Chapter 41
Alice
I was too young to remember the day Gammy Lucy passed away, but I’d heard the stories.
There’d been laughter, Mom always said. She’d been sick for a while, so they knew it was coming, and she’d insisted she didn’t want her last few hours to be depressing or grim.
So the whole family had gathered around her bed, told stories, recounted happy memories, and laughed.
There were tears, too, but they’d made the most of what little time they still had together.
Then she’d closed her eyes.
Adrien once said that it felt like a light went out. The world became slightly dimmer when she left it, and he had this deep, innate feeling that it would never fully recover.
In private, he’d added that it was the first time he’d seen Gampy cry. That he’d never forget those last few minutes when our grandfather had finally broken, clinging onto her hand as though letting go would mark the end of his world.
She’d promised to wait for him on the other side. And that one day, whether he wanted it or not, the two of them would be together again.
Today was, evidently, not that day.
“I’m sorry… it’s what?”
Ria was the one to break the silence. The rest of us—me, Mom, Dad, and Adrien—were slightly too stunned to speak.
“Gastroesophageal reflux,” Dr. Hart repeated with a small, friendly smile. “Very common. Has an aggravating habit of imitating a few of the more concerning signs of a heart attack.”
Adrien stepped forward, hands resting loosely on his hips as the perfect V in the middle of his eyebrows etched deeper. “I’m sorry, I still don’t think I’m fully understanding. You’re saying he has heartburn?”
“That’s correct.”
“Oh, thank god.” Mom’s purse hit the floor as the room breathed another sigh of relief.
She’d arrived not ten minutes ago with my dad in tow. They’d hopped on a family friend’s jet as soon as they’d been contacted by the hospital since ours had been here, waiting to take Gampy back home.
“I’m sorry it took us so long to confirm. We needed to run extra tests to rule out a handful of other, potentially more serious conditions given Robert’s age and family history.”
“So he’s fine,” Adrien reiterated.
Dr. Hart flipped through her clipboard. “More than fine, if you ask me. His cholesterol is a touch higher than I’d like to see, and he’ll need to make some dietary changes—steer clear of anything spicy, acidic, fried, et cetera…
You’ll receive a full list shortly. But other than that, he’s in great shape.
I’m just waiting for one last result to come through, then I’ll clear him for immediate discharge.
The only thing I ask is that you make a follow-up appointment with your family physician within the next few weeks.
Especially if his symptoms get worse. Any questions? ”
There were none, though Mom did insist on giving her a drawn-out, too-tight hug before allowing her to leave. At one point, I could have sworn I caught her trying to check her watch.
“What the hell did you eat?” Adrien demanded once Dr. Hart had finally been released from the suffocating vise of our mother’s gratitude.
Gampy waved a hand. “Doesn’t matter now. All this talk about food is making me hungry. See if you can get us into Torrent tonight, would you? We’re overdue for a family dinner.”
Mom slung her purse over her shoulder. “You’re not having steak tonight, Dad.”
Gampy rolled his eyes so hard his head lolled with it. “I’m sure their kitchen is well supplied to boil a chicken breast and slap it on some plain rice, Julie.”
Unfortunately for him, Mom was well accustomed to his deviant streak.
To Adrien, she said, “I want to talk to the chef when we get there. And let their management know I’ll double whatever bribe their employees might be offered in exchange for sneaking red meat or whiskey to the old man wearing a sweater vest if they bring it to me instead. ”
All of a sudden, Gampy didn’t even want to go to dinner. What was the point when his own daughter wouldn’t allow him to enjoy “what little time he had left on the planet after coming so close to death”?
His words.
This argument persisted until he’d been unhooked from the drips and beeping machines, signed his name across the last couple of forms, and was leading the pack out of the hospital, cane in hand.
“You might as well have let me die in there,” he argued theatrically as Mom reread the list of no-no foods the nurses had provided. “What’s the point of getting out of bed if I can’t have a cup of coffee to help me through another day in this prison?”
“Where’s Maxwell?” Ria asked. This was her third attempt at changing the topic to something slightly less argumentative. Poor thing still didn’t know better. “Do we need to go pick him up?”
“He’s with a friend,” Gampy grumbled. “And I’ll take care of it myself. Right now, in fact. I’ll go grab him while you’re all at dinner since I’d rather poke a needle through my eyeballs than watch you all eat steak while I try to keep down unseasoned gruel.”
“Dad, stop being so dramatic. You can have grilled salmon with a side of…”
I didn’t hear the rest, my attention gravitating toward the sleek Bugatti parked on the other side of the lot, where Dominic told me he’d be waiting.
