Page 13 of It Starts With A No

“I heard you didn’t want to put on a hospital gown.” The director lifted the bag in his hand. “So I got my assistant to go out and get you something comfortable for tonight.”

“Oh. I was hoping I could be discharged.”

“Mr. Eolenfeld instructed us to keep you here tonight.” He bent forward. “It’d be difficult for me to explain why I let you go.”

She sighed and nodded again.

“Thank you.” He put the bag down on the nightstand. “If you’d prefer, I could assign the doctor to you. Then—”

“No!” Clary lips curled back. “I hate it when people go out of their way for me. I wouldn’t be comfortable with that, so please don’t. I’ll stay if you promise you won’t make any other special arrangements for me.”

“It’s a deal.” The director turned and smiled at Seth. “I have to go. My wife’s waiting for me to have dinner.”

Clary waved, then blew out a breath once the director was gone. “I really am not his mistress. My parents worked for Mr. E,” she said. “They died, and he took me in.”

Took me in. “He adopted you?” Seth asked, then shook his head. “But—”

“He paid a friend of his to foster me.”

That made a lot more sense—using money to solve a problem had always been the Eolenfeld’s style. “I’m sorry about Elton. Please don’t get him fired. He …” Seth let his words trail off when Clary shook her head with a sad smile. “I—”

“I won’t. I know you don’t believe me, but I won’t.” She waved it off and shifted back against the pillow. “Are you okay?”

He arched a brow.

“I thought that man had run his car into you. I thought …”

Was that concern? It looked genuine.

Holly always appeared genuine, too. Seth shrugged. “I’m fine.” He ran his tongue under his teeth, feeling the shorter canine on the right. The tooth that had chipped off during one of Holly’s punishments.

Can’t trust any Eolenfeld or anyone linked to one. But a question had been gnawing at Seth the entire time. “Why didn’t you just let me go with the guy?”

“He would’ve killed you.”

“You don’t know that.”

“The man on Oprah said you should never let an attacker take you to a secondary location.”

His brows rose. “The man on Oprah?”

“Yup.”

Seth laughed again. “You’ve got to be kidding.” Her replies were never what he expected.

“I’m not.” She held her index finger up. “Never let an attacker take you to a secondary location. Remember that.”

He shook his head. “But so what?”

Her brows puckered.

“So what if the man killed me? You don’t know me. He wasn’t even going to do it in front of you.”

“Just because it wasn’t going to happen in front of me doesn’t make it okay.”

If only everyone thought that way. Then perhaps Seth and his brothers wouldn’t have had to go through what they did.

“He could’ve killed you,” Seth said.

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