I kiss her knuckles, wishing I knew how best to comfort her, before releasing her hand and exiting the vehicle.
After signing in at the front desk, Audrey grabs my hand and leads me down the hall.The head nurse, Charlotte Reed, meets us outside her mother’s room.
“How is she?”Audrey asks.
“In surprisingly good spirits.Her wrist isn’t broken, just sprained, and since she fell in the grass, she lucked out and avoided abrasions.”
“That’s good.Really good.How’s her companion?”
“She’s been a dream.Your mother loves her.”
Audrey blanches and nods like a wooden doll.
“I’m glad.Any idea why she fell?”
“She pushed out of her wheelchair on her own.We caught it on camera, if you’d like to—”
“No, that’s okay.The doctor warned she might forget her limitations during an episode.”
The head nurse pauses, studies Audrey, and glances at me.
I’ll pull the woman aside later and request a copy.
The frozen tundra of despair in Audrey’s eyes and her stiff composure hint at the horror she’s suffered throughout the years.
She isn’t thinking clearly right now but is reacting from a place of trauma.
“Are you going in to see her today?”Ms.Reed asks.
Audrey looks beyond the head nurse’s shoulder to her mother’s door.The conflicting emotions in her gaze fill me with concern.
“Maybe not,” she murmurs.
“Even though you’ve come all this way?”
Audrey shrugs.
“Okay, no pressure.Who’s this?”she asks with a gesture toward me.
Audrey swings unseeing eyes my way.For a heartbreaking moment, she doesn’t react.
Her pupils shrink as she realizes the depths of her snafu.She squeezes my hand in apology for forgetting I came with her and forces herself to take a deep breath.
“He’s my mom’s stepson,” she tells the nurse before piercing my soul with dread-filled eyes.
“You haven’t seen her in thirteen years, have you?Let’s go in,” she mumbles.
Alarm bells ring in my head.
“Audrey, what—”
She ducks her head and stomps into the room, hauling me in after her, but stops halfway across the floor as though she ran headfirst into a brick wall.She trembles from head to toe but lifts her gaze off the linoleum.
Rose, the bodyguard I hired, sits on the far side of the bed listening with faux raptness to my ex-stepmother.Daphne Tripp beams as she speaks, patting their joined hands as though they’ve been friends for years.
“Oh look, we have visitors,” Rose announces.
Daphne turns.
