“And did he take care of it?” Martha asked.

Her voice was almost gone.

Irene shook her head.

And then, before Martha could even begin to absorb that, her daughter added the sentence that turned the whole thing from negligence into something Martha did not yet have a name for.

“Mom,” Irene said.

“Dad did go back to the hospital.

He just went back without me.”

Chapter 8 — He Went Back Without Me