“Then we tell a different story. Say he was gambling it all away. That we had to clean up his debts.”
“Don’t worry, son,” the man added. “We’ll be the heroes in this. But until everything is settled, you have to stay as a missing person. We can’t draw any suspicion.”
“Okay,” Daniel said. “Where do I go now?”
“Go home,” his father said. “No one will look there. They all think the house is empty.”
I turned my head toward the nurse, angling my face away so William Grant wouldn’t recognize me. Footsteps passed close, then faded. From the corner of my eye, I caught Daniel rising, dragging one leg as he followed his father out.
“All done,” the nurse said, wrapping the bandage tight around my hand.
“Thanks,” I said through my teeth. “Do you know where I can find a phone?”
“There’s a payphone in the hallway,” she said. She slipped a coin from her pocket and held it out. “You might need this.”
A quiet laugh left me. “Thank you.”
I pushed off the bed and stepped into the hallway, my gaze moving left, then right. Every face felt like a threat, and I didn’t want anyone to see me here.
I noticed a payphone at the far end of the hallway, a woman already hurrying toward it.
I moved faster.
“Sorry,” I muttered, brushing past her, my shoulder knocking into hers as I reached it first.
I dropped the coin in and dialed Victor’s home number.
“Hello?” He answered, chewing loudly, lips smacking between words.
“It’s me,” I said.
“Who is me?” He asked, then smacked his lips again before breaking into a laugh. “I’m joking, Mr. Rosewood. I know it’s you.”
I exhaled slowly. “Not the time for jokes. I need you to go to the house. Take all the cash from the office and bring it to San Francisco General Hospital. Aurelia was in a car accident.”
The words scraped on the way out.
“I have to cover her hospital bills.”
“Okay. Okay,” he said, the humor gone from his voice.
“And we’re going to need to go to the house she shared with Daniel Grant,” I added. “We have to collect some trash.”
A brief pause.
“Understood,” Victor said.
I hung up before anything else could be said and stepped back, finally letting the woman take the phone.
She didn’t speak, but the way she lifted her chin, the sharp tilt of it, said enough.
I turned away, scanning the hallway until I spotted the nurse who had stitched me up.
I moved toward her quickly, and when I reached her, I asked who’s the doctor was assigned to Aurelia. I had to make sure she was okay.
Don’t worry, Kitten, I got you. You will be okay.
Present day, April 1993.
