then picked up.
A woman's cautious voice came through the line.
"Hello, is this Mrs. Fowler?" she asked.
"Yes," I replied.
"Mrs. Fowler, I'm so relieved I finally reached you. I'm the housekeeper who came by today. Honestly, we just can't handle Lorelei's condition," she said.
"What's the issue?" I asked, though I already knew the answer.
She said, "Your brother-in-law doesn't know the first thing about caregiving, but he keeps bossing us around.
"We told him Lorelei was showing signs of bedsores and needed a pressure-relief air mattress, but he said it was too expensive and refused to buy it.
"When we tried feeding her liquid food, he insisted on adding more meat, and she ended up choking so badly her face turned purple. We were terrified and had to stop right away.
"The worst part was when we were cleaning her up, following the proper procedure, he just stood there pinching his nose, griping that we were too slow and complaining we were wasting too many diapers.
"There's no way anyone can do this job. Our boss already said we're dropping this case and refunding their money. We are not doing this!"
Listening to the housekeeper's rapid-fire complaints, I wasn't the least bit surprised.
That was just the kind of person Orson was.
He was mean, selfish, and stingy to the core.
"Alright, thanks for telling me," I said.
I calmly hung up the phone.
I could already picture Orson fuming and frustrated, totally losing his cool when he realized that even throwing cash at the problem wouldn't fix it.
I wondered what Mallory would do.
I wondered if he would keep muddling through, or finally wake up and see that this family would fall apart without me.
Late at night, faint sounds drifted from Lorelei's room.
It wasn't music, and it wasn't laughter.
It was a muffled, agonized moan.
My heart twisted sharply.
Even though I'd already decided to step back, hearing Lorelei suffer was heartbreaking.
This was a life, after all.
She was someone I'd looked after for twenty years.
I gripped my phone, but in the end, I couldn't bring myself to make the call.
I reminded myself not to go soft.
If I caved, everything I had done would be wasted.
This was the price they had to pay for everything they had done.
They also owed this to me.