Page 105 of Cruel Hearts

Stella cuddles into me.

She’s all I need, and I watch over her while she rests.

Her death changed me in ways I can’t explain.

Ash thinks I’m weak. He thinks I trust him.

He’s wrong on both counts, and I can’t wait to show him just how wrong he is.

The afternoon melts into evening, and Stella wakens long enough to use the bathroom and goes back to sleep.

Sometime in the late morning I managed to fall asleep, and it’s past dinnertime when I shower. I’m worried Stella has internal bleeding. She’s supposed to be dead and I don’t know how we’ll find her medical attention if she needs it. My money can buy a lot, but it doesn’t create miracles. If it did, I would have paid for my parents to come back a long time ago.

I dress in slacks and a white dress shirt, and I kiss Stella and let her be. She needs rest more than anything.

In Max’s room, everyone’s jumpy.

Denton paces.

Mel and Paulo are on their laptops.

Max is writing the article he’ll submit to theChronicle.

Quinn’s supposed to be taking it easy, and she and Nathalie are watching a movie. Only her jiggling leg gives away her agitation. Her tired eyes meet mine, but she doesn’t pounce on me like I expected. Our talk in the ER has at least put us on the same page.

Zarah sits in the corner of the room watching everyone, her eyes large and inquisitive. Her gaze lights on me, and I feel a tug of remorse. I brought her here, dumped her on Ingrid, and haven’t said much to her since.

This is the part where we wait for Stella’s death to fade out of the news, and it’s fortunate that rising gang fatalities are center stage. Stella’s death may not need as much time to blow over as I feared, at least, not on regular news.Truth or Darewill keep Stella’s death front and center, and I should plan a night out with Nathalie to give the paparazzi something else to talk about. Inthe meantime, we need to find things to do so we don’t go crazy. We can’t blow our cover, and we can’t let Ash know what we’re doing or where we are.

Slowly, I approach my sister. She’s still wary of me, and I understand. In her mind, Ash and I are linked as friends, and I’ll need to invest a lot of time and patience to prove otherwise.

Max watches me out of the corners of his eyes. It pisses me off he thinks he has to protect my own sister from me. Deep down, I can appreciate his protectiveness, but in this case, it’s misplaced, and I bristle.

I kneel at her feet, and she leans away by instinct. This is the position we would be in at Quiet Meadows—me on the floor, begging her to talk to me, Zarah sitting in her wheelchair, frightened and shutting me out. Breaking the habit, I sit next to her instead. It will take time to repair our relationship, but I’ll do whatever I have to for that happen.

She sighs, sensing the subtle change, and tentatively, she smiles and waits for me to speak.

“Would you like to go for a walk?” I’m prepared for her to say no, that she’d rather stay away from me, but she nods and reaches for my hand.

It’s a start.

I tell Ingrid she can take a break, and she crosses the room to the Keurig and the leftovers from a dinner I didn’t eat.

“Are you hungry?” I ask Zarah.

“No, I’m fine.”

The drugs have hidden her, or I guess more accurately, they’ve turned her into a different person.

Quiet.

Watchful.

Suspicious.

Dr. Reagan authorized Ingrid to drop three of the meds and cut one dosage in half per day. That leaves her on two requiringa full dosage, and they’ll need the longest to wean her body off of due to their addictive qualities.

“Let’s go outside, Z,” I say, using the nickname I called her years ago. Maybe the more I can connect us, the easier it will be to convince her to trust me again.

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