I agreed without a second thought. But when I tried to swipe my card, the system flagged it for verification. I had no choice but to call Frederick and explain the situation.
"Don't waste the money. You just hurt Agatha. Getting her treated is more important right now." He hung up.
I was frantic. I scrolled through every contact on my phone, and in the end, I called Joseph.
He didn't ask questions. He wired several million dollars and told me to spend whatever I needed. I thanked him over and over, then worked with the doctor to schedule the surgery right away.
Meanwhile, Agatha was staring at her reddened cheek in a mirror, grinding her teeth with rage. Frederick rushed to soothe her. "It's all Libby's fault. Don't be upset, Agatha. Here, take this new black card. Buy whatever you want."
Agatha took the card and finally stopped crying, though the fury still simmered beneath the surface.
"She loves that old woman so much she'd beg and borrow just to pay for surgery," Frederick mused, a cruel smile playing at his lips. "Imagine how devastated she'd be if the surgery failed."
He called the hospital shortly after and made all the arrangements.
The next morning, Aunt Harriet was wheeled into the operating room. I waited outside, watching the clock. A procedure that should have taken two hours stretched to four.
When the medical staff finally emerged, they brought only one piece of news: Aunt Harriet was dead.
My entire body shook. "The success rate was practically guaranteed. How could it fail? Why did it take so long?"
The attending physician stammered, unable to form a coherent sentence. It was a young nurse beside him who spoke up. "Mr. Simmons said it was just a minor procedure, so only an intern was assigned. The chief surgeon was called away hours ago to attend to Miss Dickerson..."
The nurse and the intern stood there with sweat beading on their foreheads. It had been their very first surgery. The outcome was inevitable.
The blow shattered something inside me. My body went ice-cold. Nausea surged up my throat until I was doubled over, dry-heaving. It felt like plummeting into a bottomless abyss. The two of them had done something so unconscionably evil, and Aunt Harriet had paid the price.