Chapter Nineteen Jordan
Chapter Nineteen
Jordan
“I’m sorry, what?” Maya said to Bettie, and then she stared at me. “You’re telling me that you’re . . . her grandson?”
“Yes,” I replied.
Her gaze returned to my grandmother. “Were you bringing him here to try and play matchmaker? Or, I guess in this case, match-fixer?”
My grandmother patted her gray curls. “I sent you to that game, honey, and look what happened.”
“That wasn’t your fault, Bettie.” Maya looked at me. “It was yours. You should have told me the truth. Whether I found out at the game or I randomly found you in this room one day or by—”
“Or by me telling you, which I planned to do,” I said, cutting her off.
“But when?” Her eyes were pleading with mine. “When I was completely, madly in love with you? When the truth would burn me even harder?”
Those words. The way they threatened an admission I wasn’t prepared to hear.
Or maybe I was.
Maybe I needed to hear it.
So why the fuck did my chest hurt so badly?
“I was wrong,” I admitted. “The way I handled all of it, you deserved better.”
“And now your poor grandmother has been dragged into our mess”—she turned her focus back to Bettie—“and I feel terrible about that. You’re so sweet to do this. To care enough about me that you not only want to see me happy, but you think I’m good enough to be with your grandson—”
“Honey, you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to my grandson.”
Her lack of a filter made me chuckle. “She’s right about that, Maya. You are.”
My grandmother held on to Maya’s wrist. “What you don’t know about Jordan is that underneath that hard exterior is the most sensitive, loving man.
He’s just never found anyone he wants to share his life with.
And then you walked in—or ran in, I should say—and he found that in you. Do you want to know how I know that?”
Maya nodded, but it didn’t happen immediately.
“I call him every morning after he gets back from his run, and he talks about you. And you know what he said to me this morning when you didn’t show up for your run?”
“What?” Maya whispered.
“That he thinks he lost you forever.” Grandma’s head shifted as she glanced between both sides of her bed where Maya and I were standing.
“I’ll be damned if I let that happen. So I did what I had to do to put you two together, and I’m pretty pleased with how my plan played out.
” She checked her watch. “My physical therapist will be here in about—” She turned her attention to the doorway and smiled at the man who was now standing there.
“Look at that, he’s here now, which means this room will be vacant for the next thirty minutes.
That gives you plenty of time and privacy to have the conversation you both desperately need. ”
Maya stared at the floor, frozen, as the physical therapist came in and took my grandmother out in a wheelchair.
Once we were alone, I reached across the bed, lightly touching the edge of her elbow. But the moment my fingers landed, she pulled away.
“Your brain is spiraling,” I said.
She finally looked up. “Between you, Bettie, and the way my boss is going to reprimand me for ignoring my other patients—yes. In ways you don’t even understand.” She backed up until she reached the window and leaned against it. “God, this is a lot to process.”
“Start somewhere. Anywhere.”
She took her time responding. “Bettie told me her late husband loved hockey and never missed a game. But she never mentioned her family owned the Bears. Sure, she had amazing seats, and when she slipped the hundred-dollar bill into my scrubs, I assumed she was well off, but I never in a million years imagined any of this. Your connection. Your role—and hers.”
“When my grandfather was alive, we didn’t own the Bears.
He passed away over twenty years ago, and we’ve only owned the team for the last eight.
And she was right, he loved hockey more than anything.
Before his heart attack, he hardly ever missed a game.
” I took a seat on the bed to get closer to her.
“What’s funny is that she made the decision to come to rehab on her own.
She didn’t consult my parents about it, and when my mother found out, she wanted to move her back home—where she originally started right after surgery—and get her different private nurses since the first set weren’t as diligent as Grandma needed.
But Grandma told us that she’d done her research, and this facility had the best reputation and was known for giving exceptional care.
” I clasped my fingers together. “She’s done nothing but brag about how much she loves it here and how much she loves her nurse.
” I smiled. “And that whole time it was you.”
“So neither of us knew about this connection.”
“No.”
“And here’s Bettie, making all the moves behind our back.”
