She Traded Her Father For Fashion

From the back cover

Luke stands in a hospital corridor clutching a critical-condition notice: his father-in-law, Robert Evans, has suffered a massive brain hemorrhage and needs ten thousand dollars for emergency surgery before midnight. The only money he and his wife Cathy have saved sits in her account, and she has just lent it to her best friend Brittany for a designer purse.

When Luke calls, Cathy refuses without even asking who is dying, calling his father's condition terminal and a lost cause; Brittany mocks him for begging and hangs up. Cathy's voice note warns him to stop embarrassing her in front of her friends, insisting the money is hers to spend. At the steakhouse where Cathy, Brittany and Zach celebrate the new bag, Luke lays the hospital invoice on the table and asks one last time whether she will pay. Cathy tears it to shreds and tells him to get out.

With the deposit unpaid and Robert's blood pressure falling, Luke tells the nurse he cannot sign the financial consent, and asks that his father-in-law be kept comfortable instead.