Page 34 of Everything She Feared

“You’ve received our notice about the adjustment in our rates?”

“I have, thank you,” Sara said, continuing with Katie to the elevator.

“A deadline is approaching,” Hetta called after her.

“I know. Thank you,” Sara said as they stepped inside the elevator.

They ascended to the fourth floor. The air in the hall held a mix of perfume and hospital. Suite 404 had a sign with large letters: Mrs. Marjorie Cole. The door was open.

“Grandma!”

Marjorie, sitting in her wheelchair at the window, was wearing a print dress. Katie rushed into her open arms.

“I saw you driving up.” Marjorie held her tight. “Oh, that feels good!”

“Hi, Mom.” Sara kissed her mother’s cheek, then sat on the bed with its quilted spread.

“It’s so lovely to see my two girls!”

“We brought you a present,” Katie said. “Can I give it to her, Mom?”

Sara shifted her bag on the bed. Katie retrieved a box of chocolates and gave it to her grandmother.

“The kind you like, Grandma, milk chocolate.”

“Oh, that’s so nice.” Marjorie kissed Katie. “Thank you. Why don’t you have one right now? Go right ahead and open the box.”

Katie’s fingers found the seam of the cellophane wrapping and tore it away from the box.

“You look nice, Mom,” Sara said. “How are you?”

“I had my hair done yesterday.”

“I like how they feathered it.”

Still working on the box, Katie said: “Mom, should we tell Grandma what happened to Anna? How I saw her body bleeding on the rocks. Sally said it was okay to talk about it.”

“Oh, no,” Marjorie said.

Sara’s focus flicked to her mother and in that second, she saw the sparkle in her mother’s face dim. Sara never doubted for a moment that her mother had learned of the tragedy. The residents of Silverbrook were news-watchers in the common room. Marjorie had a TV in her room, and she used the laptop Sara had given her two years ago almost every day.

In an attempt to shift the subject, she reached for the chocolates. “Let me finish opening the box, honey.” She shook the tight lid loose and lifted it. “Take one.”

“You go first, Grandma.”

“Oh, I’ll have one a little later, dear. Go ahead.”

Katie picked a chocolate and bit into it.

“Now—” Sara got her tablet and a pair of small earphones from her bag “—Katie, why don’t you go over to Grandma’s table and finish watching the movie we started yesterday while I visit with her?”

“But I want to finish watching Snow White, first, and can I have one more chocolate?”

“Okay, Snow White and only one more.”

After selecting another, Katie settled in on a chair at the table on the far side of the room and inserted her earphones. When the movie came to life on the tablet, Sara sat closer to her mother and lowered her voice.

“Mom, do you know what happened at Katie’s day camp?”

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