Page 61 of Embrace
Father is sucking air. We’re aware that Laura, the nurse, should be called into the room. It’s her job to resuscitate him. I refuse to watch my father struggle like a fish out of water. Instead, I keep my curious gaze on Bryn. She wants him dead. I’ve asked her more times than I can remember if Father ever crossed the line with her. She’s always denied it. Watching her, I don’t believe her. She was lying. Father indeed crossed the line with her.How far did he go?She’ll never tell me.
“I spoke to Nurse Laura.You pulled the wrong plug, Bryn,” Jasper said. “You didn’t kill him. When you two left the room, he was still alive.”
Jasper said that Nurse Laura’s granddaughter had been abused by Randolph. She had been poisoning him gradually, and that was the reason our father never recovered. Dr. Carlisle was aware of her actions and was an accomplice to them. The doctor also regularly cheated on his wife, and that was how he fell into Julia’s web. She seduced him, and on one drunken, lustful night, got him to admit that Nurse Laura killed Randolph.
“And he mentioned that one of you pulled the wrong plug, so the family never suspected he’d been poisoned. But I had learned post-autopsy. I thought you poisoned him, Bryn. I never suspected Laura. That was one I missed,” Jasper said then rubbed his top lip, frowning as if he was disappointed with himself. “Nevertheless, Julia twisted the facts for her benefit. Carlisle was paying her to keep quiet, and Boomer paid her for proof of the false accusation she made against the two of you.”
Shit.Jasper was spot-on about convincing Penina to take Julia’s money. Julia would do anything to remain wealthy, and that meant getting rid of the competition. As far as Julia was concerned, Penina would have to eat or be eaten.
“But what about the cousin she was supposed to marry, Jasper? The guy who owned the sports team?”
“Brandon Valentine?” Jasper asked.
“Is that his name?”
Jasper nodded. “He caught her embezzling money out of his business accounts but couldn’t prove it because she’s so fucking slick.”
Bryn sniffed. “But you can prove it, can’t you Ace?”
Jasper smiled big. “You better believe it. And we’ll use it when we need it.”
* * *
When our meeting ended,I called Penina. She was on a private airplane with Greg Carroll, on the way to see her mother in Madison, Wisconsin. Next, I placed a call to Nestor, the investigator I hired to assist Penina’s aunt’s investigator. He gave me the report on Mary Ross. It had been a long time since I flew in one of the family’s fleet of aircrafts, but I booked a flight, and not long after, I was on my way to get my woman.
Chapter Seventeen
Penina Ross
The airplane raced down the runway, pinning us to our seats. Even as we climbed into the sky, Greg and I sustained our stare down. He was wrong to gloat about a perceived blip in my relationship with Asher. Asher would understand that I had to leave. I would see my mother, and that would suffice.One look—that’s all.
“Don’t worry. I’m on your side, not his,” he said finally.
I rolled my eyes. “There are no sides. Asher and I are on one side, together, the same side.”
“So, what’s going on, anyway? What’s up with your mother?”
A wave of nausea rolled through my stomach, and I pressed a hand over my navel. I stared into Greg’s eyes, deliberating whether I should share or not. A line would be crossed if I chose to do it. However, there was no need to fool myself. I’d lost all credibility as Greg’s doctor the moment I chose to drive his Hummer and ride in his airplane. My judgment was off, and I wondered why.
I shook my head and gazed out the window. It was still light out, but clouds were thick beneath the aircraft. “It’s personal.”
“Oh, come on, Penina. We’re friends, aren’t we?”
“You’re my patient.”
“Iwasyour patient. You healed me.”
I turned to see how he looked when he said such a thing. His grin was stretched from ear to ear.
Wanting to say it, I sighed. I wanted to get it off my chest. “My mother has changed her name, remarried, and started a brand-new family.”
Greg’s features expanded. “Wow, that’s fucking awful.”
I went on to tell him about my upbringing and how my mom had dragged me from one rat- and roach-infested hovel to the next—and in front of the occasional letch, who hoped my mom was willing to sell me for her next hit.
“She never would’ve done that. At least that’s one thing I’m grateful to her for.”
Then I told him about how I came to be. As a runaway, Mary was sexually abused by a man named Arthur Valentine.
