Page 67 of Always Us

She sees the serious look on my face and knows I’m not here to give her good news. We don’t speak until we reach our cars. I parked right in front of her.

I unlock her car and open her door for her. “You go first and I’ll follow you.”

“Wait. You said you’d tell me what’s going on when we got to the car.”

“Let’s just go home. I’ll tell you there.”

We drive home and go inside and the first thing she sees is the letter from Yale, which is still on the floor.

She picks it up. “Is this an acceptance letter?”

I take it from her, tossing it back on the floor as I lead her to the couch. We sit down and I tell her what happened while she was at class; my talk with Katherine, then my grandfather, then my dad.

Jade’s trying to be strong, but she looks terrified, her arms crossed tightly over her middle, her foot nervously tapping the floor. “So what does this mean? We just wait for your dad to do something?”

I shake my head. “No. I’m going out there. I’m going to go see my grandfather.”

“What good’s that going to do?”

“I don’t know, but I can’t sit here and do nothing. Maybe we can work something out. Maybe I’ll just agree to take over the company.”

“Garret, no. You’d hate that. That’s not what you want to do with your life.”

“It doesn’t matter. I have no life if you’re not in it. So if taking over the company means he’ll leave you alone, I’ll do it. I’ll even go to Yale. Maybe you could go back to Moorhurst. We could get an apartment in between. It wouldn’t be that bad of a commute.”

“Are you seriously considering this?”

“I don’t have any other alternative.”

“But he wants you back in the organization.”

“Maybe if I do this other stuff, he won’t push me to be a member.”

“So am I going with you?”

“I don’t want you that close to him. I like the idea of keeping you thousands of miles away. But I also don’t feel good about leaving you here alone.” I stop to think of how to keep her safe while I’m gone. “Maybe William could help. He has really good security. Maybe he could loan us one of his security guards to watch the house.”

“Why wouldn’t you just ask your dad?”

“Because I’m not going to tell my dad I’m going out there. I’m going to try to talk to my grandfather alone first. If I can’t get him to change his mind, I’ll get my dad involved. But I can’t tell I’m going. He doesn’t want me there. He told me to stay out of it. If he finds out what I’m doing, he’ll try to stop me.”

“I don’t like this, Garret. I don’t think you should go out there. You should just let your dad handle this.”

“I tried that, and he didn’t do anything. And I can’t keep waiting for him. I need this to end.”

“How do you know your dad didn’t do anything?”

“What do you mean?”

“Your dad was the last person to see Holton before he went in the coma. Do you think he—”

“Jade, no. It wasn’t him.”

She nods. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I know he wouldn’t do that.”

Actually, I think he would. But when he talked about what happened to my grandfather, he didn’t sound guilty or nervous or anything. Then again, he’s good at hiding that shit.

“So when are you leaving?” Jade asks.

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