Then I asked the question nobody wanted to answer.
“What illness does she have?”
Phedra touched her chest.
“Cancer.”
Eleven months.
For eleven months, I’d been sending money while my wife was sick.
Selina argued that treatment was expensive and there were no guarantees. But everywhere I looked, my money was visible: new floors, a massive TV, leather furniture, granite countertops, the SUV outside, Godfrey’s top-of-the-line phone.
Phedra had broken sandals and a six-year-old blouse.
“How much of my money did you use for her treatment?”
Selina finally admitted they had paid for a few visits.
Phedra corrected her.
Two.
Two visits in eleven months.
I helped Phedra stand and said we were going to the hospital.
Selina blocked the door.
She accused me of disappearing for four years and coming back to treat my own family like criminals. I rolled up my sleeve and showed her the burn scars and cuts from years in the shop.
“I worked entire nights. I slept in a room with four other guys. I spent two Christmases completely alone so you wouldn’t lack a single thing here.”
“And we didn’t,” Selina said.
I looked at Phedra.
“She did.”
Godfrey blamed me for leaving. Selina said Phedra had brought everything on herself.