It’d been six hours. The sun had already set, and while I’d managed to sneak off a few times to an area with reception to give him updates, he still didn’t know Gampy was going to be okay.
“…Hey.” I jolted when Adrien nudged my shoulder. He frowned. “What’s with you? You’ve barely said a word since you got here.”
I shrugged, pretending like I’d been in the middle of admiring the general vibe of the sad, gray parking lot instead of fixating on one particular, very hard-to-miss vehicle.
“Just processing. But I’ll, uh… I can meet you guys at Torrent in a bit.
I’m not exactly dressed appropriately for dinner, so I’ll run home and change first.”
It was a valid excuse. I wouldn’t normally be caught dead in this outfit and had only worn it so Dominic could maintain his focus on my master plan instead of dragging me back into bed.
“We’ll be in a private dining room. Who cares?”
“It’s a million degrees out, and I have stains on my sweatpants. I’ll meet you there in like forty-five minutes. It’s not a big deal.”
“I have some spare clothes in the car, if you want,” Ria chimed in. “Jeans and a T-shirt.”
How helpful.
I cleared my throat. “I’m not sure they’ll fit. I’ve gained a few…”
I trailed off, losing steam.
I really didn’t have it in me anymore. I didn’t have the energy, the will, or the desire to lie or to keep more secrets. I just didn’t.
Not after everything that had happened.
Not while Dominic was sitting alone in his car, waiting for me to give him another update. I couldn’t leave him behind without checking to make sure he was okay.
Because someone had to.
The whole time we’d been waiting for Gampy’s test results to come back, I’d been sitting there, torturing myself by running through every possible worst-case scenario. I couldn’t stop. Those few hours of not knowing were pure hell.
Except I hadn’t been alone.
The doctor hadn’t walked back into the room wearing a somber expression. She hadn’t shut the door, asked us to sit down, or handed us a small stack of folded pamphlets stuffed with numbers to call and support groups to join.
We were leaving the hospital feeling light as a breeze, knowing Gampy was going to be okay. As far as my family was concerned, the biggest decision to be made tonight was what each of them would order when we got to the restaurant.
Dominic, on the other hand, had left bearing the weight of his mother’s life on his shoulders, forced to make decisions that the vast majority of people much older than him would have struggled with.
I couldn’t imagine what he must have been feeling.
How much anger. Fear. Anxiety.
I could not imagine.
“Alice?”
I blinked. “Sorry, what?”
Ria pressed the back of her hand to my forehead, her expression pinched with concern. “Seriously, are you sure you’re okay?”
Mom joined in on the fussing, gently pushing my hair away from my face. “Honey, you’re drenched in sweat.”
I was drenched in sweat because we were smack in the middle of a muggy September heat wave, I was wearing the thickest sweater I owned, and humans hadn’t invented outdoor AC yet.
“I’m fine.” I tugged at my collar, trying to let some air in. “It’s just ungodly levels of hot.”
“Then take the sweater off.”
“I will. Just… one sec. Stay here.” I peeled away from the group, heading straight for Dominic.
This was a terrible idea. Really, really bad. I actually couldn’t think of a worse time to do what I was about to do, except maybe at Adrien’s wedding or something.
But I couldn’t stop. The speed of my steps picked up until I was jogging, my gaze bolted to my target.
He must have seen me running because he stepped out of the car before I was close enough to make out the license plate.
“Alice? What’s wrong? What are you doing?” He was frantically glancing between my sweat-drenched face and the cluster of Cloutiers I’d left behind.
“Hey,” I panted. The thick humidity wasn’t helping. “Gampy’s fine. He’s… it was just heartburn.”
Relief spread over his expression. He let out a breath, the rough tension in his posture smoothing out a touch. “Heartburn? Are you serious?”
“Yeah. He’s healthier than we are, just can’t eat anything worth actually eating.”
“Then why did you run? You could’ve just texted.”
I nodded, glancing backward. My family had not stayed put like I’d asked. They were approaching, a small, squinting herd of confusion. “Dom?”
“What?”
“Do you trust me? Because if not, you should get back in the car.”
There was a short pause. “We’re doing this? Now?”
“Yeah. Is that okay?”
His mouth twitched. “A little late for that, Lice. I don’t think we have much of a choice.”
I’d have kissed the man had we had more time. Instead, I settled on grabbing his hand, giving it a comforting squeeze, and stepping beside him with my shoulders held back.
Mom saw him first.
She stopped in her tracks, shock spilling over her face. “Dominic?”
Dad continued to squint like he still wasn’t quite sure what he was looking at.
And Adrien…
My stomach dropped.
We should have stuck to the plan.