Chapter 4 - Claire’s crash
Claire had died three years earlier.
She was thirty-seven.
A delivery truck ran a red light outside Dayton and struck the passenger side of her car.
The crash itself did not kill her immediately.
She survived.
That matters.
Claire spent twelve days in the hospital.
For the first two, she was heavily sedated after surgery.
By day three, she could speak.
By day five, she was alert enough to use her phone and meet hospital staff.
Then complications developed.
Her condition worsened.
She died on day twelve.
I was there for most of it.
But not every hour.
We had an eight-year-old business then? No.
Lily had been six.
She needed care.
I went home occasionally.
Met lawyers.
Spoke to insurance.
Slept almost nowhere.
Marlene stepped in.
She said:
“Let me handle the paperwork.”
May you like
I was grateful.
That gratitude would cost us.
