Chapter 8 The Hospital Bill

• Three weeks before Adrian drove to Queens, Mia had been sitting beside her mother’s hospital bed.
• The room was quiet except for the steady beeping of the monitor beside Rosa Harper. Outside the window, New York moved as if nothing in the world had changed. Cars crawled along the street, people hurried beneath umbrellas, and somewhere below, a siren wailed before fading into the distance.
• Mia sat with both hands wrapped around her mother’s. Rosa looked smaller than Mia remembered. Her dark hair, once thick and full, was streaked with silver now. Her face looked tired, but she still managed a smile whenever Mia looked at her.