Page 167 of Mad Love

Cori frowned. Reluctantly, she picked a chair and sat down. Her eyes moved around the room. “Wait—where’s Grandpa? He always sees me first because I’m his favorite girl.”

Ryan winced, and the look of pain in his expression made me shift closer to him. Letting out an uneasy breath, Ryan went and sat on the edge of the coffee table across from his sister, their knees nearly touching. “Actually, Cor, we need to talk about Grandpa.”

She gave him a puzzled look. “Is he not feeling good?”

Ryan’s throat worked for a moment, trying to control his emotion. “You know he’s been really sick, right?”

She gave a small nod. “But he has doctors and Miss Eloise and Mrs. Beechum. They take care of him.”

His back stiffened as he leaned forward, his hands dangling between his spread legs. “I know, but something happened last night, Cor.”

Her lower lip wobbled for a second. “But he’s okay, right?”

He exhaled, his gaze sliding to me for a minute, and I so wanted to take this hit for him. To spare him this agony.

“I can fix it.” Cori jumped up, her face tight with determination. “I always make him feel better—he tells me so.”

“Cor.” Ryan caught her small hand as she tried to slip by him. “Cori, Grandpa died last night.”

She stared at him so long that I wondered if she even understood what he meant, but then tears filled her big blue eyes and she let out a wail that sliced right through my heart. Ryan pulled her in for a hug as she sobbed.

Her tiny body shook as she cried, and I finally moved forward to sit in the seat she’d vacated so I could hug her from the other side. Ryan caught my gaze over her shaking shoulder, looking wildly unsure about how to fix this. He was Cori’s hero, but this was a demon he couldn’t slay, a wound he couldn’t heal.

Movement caught the corner of my eye, and I looked over to see Royal standing in the open doorway. He looked gutted, watching Corinne cry, his hands clenching and releasing reflexively as he, too, tried to figure out what to do to fix her pain. Eventually, his big shoulders fell, and he walked away, leaving Corinne to us.

“I w-want Grandpa,” Cori begged, pulling back from Ryan with a face full of tears and snot. “I wanna see him.”

Ryan shook his head. “He’s gone, Cor. I’m sorry.”

That only made her wail harder, but when Ryan tried to pull her back in, she pushed at him. Her little arms weren’t enough to actually stop him physically, but it definitely caught him off guard.

“This is all your fault!” Corinne shouted.

Ryan looked stricken, and he jerked back like she’d stabbed him. “Cori.”

I wrapped my arms around the trembling girl from behind. “Honey, Ryan didn’t—”

“He did!” She spun and looked at me, blue eyes wild and red. “First, he made Daddy leave, and now Grandpa. It’s all his fault.”

Ryan stared at me, and I watched his heart break as his little sister threw herself at my chest and cried her heart out.

I shook my head, trying to convey that she didn’t mean it; she was a little girl and didn’t understand.

But none of that seemed to matter as Ryan stood up on wooden legs and left the room, looking absolutely devastated.

CHAPTER 59

MADDIE

“Cori,” I said as her sobs started to wane, “Ryan didn’t do this.”

She buried her face against my neck and refused to look up.

Sighing, I smoothed a hand up and down her back. “Grandpa was sick, sweetie. He was sick for a long time, and his body just couldn’t handle being sick anymore. But that’s not Ryan’s fault.”

She sniffled and pulled back to look me in the eye. “But I want Grandpa here.”

I wiped away her tears. “Me, too. But he can’t be, and now he’s not sick anymore.”

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