Chapter 5 - Donna’s Desperation
Three days later, Donna Vance was officially fired from Sterling & Croft.
The agency released a public statement confirming that after a thorough review, Donna’s employment had been terminated for “conduct fundamentally incompatible with the agency’s core values.” Furthermore, Marcus Sterling personally went on a national business news network to discuss corporate ethics, subtly referencing how the incident revealed the importance of empathy in modern leadership.
Donna was radioactive. No PR firm in the Midwest would touch her resume.
Meanwhile, Mia’s world was exploding with light. On Saturday morning, we drove out to the Horizon Adaptive Athletic Center. It was a massive, sunlit facility with gleaming indoor tracks, specialized gym equipment, and courts bustling with children and adults in athletic wheelchairs playing basketball, racing, and lifting weights.
Luke Sterling—Marcus’s brother, a broad-shouldered man with warm laugh lines and an indomitable aura who used an ultra-lightweight titanium chair—wheeled over to greet us.
“You must be Mia,” Luke said, offering a high-five instead of a condescending handshake.
Mia grinned, slapping his palm with surprising force. “I am. And you’re the tennis guy.”
“I’m the tennis guy,” Luke chuckled. “And Marcus told me you’re the girl with the silver tongue and the iron will. Come on, Mia. Let me show you what real speed feels like.”
For the next two hours, Mia didn't sit on the sidelines. Luke fitted her into a custom three-wheeled racing chair, angled her knees comfortably, and showed her how to grip the push-rims with padded gloves. For the first time since the icy car crash took away her legs, Mia wasn't moving through the world carefully or cautiously.
She was flying.
Her hair whipped behind her as she pushed down the straightaway of the indoor track, her face glowing with pure, unadulterated joy. When she crossed the finish line where Luke and I stood, she threw her head back and laughed—a sound so pure, so full of untamed life, that I had to turn away to hide my tears.
“Mom! Did you see that?” she yelled, her chest heaving. “I was fast! I was really fast!”
“You were a rocket, baby,” I choked out.
“She’s a natural,” Luke told me quietly. “Her core strength from her rehabilitation is incredible. Give me six months with her, Sarah. She won’t just be fast. She’ll be competing in the Junior Nationals.”
While Mia was finding her wings, however, Donna was spiraling into madness.
That evening, as Mia and I returned home, we found Donna’s BMW parked across the street from our house. Donna was pacing on the sidewalk, clutching an envelope, looking frantic and disheveled.
I immediately locked Mia inside the van and stepped out, keeping my distance. “Donna, leave right now or I am calling the police.”
“Sarah, please!” Donna’s voice was cracked, completely stripped of its usual haughty arrogance. She ran toward me, holding out her hands. “You have to talk to Marcus! He won’t return my calls! His security won’t let me into the building!”
“Marcus has nothing to say to you, Donna. And neither do I.”
“You don't understand!” she sobbed, mascara streaking down her cheeks. “I have a mortgage on my penthouse! I have lease payments on the BMW! If I don't have a job, I lose everything within sixty days! Sarah, I’m your sister! We grew up in the same house! How can you stand there and watch me be destroyed?”
I looked at Donna. In that moment, I didn't feel anger anymore. I only felt a deep, profound pity.
“You stood in a ballroom full of people, Donna, and took a bouquet away from a crippled ten-year-old girl. You sneered in her face and told her she was unlovable. Did you care about her feelings then? Did you care that she was your flesh and blood?”
“It was just a joke!” Donna screamed, her voice turning shrill and hysterical again. “Why does everyone keep acting like I committed a murder? It was a damn bouquet!”
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“It wasn't the flowers, Donna,” I said coldly. “It was the cruelty. It was the fact that you enjoyed making a child feel small so that you could feel big. You dug this pit with your own hands. Don’t expect me to give you a ladder.”
I turned my back on her and walked toward