Page 7 of Jack

All he did was shove her inside the condo, hand her the keys, and slam the door. She’d never been treated so badly in a long time. Well, she’d tell Taylor what a mean person he was so that he’d be out of a job soon enough. The nerve of some people.

~*~

Henrietta didn’t know what to think about her doctor’s visit. He had to be making her feel better, but as far as she was concerned, it was a cruel trick. To tell her that her cancer was gone was something that she’d never thought to hear. She’d been given only months to live, and now she was told that she could live out her life forever without cancer. Cancer free. It was two words that she’d never thought to hear.

“You don’t seem to be happy to hear that.” She told him that she was in shock. “To tell you the truth, Ms. Murphy, I am as well. When you were in here last week, I only gave you about ten weeks to live. Now, it wouldn’t surprise me to see you living for a good long time. Congratulations. You’ve been blessed with—a shifter. You know a shifter, don’t you?”

“Yes, Jack Tucker. He’s mated to my granddaughter, Taylor.” He nodded. “He didn’t do anything to me. I mean, the most we’ve shared it a hug. Nothing more.”

“He must love you very much, along with Taylor.” She asked him what that meant. “He only needed to touch you to heal you. You mean a great deal to him, or perhaps he wanted you to live for Taylor, but I’d say that he’s healed you completely. I’d bet anything that you feel better too. No aches and pains that come with age.”

“I do feel better, as a matter of fact. I thought it was, well, I thought it was Jack being in love with Taylor so she’d have someone when I was gone, but you know, I even climbed the stairs to come to your office, and it didn’t wind me like it usually does. I feel wonderful.” He cautioned her about not doing too much. “No, I won’t. I mean, I’m nearly a hundred years old. I don’t want to fall now and be hurt.” Henrietta stretched out her arms and couldn’t believe how much better she felt.

On her way home, she decided that she needed to get something for Jack. Nothing big but something that told him that he’d done something special for her and she wasn’t going to forget it. As soon as she pulled into the shopping center lot, she knew just what she was going to give him. Going to the jewelry store, she removed the diamonds that her husband had given her and had them put into a band that would suit Taylor. It would do her heart good to have him marrying her only grandchild with one of the many pieces of jewelry that had been hers. She was also going to give him her husband’s band. It was silly of her to wear it on a chain around her neck when someone as special as Jack and Taylor could use them. Right then she decided that she was going to make sure that she gave her all her many jewels now and watch her wear them while she was still around to do so.

She knew as soon as she got home that she needed to take it easy. Running around would stillkill her. She wasn’t as young as she used to be. Taking a nap before dinner, she was almost too excited to sleep. But exhaustion won out, and she smiled as her body began to relax little by little.

She’d forgotten that they were a couple who were going to go out. They were taking things slowly, and she didn’t blame them for that. Jack looked to be so much in love with Taylor that it made her slightly jealous, but she couldn’t have been happier for the two of them than she was right now. Just as she was settling down with her own dinner, Gilda Jane called. That woman could put a sour note to about anything wonderful she thought.

“Taylor isn’t answering her phone. I wanted to talk to her about that employee she sent over here to take me home.” She asked her what his name had been, and Henrietta laughed. “I don’t like to be treated like I’m a child.”

“Then stop acting like one.” Gilda Jane said that he’d said the same thing to her. “Good for him. And you might want to get used to seeing him around. He and Taylor are going to be married soon if I don’t miss my bet.”

The quiet at the other end of the line should have warned her. Gilda didn’t like things going on that she’d not been a part of. Or at least told about it beforehand. When she started screaming, much like a child that she’d accused her of being, Henrietta pulled the phone away from her ear so as not to have any damage done to her. It was like a small child having a tantrum.

“She will not marry anyone. Who will take care of me if she has a husband around all the time? He’ll suck her dry, I just know it, and I won’t have anyone to take care of me. You’ll see. She’ll spend all her time around him and there won’t be—do you suppose they’ll have children? Oh, Henrietta, you can’t allow her to do that. I remember how much time a child can suck out of your life. Henry Paul wanted to take care of her all the time, and I was fine by that, but he up and died and left her to me. I don’t want to have to be second or third in line for her to come to my needs.”

“You selfish bitch. I never realized until this moment what a selfish person…no, that’s not true. I knew that you were selfish, but not to the extent that you’ve just shown me you could be. I’m glad that she’s getting married and I hope that she has children while I’m still around so that I can cuddle them as I did their mother. Why are you like this? With your own daughter?” Henrietta didn’t know what she expected her to say, but the next words broke her heart.

