Page 66 of Destiny

Nothing.

I know what I must do.

I nudge her again, this time more gently. “Grandmother? Wake up. Please.”

Her eyes flutter open.

So manipulative. So manipulative to get what she wants.

“Grandmother,” I say, “please tell me. Why did you reach out to me?”

“Isn’t that obvious, Ava?”

“Not to me it isn’t.”

“Well, you’re my granddaughter, first and foremost.”

“So is Gina.”

She smiles. “Yes, but I knew you would understand me.”

“How? How do you think I could understand everything you’ve done?”

“Because, Ava, you are your own person. Just as I am.”

She can’t possibly be saying that we’re similar. “What the hell does that mean?”

“For God’s sake, Wendy,” Dad says. “Stop this. Just stop doing this to her. She’s an innocent young woman.”

“Dad…”

“She’s manipulating you, Ava. Can’t you see it? All those years ago, she tried to do the same to me.”

“You’re my son, Ryan,” Wendy says. “I will always love you, and I will always protect you. No matter how horribly you speak to me.”

“Right.” Dad lets out a sarcastic laugh. “You were trying to protect me that day when you were ready to put a bullet through me.”

“We would be together. You, me, and your father.”

“What about Lauren? What about my sister?”

“I love Lauren.”

“Then why didn’t you want to take her with us on that horrific path of death?”

“I had already made plans for Lauren at that time.”

“What plans?”

A sly smile curves onto Wendy’s lips. “You see, Ryan, I didn’t think your father would actually die that day.”

“He didn’t,” Dad says, “and neither did you.”

“He would have,” she says. “If you had died, your father would’ve died. I made sure of it.”

“So you shot him in the chest instead of the head for a reason.”

“Yes, I did.”

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