She sighs and the fight goes out of her. My sister has a love affair with shoes.
“I don’t understand why it’s taking so long,” I grumble.
“Because, Travis, they needed a family member to sign her out.”
The imperial voice echoes through the now silent waiting room. I turn to see Estella Howard standing there, not a hair out of place, dressed in a pair of linen slacks and a blue blouse. She thumps her cane across the floor to me.
“If she wants to see you, I will allow it, but I will talk to my granddaughter first.”
I want to demand she take me back to Nancy with her, but I bite back that command, just barely. “Just….” I sigh. “Tell her I’m out here, will you?”
She studies me for a long moment. I have about a foot in height on her, but she still casts a large shadow.
“I will.” She glances around the room, a small smile playing about her mouth. “This town always did love her.”
“We all do,” I say. Her gaze cuts back to me and I nod.
Her expression softens just a bit before she turns away and thumps over to the desk.
“Junie, let me in.”
Ms. Junie does her bidding. Of course, she does, but I don’t think it has to do with money. People would jump to do things for Estella Howard because she is scary.
I drop into my seat once more and sigh. At least now I know I will be allowed back there soon. I have to hold out hope that she will let me back in and we can work all this out.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Nancy
I’m over being in the ER. Like totally over it. I’ve been here forever and a day, and all I want to do is go home and sleep. Worse, I don’t have my phone with me, so I feel as if I’ve been cut off from everything and everyone.
Dr. Stills, the father of one of my classmates, had been very thorough. I hope that he treats everyone the way he did me, but I have a feeling he’s afraid of my family. First was the exam, then the X-rays. I apparently hurt my wrist and he was worried. I told him it was just a bad sprain.
“Hey, there, Ms. Howard,” he says, coming in my room. Inwardly, I scoff. Ms. Howard? He used to chaperone dances and he never called me Ms. Howard then.
“Yes.”
“Well, you were correct, it was just a bad sprain.”
“Now can I go?”
“We need to get your paperwork done and then we can release you to a family member.”
“What the actual…heck?”
“This was a traumatizing experience. I wouldn’t feel right releasing you to just anyone.”
He slips out of the room and leaves me alone. A few minutes later, there is another knock at the door, but this time it’s Josh, who assures me that Howard has been booked. The fact that he had cell phone jammers to keep help from arriving leaves me chilled to the bone. And apparently this wasn’t the first time for that either.
I wait another few minutes after he leaves for Dr. Stills to come back in. “Now, I am happy to say that you are ready to be released. We just need a family member.”
“I know Travis is out there. He’s my emergency contact.”
“We need a family member,” he insists. “You don’t want to be alone if you start having side effects from your experience.”
“I would suggest you help me avoid all of my family if you don’t want me to be traumatized all over again.”
“That’s enough of that,” I hear my grandmother say. Dammit.
Could I have just one thing go right today? I suffered enough. I know I have my issues. I’m bitchy and can be a bit self-centered, but I don’t think I deserve this shit. No one does except serial killers.
She strides into the room, her can stomping against the floor. She tosses her ‘Estella rules the world’ glare and Dr. scurries out of the room, his tail firmly between his legs.
Once we are alone, silence fills the space, as it does so much of the time.
“What are you doing here?”
For a second, she looks hurt, but I had to be wrong about that. The dragon doesn’t have feelings.
“I came because Sydney called me. At least someone did.”
“Why did my ex-best friend call you?” I am only kidding about the ex part. Mostly.
She sighs and settles in the chair by my bed. “She thought I might want to know you were okay. She also thought I might be able to move things along.” She takes note of my bandaged wrist. “Not broken?”
I shake my head. “Just sprained.”
She nods. “Your young man is really upset.”
“Travis?”
“Yes. Unless you have other young men around.”
I shake my head. “We had a fight.”
“What about?”
I sigh and look down at my hands. “I let you get in my head. I accused him of sleeping with me to get me back on the show.”
“That was stupid.”
My gaze shoots up to hers. “What? You’re the one who said it.”
“Yes, but I’m a mean old woman.”
A laugh bursts out of me, but then it turns into a sob. She rises out of the chair, and for the first time in a long time, she wraps her arms around me. I hate showing weakness and I never cry in front of other people. Falling apart in front of my grandmother is unacceptable. Of course, that makes me cry even harder as the day’s events hit me. The stress of the last few weeks seem to hit me all at once and I can’t stop the tears flowing down my face.
“Shhh. Everything is going to be okay.” Her actions and those words bring back the memories of my first night at the mansion alone with her. How a big storm hit the town, and she held me as I cried.
I pull back. “What are you really doing here?”
She brushes the tears off my cheeks. “Sydney called me.”
“Yes, but you could have sent someone else.”
She sighs. “You’re very special to me, Nancy.”
I snort. “Okay.”
“You don’t believe me?”
“You have an odd way of showing it.”
She sighs as she sits on the bed beside me. “I’m not good at displays of affection. It comes from the way I was raised. You know your great-grandfather was a monster, really. He believed children should be seen and not heard. If he heard one of us, we usually got the back of his hand.”
“What?”
“It was a different time, still, he was a cruel man and I didn’t cry a tear when he died. So, when I had your father and his siblings, I went a little overboard. Very…let’s just say they knew they could get away with anything. And see what I have now? Two sons who might work, but they are horrible fathers and husbands. My daughter is a lesbian.”
“Aunt Monica did not become a lesbian because of her upbringing.”
“She’s also an idiot.”
“That has nothing to do with her being a lesbian though.”
“All three of them are screw ups. The only reason they succeed is because of the family money.” She looks me in the eye. “And all of their children are the same. They hate to work; they barely try to do anything. But you and Jon, well…you both make me so proud. Jon had his mother, who was smart enough to divorce your uncle before he was three and to take him far away from his father’s influence.”