“Your son is a very wonderful man, ma’am.”
“And your husband?” she asks.
The question takes me by surprise. She always came off as so polite and nice that I had forgotten that she’s the mother of a child that I have hurt.
“My husband, not so much. I have discovered a number of things that, well, let’s just say are less than endearing, most of them are quite illegal and hurtful.”
“I see,” she says, holding her hands in her lap.
I know that this is not much of an explanation so I continue, “I never married him because I loved him. There was only one person I have ever loved and that is your son.”
Henry glances over at his mom and smiles.
“It’s true,” I say. “I had to marry Franklin to save my parents’ company. It’s kind of a secret but I hope you guys won’t tell anyone.”
“I won’t,” she says. “But I’m a little surprised that you’re telling me this.”
I shrug. “I don’t know,” I say. “I guess, I just feel like I can trust you.”
“Is that so?” she says with a glint in her eye. “I kind of get the feeling that you think that I’m dying.”
I gasp a little, surprised by her candor.
When I look at Henry, he starts to laugh.
“I’m sorry about that, I have kind of a deadpan sense of humor,” Mrs. Asher says.
They both laugh and I can’t help but join them.
29
Henry
When my mother closes her eyes to rest, Aurora and I go back to the waiting room to talk. The cafeteria has opened and we buy some breakfast food but the lights in there are too hard, so neither of us want to stay there.
In the waiting room, we sit in the corner and she tucks her feet up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. I turn my body toward her but I’m too tall and big to ball myself up.
“Thank you so much for coming with me,” I say, biting into my danish. I haven’t eaten since last night and the explosion of sugar with blueberry marmalade overwhelms my senses. It’s the most delicious thing I’ve ever had.
“Of course,” she says.
“No, thank you,” I insist. “I know that this was a very dangerous thing for you to do. I know that Franklin watches your every move and this was… I just can’t believe that you did this for me.”
She shrugs and picks at her croissant.
“I want to be here for you and for your mom. I don’t wanna be at home, not ever. That’s not my home. He’s a stranger and he’s someone that hurts me. It’s difficult to talk about but every time I’m there, it’s like I’m walking on land covered in land mines. One false move and everything is going to blow up.”
“I wish that there was something I could do,” I say.
“There is. You can just be here for me. You can take all of that evidence that I collected and keep it somewhere very safe. Then you can help me come up with a plan to make him go away, to expose every evil thing that he and all those other people have done.”
We talk for a little bit about what Aurora found and about all of those men with underage girls and boys. We talk a lot about the altered video and how involved her father is in this whole thing. Then I bring up the one thing that I have been thinking about for a while now.
“What about your dad?” I ask. “Did you see him on any of those videos?”
“I thought that I might,” she admits. “I was really scared to go through them. I really thought that I would see him doing something terrible. I mean, the fake video was one thing but I thought that I might see him hurting someone in a real way. I didn’t. I don’t think that he was involved. No, I know that he wasn’t. At least Franklin doesn’t have any evidence of that and I have no idea why he would not keep that video if he had kept videos of the governor and all of those other people.”
I let out a sigh of relief. That’s some good news. I know that Mr. Tate has done a lot of bad things in his life to get where he is but I’m glad that he has never done that.
I see a crumb in the corner of her lips and I reach over to brush it off. I run my fingers along her lower lip. She tenses it and kisses me. I move my face toward her and press my lips to her mouth.
She tastes like chocolate and home. I bury my fingers in her hair and she runs hers down my neck because finally, in the corner of that waiting room, our world starts to make sense again.
“Uh-hum,” someone says, clearing her throat. “Excuse me?”
I pull away from her and see Dr. Kim standing with her chart in front of me.
“I have some good news for you, Henry,” she says.
We both stand up and wait.
“Your mother’s going to be fine,” she says, smiling with her eyes. “Apparently, this has nothing to do with her previous cancer diagnosis. We suspect that this was just a low blood sugar episode mixed with dehydration. She’s susceptible to that and we really need to monitor her blood sugar. Otherwise, she can go home.”
A wave of relief washes over me and my legs feel weak. I actually take a step back to make sure that I don’t drop to the floor.
I look over at Aurora to make sure that I have heard her right and when I see her smile from ear to ear, I know that I haven’t imagined it.
Dr. Kim extends her hand but I just wrap my arms around her and give her a big hug.
“Thank you so much,” I say over and over again, even though I know that she wants me to stop.
“You’re welcome, Henry. I’m really happy for you.”
“Come on.” Aurora takes my hand and pulls me away from the good doctor. “Let’s go see your mom.”
30
Aurora
Franklin doesn’t ask me much about Ellis and the reason that I have slept over but I know why. I watch the video of what happened in his office the night that I went to the hospital with Henry. The girl doesn’t look much older than twelve and he even shows her how to snort cocaine before making her give him a massage.
“This isn’t going to happen again,” I say to myself.
No matter what, I’m not gonna let another girl get hurt. This is going to end very soon but I decide to give my father another chance to save himself.
That’s why I asked my mom to meet me for lunch.
“What are we doing in this godforsaken place?” my mom asks when we walk into the Cheesecake Factory in midtown.
“I need to talk to you somewhere private where no one would follow us,” I say.
“Well, we found the right place. I mean, the only people who actually eat here are tourists from flyover states.”
I ignore her and try to focus on what I’m here to talk about.
I get right to the point. I tell her what I found and what Dad needs to do.
She looks at me with a blank expression on her face. When the waiter comes around to take her order, she says that she won’t be staying long.
“Just a lemonade for me, hon,” she says.
“Same,” I say. “No ice.”
She waits for him to walk away before turning and looking at me.