Page 123 of Destiny

A beeping line.

Dr. Parks pulls away. “I’m sorry. She’s gone.”

I’m not sad exactly.

I don’t really know what to feel.

I didn’t love this woman, my grandmother. I did feel a connection to her. A bizarre connection, and now that life has left her body, the connection has…

It’s still there, but there’s no doubt in my mind that Wendy Madigan is gone.

For good this time.

“Are you going to be okay, sweetheart?” my mother asks, rubbing my shoulders.

“Yeah, of course I will be.” I sniffle. “But I didn’t get all the answers, Mom.”

“I’ll tell you one answer wewillget. I had the nurse draw some blood from Wendy, and I have it in my hands. I saw it come out of her body, and I saw the nurse hand the tube to me. No sleight-of-hand, no nothing. It is Wendy Madigan’s blood, and I’m going to get a DNA test. We’re going to make sure that it is your father’s mother who died today. Then we’ll get an autopsy.”

“Oh, God…” I run down the hall toward Wendy’s room.

Mom follows me. “What, Ava?”

“Don’t you see? It could all be a trick again. She could—”

Mom grabs my hand right before I enter the room.

“Honey, I thought of all that. Jemima hasn’t left the room, and when she does, either you, your father, or I will be there. No one is going to leave that body until it is safely at the crematorium.”

“Okay. But can Jemima be trusted?”

“Yes. Your father and your uncles vetted her very carefully. Along with Dr. Parks.”

“Are you sure? Because Dr. Parks assured us Wendy was in perfect health.”

“Yes, and we’ll have an autopsy done to make sure Wendy didn’t end her own life, but she was an old woman, Ava. An old woman who kept herself comatose. That was not easy on her body. She may have just died. It was her time.”

“Have you told Dad?”

“I texted him. He’s on his way home.”

A few moments later, Dad and Brendan return.

I run into Brendan’s arms.

“I’m sorry, baby,” he says.

“I didn’t get all the answers, Brendan. I need more answers.”

“We may be able to get them,” Dad says. “Now that Wendy’s dead, truly dead, any contingency mechanism she had in place will engage. There will probably be more information. It wouldn’t surprise me if she knew she were about to go, and that’s why she started calling in those liens.”

“But the nurse said she was in good health.” I shake my head. “And her name isn’t anywhere on that trust.”

“I know, baby. We’ll figure it all out.”

“Brendan?”

“Yes?”

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