Chapter 9 - The Yellow Package
The glass door opened with a chiming of the brass bell overhead. Silas stepped inside, wiping his heavy boots on the floor mat. Rain dripped from his dark beard onto his collar, but he didn't seem to notice.
He walked straight through the empty diner toward table three, where Clara sat crouched against the radiator.
Clara’s breath caught in her throat. She slid back into the corner of the vinyl booth, her hands tightly clutching the hot thermos Hank had given her.
Silas stopped at the edge of her table. He didn't sit down. He stood towering over her, his dark eyes solemn, steady, and filled with a quiet, ancient weight that made Clara’s heart stop beating for a terrifying second.
Without saying a word, Silas set the yellow oilskin package down on the Formica table, directly in front of her.
The package was heavy; it landed with a dense, solid THUD that vibrated through the tabletop.
Clara looked from the package up to Silas’s face. "Sir... what is this? Did you leave something behind?"
"Open it," Silas said softly.
Clara hesitated, her hand trembling as she reached out. The oilskin was cold, wet with rainwater, smelling faintly of engine oil and tar. She peeled back the black electrical tape, her fingers catching on the thick waterproof fabric, and folded the flaps open.
Inside lay two thick, heavy bricks of paper-bound cash—stacked hundred-dollar bills, wrapped in pristine white bank bands. Beside the money lay a small, folded piece of white paper with a phone number and a hospital department address written in dark, heavy pencil.
Clara’s eyes widened until they hurt. The breath fled her lungs in a sharp, strangled gasp.
She stared at the money. Fifty thousand dollars in crisp, uncirculated currency. More money than she had ever seen in her entire life. Enough money to pay for Lily’s plasma exchange therapy three times over. Enough money to save her child’s life.
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"No..." Clara whispered, her voice shaking violently as she pushed herself back against the vinyl booth as if the package were a dangerous, coiled viper. "No... no, this is a mistake. Sir, I can't... I don't know who you think I am—"
"It's for Lily," Silas said. His voice was steady, absolute, and devoid of any expectation.
