Page 89 of Talk About… History

“I guess we should take this conversation inside, huh?” I teased. He let out a hoarse chuckle and waved us on in.

“We need introductions, too,” he agreed.

“You know what, Glenn? Why don’t you guys take over the party room? We don’t have anything scheduled in there today,” the nurse said, giving him a wink before walking away.

“Let me lead the way,” he said, moving past us. To his credit, Glenn was way more agile than I expected. In fact, maybe it was just seeing his nephew, but he seemed full of life.

It only made me want to have a conversation with this Clara, one that ended in her being severely humbled.

Glenn led us to a small room with a few tables and a banquet table. Outside of a couple of boxes of decorations in the corner, it was empty. He closed the door behind us and sat down with a groan.

“Yeah, you know, an upstairs apartment might not be the best,” he admitted as he shifted in his chair until he was comfortable. “But I’m going to need to know why you’re here. Why now?”

There was no judgment, no accusation—just a bit of pain and curiosity. I was so proud of Cohen for not breaking down at the question.

“Aunt Clara,” Cohen admitted, giving his uncle an update on everything he’d heard so far. “She made it seem like I couldn’t visit, that you were too frail, under the weather all the time, it was a new and increasingly awful update each call.”

Glenn’s eyes darkened, and I could tell there was so much more to the story now.

“That woman has seen me maybe twice since I’ve been here. She refused to pick me up when I was done with rehab, saying the doctors didn’t know better than her and I wasn’t ready. I don’t even want to think about what my assets look like, but I’m hoping my lawyers held strong.”

“That’s awful,” I said, shaking my head. I couldn’t imagine family turning on you like that. The Whitakers had always stuck together and this man could use some of that loyalty in his life.

“You’re not staying here another day,” I said. “Are you okay with coming with us?”

“Is there pizza on the outside?” he teased, but the hope in his eyes made my chest ache. It was such a simple request and just showed how much he’d missed.

“We can definitely have pizza tonight,” I promised.

“And I know two little beagles who will be so happy to see you,” Cohen said.

“It’s been a minute. I don’t know if they really will. I’m going to guess those girls have been spoiled rotten by you. They’re your girls now,” Glenn told Cohen. The look in his eyes told me that he knew Cohen needed them still and wasn’t going to take them away now.

“Thank you,” Cohen said, seeing right through the words to the root of it. His uncle was still looking out for him.

“I’m going to go have a chat with the nurses,” Arden said.

Mason turned around and followed him out, the two alphas going to square things away and speed this whole process along. The sooner we got out of here before Clara found out, the better.

“Clara doesn’t have power of attorney over you or anything like that, right?” Cohen asked.

“Not unless she went behind my back and did some shady shit,” Glenn said with a shrug. “I’ll have to make some phone calls soon.”

“Even if you don’t have access to your money, we’ll get you settled in Rockwood Valley with us,” Cohen told him. That was the benefit of having a pack. It wasn’t just a single income, but generally three or more in the mix. That meant we were a lot more stable than couples. We had the funds to truly give Glenn what he deserved.

“No, I’m not trying to be a burden on anyone,” Glenn said, serious now. “I have the funds to retire and should be able to use it. This wasn’t my plan,” he said, glancing around the building.

“Health scares never are,” Cohen said, eyes a bit haunted. I couldn’t imagine how bad it was to land him in here for as long as he was, Clara’s bullshit aside. She never would have gotten away with it if this place wasn’t also an assisted living center.

“That car accident was bad. That deer nearly ruined my life,” Glenn said. “But whatever Clara said happened to me after that was a lie. I recovered here then was simply stuck here. In order for someone with my magnitude of injuries to be released, it had to be with someone else. She arranged for me to stay but it was unnecessary. I got one cold maybe the whole time being here.”

“No wonder she wouldn’t let you call,” I told Cohen. “She knew if you found out this whole thing would be over. She’s up to something else, I guarantee it.”

“God, I’m so sorry,” Cohen said. “I don’t know why I just took her word for it. She said you couldn’t have visitors. The list of restrictions she gave me was so long.”

“She’s just a manipulative, controlling little narcissist. She wanted to control the narrative here, and it worked up until now,” I said. “We’ll just have to figure out why.”

“Attention, probably. Who knows? If she had anybody donate, she could have been making money off me this whole time. She’s the one paying to keep me here.”

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