Liam clutched the thick envelope containing $30,000 tightly under his arm as he strode through the automatic doors of City Hospital. His heart thudded with nervous anticipation at finally being able to pay part of his mother's dialysis treatments.
The money was everything he and his friends had scraped together from their betting winnings and hard-earned cash over the last few months. Even his younger brother Dave had insisted on kicking in his entire life's savings of $157 from his piggy bank. Liam hated taking it, but they were desperate.
He hurried down the sterile hallways, following the path he knew by heart from countless visits to his mother's room in the cardiac ward. As always, the floor was hushed and somber, filled with the labored breathing and pained groans of the critically ill patients.
