Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Two hours later Gabriella sat between Clayton and Mia in the Family Life Services coordinator’s office at the hospital and wished the half siblings could have started their relationship on a happier note.
The tension in the Family Life office was thick, although Mia seemed to be listening to her options now that she understood the hospital wouldn’t allow a sixteen-year-old to return to Pete Yancy’s home without some kind of trustworthy supervision.
Pete would be remaining at the hospital for at least the next two days based on the toxicity in his blood and the dangerously low blood pressure, but after a brief look at Clay’s father in his hospital bed, Gabriella wondered if he’d be returning home at all.
Now, the Family Life coordinator seemed to be looking to Gabriella and Clay to step in and help with Mia, as if it made the most sense for them to take responsibility for her care.
As if they’d all known one another for more than a day.
Even Gabriella’s long-standing online relationship with Mia couldn’t have prepared her for meeting the girl face-to-face.
And Gabriella sure hadn’t expected to see Clay again, let alone discover his connection to the troubled teen.
Still, it wasn’t the kind of situation she could turn her back on. She’d been worried about Mia for weeks.
“If I could reach my mother,” Mia said to the gray-haired coordinator, leaning on the woman’s wide desk between pamphlets about hospice care and family rights. “I’m sure Mom would let me stay with her for a few days until Pete comes home.”
Ellen, a sharply dressed professional with steely-silver hair cut in a crisp bob, peered over the file open on her tablet. Gabriella willed the woman to nix that idea. After spending hours on the phone with Mia over the last two years, Gabriella knew Mia’s mom was trouble.
“I looked into that possibility, but your mother is in a detox facility this week.” The woman spoke in a businesslike manner despite the sensitive nature of the revelation.
She tucked some of her silver hair behind one ear, exposing amethyst hoops that matched her purple blazer.
“If you are not comfortable with your brother or Ms. Chance, I can contact the social worker who handled your case when you moved out of the foster system. Mrs. Duchesne?”
Beside Gabriella, Mia went pale. The girl pursed her lips and then let out a slow breath between her teeth.
“Who said I’m uncomfortable with my brother and his girlfriend?” Mia laid her hand on Gabriella’s forearm.
Belatedly making Gabriella aware that she was the girlfriend in question.
“You seemed reluctant to stay with either one of them at the beginning of our conversation,” Ellen reminded her, hazel eyes missing nothing as her glance darted from Clay to Gabriella and then back to Mia.
“And as a representative of this facility, I can’t allow you to leave without appropriate supervision—”
“I’ve known Gabriella for two years.” Mia sat forward in her seat, her whole demeanor shifting from surly teen to responsible grown-up in a flash.
She shoved aside the dark strands of hair that curled in all directions after the rain shower, then straightened into a more attentive posture.
“She was my mentor in an online support group and gave me direction during the most difficult year of my life. If I sounded unhappy with her earlier, it’s only because my father’s health has me scared. ”
Gabriella resisted the urge to glance over at Clay, but she wondered if he was as impressed—and surprised—at this sudden about-face in his sister’s behavior. Apparently the idea of having Mrs. Duchesne involved in her affairs had the teen worried.
“That would be acceptable,” Ellen agreed, returning her attention to the tablet. “But my notes also say that Ms. Chance has no permanent residence here and—”
“That’s not entirely true.” Gabriella had roots here.
And—jointly owned with her brother—a home.
A plan came together in her mind as she sifted through their options.
“My brother is the mayor of Heartache and he’s staying in Franklin this week for the Covington trial.
” The case had been in the local papers ever since Covington’s arrest, so Gabriella had no doubt their hospital liaison was well aware of it.
“I share ownership of our childhood home in Heartache and there is more than enough room for Mia and me to stay there for a few days while it’s vacant.
There is a separate in-law apartment, in fact, if we need to extend our stay after my brother returns. ”
She felt Clay’s gaze on her now.
“You don’t have to do this,” he warned her in a low voice while the counselor scribbled notes.
“Someone needs to stand up for her,” she reminded him softly, shooting him a meaningful glare. “Mia needs to know she won’t be abandoned.”