“I didn’t want to have any children. My parents told me not to have any. But Henry Paul said that he’d take care of them if I had them. Then look what he went and did? He died so that I had to care for the little chit.” Feeling the tears as they rolled down her cheeks, she listened to Gilda Jane as she went on about how selfish her grandson had been for having a heart attack and leaving her alone. “If she thinks I’m going to allow this, then she’s in for a rude awakening. And I’m going to live with them, too, just to make sure that they don’t have children and that Taylor devotes all her time to me. I don’t deserve to be left out in the cold any more than I deserve to have her all to myself. Henrietta I demand that you put an end to this right now before I have to tell her how I feel about this. No, I won’t have it. I’m not made to be not taken care of. I want what is coming to me as her mother.”

“I will do no such thing.” She thought about Gilda’s parents and finally realized that the rumors that she’d heard all Gilda’s life were true. “They forced you to marry, didn’t they? To get you out of their home? Isn’t that right?”

“They said that they were too old to wait on me all the time. Then they shouldn’t have had me is my way of thinking.” It made her stomach feel off and she put her hand over it. “They ran off when I got married, and I never could find them. Even when I married like they made me, I didn’t love Henry Paul. My parents made me do it, and that’s what I did.”

Some of the conversations that she’d had with her grandson were coming back to her. How stressed he’d been about having to work so hard and then come home to Gilda wanting things of him. She remembered the day that he told her that he was going to be a father, the fear in his voice along with his excitement. It occurred to her right then that Gilda had killed her grandson as if she’d shot him in the head. The stress of being the working one, taking care of a house, then the child had been just too much for him, and he’d had a massive heart attack at just forty years old. So young, and now shethought that she knew why.

“Did you ever help him out around the house? Take care of the baby when she was born?” Gilda just laughed, manic-like, and said that it was her who needed things done for her and not him. “You murdered him then, didn’t you? As surely as I’m standing here talking to you, you killed my grandson because you’re—you’ve been selfish all your life, and because of that, Henry died well before his time.”

“Taylor is mine, and she’ll do what is good for me and only me. I don’t care that she thinks that she’ll marry. I won’t have it. It’s too much of a drain trying to get her to do things for me now so she won’t marry. Not so long as I have breath in my body. I won’t have it.”

Henrietta closed the connection and put her phone on the desk. Her heart was shattered, and she didn’t know what she could do about it. As much as she didn’t want to tell Taylor and Jack, she knew that they’d have to know what sort of person they’d be dealing with. All this time, all the time since her grandson had died, the clues had been right there for her to look at, and she’d ignored them. Now, her heart was broken.

Picking up the phone, she nearly put it down when Jack answered. Telling him how sorry she was that she’d called him by mistake, he seemed to understand that something was going on. No matter how many times she’d told him that it was all right, she’d talk to them later, he insisted that she tell him what had happened. All she could think about at that moment was that if Gilda got her way, then she’d kill off this young man to get what she wanted in the same way that she’d done to her poor grandson.

They arrived not ten minutes later after hanging up the phone. Sobbing so hard that she could barely speak, she tried her best to tell them both what Gilda had said and had done. Holding onto the two of them, her heart hurting for the words that she was repeating for them, Henrietta told them how sorry she was and that she wished that she’d learned sooner about Gilda. Knowing that she’d killed off her only grandson hurt her in ways that she couldn’t explain.

“I’ll talk to her.” She started to tell Taylor that she didn’t want to do that, that she’d just hurt her too when Jack said that he’d take care of her. If she would allow it. “I knew that she was childish and selfish, but I never thought of the extent of her ways. To think that she doesn’t care that I’m happy and in love but that I only do what she needs of me. How did I never see this before?”

“She’s been that way all her life.” Henrietta explained about her parents and how they had moved away right after the wedding. “I never saw it because she’d been that way when I was a child. But lately, I’ve been getting fed up with her about the little things that she does to get my attention. Stupid things like getting into trouble at the condo. Telling the people there how they should be living their lives around her. She had maid service, and she still manages to fuck things up when I’m not at her beck and call.” Taylor looked at her, and she put her hand on her head. Her heart hurt so badly for this child who was born with a mother like Gilda.

“Your father would have spoiled you to no end. But he’d been there for you, too.” Henrietta smiled at her but knew that it was a painful one. “I didn’t see it. He told me how it was at their home, and I thought for sure that it was just growing pains for Gilda that she’d get better once you were older. But nothing happened. She just kept getting worse and worse.”

“I’ll make sure that she knows what’s going on.” She didn’t envy Jack any of this but knew that if anyone could deal with Gilda, it would be him. “I’ll make sure, too, she knows that she won’t be hurting either of you again.”

“Your lion might come in handy if you do that.” Taylor laughed a little. “Nothing like this was anything I thought was going to happen when I got here. I thought for sure that the doctor had given you less time and you were going to leave me sooner.”

“Oh, good heavens, I forgot.” She told them everything that the doctor had said and asked Jack if he’d done anything. “I’m not mad, son. I love you—did you just tell me that you love Jack, honey?”

---