article, or how she’d seen it. Cassia wanted to ask Adalynn
where she’d been for six months, why she was suddenly there,
because what she’d said was too crazy to be believed. It didn’t
make sense. But then Cassia’s brain finally kicked into a
working mode, and she realized where she was. In a hospital.
Which cost money.
She struggled, her fingers fluttering around the IV taped
into her hand, the wires leading up to the machines that were
humming and beeping. Hospitals cost money. She couldn’t
imagine how much money. She had no health insurance. What
did they do? Release a person with a bill that they could never
hope to pay? Would people try to collect on it? Debt
collectors?
“I’m going to pay your bill,” Adalynn whispered. “I already
checked, and I know you don’t have any insurance.”
Cassia grunted. She forced her eyes open, forced herself to
look at Adalynn’s face, but she saw only kindness there.
Kindness that couldn’t be mistaken for anything else, even
with her blurry vision. Adalynn wasn’t doing this for
something in return. She didn’t have a hidden agenda. Still.
Cassia knew she couldn’t accept that kind of generosity.
“Can’t,” she whispered thickly.
Adalynn shook her head. Her jet-black hair was combed out
and fell around her shoulders in simple waves. She was hardly
wearing any makeup. She had purple smudges under her eyes.
She looked tired, but pretty. Natural, in that way that people
look when they wake up first thing in the morning. Cassia’s
eyes hovered lower and she took in Adalynn’s plain black
blouse tucked into a pair of high-waisted mom jeans that she
managed to rock, even sitting down.