Page 32 of Destiny

“Are you sure she’s awake?”

“I’m sure, Ava. She responded to me. She knows we’re talking about her. She just made a threat against your mother because she knew it would get my attention.” Dad nudges her. “Wendy, open your eyes. Speak to me.”

And again no response.

“Let me try,” I say.

“She doesn’t know you, Ava.”

“She does. She’s been reaching out to me.” I touch her shoulder. “Wendy?”

And again…no response.

I know she’s in there. My father’s right. She made a threat against my mother, and I’m not at all happy about that.

“Wendy…” This time I nudge her shoulder. “Wendy, talk to us.”

Then the lightning bolt…

The same one that destroyed the tower on my card. It appears in my mind, and I know what I have to do.

I nudge her again. “Grandmother?”

Her eyes flutter.

That’s it. Dad called her Wendy. I called her Wendy.

She doesn’t think of herself as Wendy to us.

“Grandma, do you hear me?”

“Yes, child,” she ekes out.

“You reached out to me,” I say. “Why?”

No response.

“Grandma?”

Again, the eye flutter.

“Dad, you should try. You need to call her Mom. Mother. Something like that.”

Dad’s jaw clenches. “I willnot. She thinks she can threaten my wife and then have me call her Mother? She can fucking think again.”

I sigh.

I understand. He has all this history with her. But I don’t. I know the stories, but I didn’t live them. So it’s up to me.

“Grandma, please don’t hurt my mother.”

Her eyes flutter again, but she doesn’t speak.

“I know you would never harm Dad or me or Gina. But my mother means everything to me, everything to Dad. Please tell me she’s safe.”

“I never said she wasn’t.”

“But you did, Grandma. When Dad said he didn’t think Mom was in danger, you said, ‘Are you sure about that, Ryan?’”

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