I smiled. “It doesn’t surprise me. The woman loves love.”
Maya dragged her hands across the top of her head and gripped the bun at the peak. “Jordan . . .”
“I fucked up. I know that. But I can’t stop thinking that there’s more that’s upsetting you.
The only thing I can come up with is that it has to do with my money.
” I folded my hands in my lap. “I know you care about me. Which makes me wonder why you give a shit about any of it and don’t just see past it.
” I watched her eyes as I spoke. “There has to be a reason you’re so hung up on it. What is it?”
She rubbed her palms over the bottom of the window. “I wasn’t going to talk about this.”
“I need you to.” I got up from the bed and stood beside her, giving her enough space to know I wasn’t going to crowd her. “What do you want from me, Maya? An apology bigger than the ones I’ve already given? To hear me grovel? To have me get on my knees?” I paused. “What will make this better?”
“I want you to change your last name . . .”
I searched her eyes, and when I didn’t see the answer, I said, “What?”
Her arms wrapped around her stomach, her eyes dropped to the floor, and she whispered, “Shit.”
“What’s wrong with my last name?”
She slowly looked up. “Everything.”
“Explain what’s going on right now.”
She silently stared, breathing deeper than when she ran.
“Twenty-one years ago, my mother and I were kicked out of our apartment. A place that, unlike all the others we’d lived in, actually felt like a home.
The reason we had to leave was because a company came in and bought the building to convert it into luxury condos.
We were given almost no time to move out and had to leave ninety-nine percent of our belongings behind.
That place, that tiny one-bedroom, was like a palace to me.
It gave me a kind of safety I’d never felt before.
A safety I never felt again until college.
” She leaned her head back against the glass.
“Every time something happened in my life, I always asked myself, Would it have happened if I was back living there? Would I have been protected there? Would I have been happier there? Because once we left”—her eyes filled with tears—“everything went to hell.”
“Maya . . .”
She shook her head. “Do you know who bought that building, Jordan? Who took away our home?”
As soon as she asked the question, the answer was there.
In her eyes.
In my head.
“Worthington Enterprises.” My voice was so soft, I didn’t recognize it.
She caught the first tear before it fell. “Your father forced us out. He’s the reason I lost everything. And why? To make money.”
Goddamn it, this hurt.
I reached for her, but she sidestepped me.
“Maya—”
“I have blamed your family for as long as I can remember. I’ve resented them.
I’ve hated everything they stood for. And now”—her voice pitched as she held in a sob—“I’m looking at one of the executives, and I’m trying my hardest not to blame you for being a Worthington.
” She wiped away the next stream of drips.
“Even though I have all this love for you in my heart, I can’t change who you are and where you came from, and that kills me. ”
I pushed my shoulder into the cold glass, grinding it into the hardness to stop myself from hauling her into my arms. To ground myself from the fucking reality I was staring at.
To punish myself for the pain that was gazing back at me.
“What do I do?” I tried to clear the vulnerability out of my throat but couldn’t. “How the hell do I fix this?”
“You can’t erase that part of my life. You can’t change those memories.
” She wiped her mouth. “You can’t make me forget how many times I uttered your last name in vain.
It was hundreds, Jordan. Maybe thousands.
And it wasn’t just my family that was hurt.
It was all the unfortunate people in our building.
Like Mrs. Reynolds, who lived beside us, who would slip candy bars through the lip under our door to make sure I had something to eat because she knew my mom was broke.
And my friend Andrea, who lived two floors above me, who was finally living in a home that was free of her dad, who used to beat the shit out of her and her mom.
I lost them all when we had to move.” Her lips started to quiver.
“Do you have any idea how many families were displaced because the Worthingtons wanted to make more money?”
“What about your dad? He didn’t take you in when all this happened?”
I assumed he hadn’t been part of the main picture, considering she’d never spoken about him. But maybe he had a secondary role and they’d drifted apart, or he’d passed away.
“My dad? You mean the man who got my mother pregnant?” Her shoulders lifted. “I have no idea who that man is, and neither does she.”
This was getting worse by the second.
“Maya, I’m sorry—”