Gabriella wouldn’t leave the girl with a respite worker in the foster system—not when she could stay with Gabriella temporarily.
Zach protected her financial interests and had accumulated a tidy portfolio in the years since he’d started his own business, buying back many of their father’s assets after much of the estate had been seized, including—for a few years—the home, land, and a collection of vehicles.
While Gabriella earned very little in her mostly volunteer work, Zach had invested on her behalf for the last decade, insisting her name went on the deed with his when he bought it back at auction.
Their mother hadn’t ever wanted to return to Tennessee anyhow, and Zach had helped her make ends meet along with a small pension she had in her name alone.
“Zachary Chance.” Ellen smiled warmly as she leaned back in her leather chair.
“I thought your last name sounded familiar. I remember your brother well from the year he volunteered at a senior center in Heartache where my mother was a long-term resident. His visits meant the world to Hattie Fields and her whole family.”
There had been a time in Gabriella’s life where it had been difficult to continually hear what a great guy Zach was—especially since she had always felt like it was her fault she’d interrupted the good life he’d started to build in Heartache before her attack.
But time and therapy had eased that guilt and now she felt only pride at the way Zach still balanced his good works and volunteering with running a very successful business.
“I’ll tell Zach.” Gabriella hoped that the people she helped through her support group would one day recall her with the same fondness as Ellen and her mother remembered Zach.
But judging the way Mia had blasted her for withholding the truth about her brother, she had her doubts.
“So would that arrangement be workable? Mia can stay with me in Heartache for a few days?”
“As long as Mia is amenable?” Ellen looked to Mia, who nodded quickly. “And an upstanding representative of her family?” Ellen’s silver bob swished as she turned to glance at Clay.
Clayton’s dark eyes lingered on Gabriella.
Her skin pricked with awareness at his attention even as she resented his lack of involvement where Mia was concerned.
How could he bear to see his sister handed off to strangers, especially after all the hardship and upheaval she’d already had in her young life?
“That will be fine.” He shifted in his seat, turning to face Ellen. “For now, at least. If my father doesn’t make a full recovery, we may have no choice but to investigate other options.” He signed a release form that Ellen slid across the desk. “Gabriella’s stay in Heartache is only temporary.”
The reminder turned a solemn group even more so as they filed out of Ellen’s office.
Gabriella wasn’t sure if Clay had brought up that fact as a heads-up to Mia that she couldn’t hide from the reality of Pete’s declining health forever.
Or had Clay mentioned the timeline as a none-too-subtle reminder to Gabriella that Mia wasn’t her business?
Either way, the words put a wall between them as they returned to the waiting area where a nurse informed Clayton and Mia that they could see Pete now that he’d been moved to his room.
Gabriella hesitated for a moment, but followed them to the room the nurse indicated.
Things might be awkward between her and both Clayton and Mia, but she suspected they were even more awkward between the siblings who’d never met before today.
Still, she hung back while the two stood over the old man’s bed.
Actually she didn’t think Pete was all that old, but the years had taken a hard toll on the yellowed face that rested on a crisp white hospital pillow.
IVs hung on a metal stand above his head, and Mia checked the labels on both of them before smoothing the sheet across the pale blue hospital gown that covered her father’s thin chest.
Something about that gesture made Gabriella’s throat catch.
The teen had a complicated relationship with her father—she’d shared her confusion with Gabriella about meeting him for the first time as a fourteen-year-old, and she didn’t know what to make of his battle to win custody of her.
But Mia was ultimately grateful to Pete for claiming her, and the evidence of that was clear in her tender touch of the weathered forehead before she planted a kiss there.
Mia looked younger as she stood over him, her expression vulnerable. Clay, on the other side of the bed, stood rigid. No doubt his emotions were even more complicated than those Mia dealt with. But then, he’d lived with a much different man than the sobered-up Pete Yancy Mia had gotten to know.
Clay blamed his father for his brother Eddy’s death. And, probably, a whole lot more that Gabriella didn’t know about. But didn’t it soften his heart just a little to see how much it meant to Mia to have found a home with their father? Didn’t it sway him to want to be a part of her life, too?