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She nods, then goes back to typing, editing my schedule for next week. It’s blissfully light compared to the hell it’s been lately.

When I leave the office, I have my driver take me straight to St. Mercy’s to see my grandmother. She’s been improving steadily, and I can’t wait to share the good news with her. Now I’ll finally be able to devote more time to her—without being on conference calls in the hospital.

As I check in at the receptionist’s desk, one of her nurses spots me down the hall and rushes over to greet me.

“You’re back to see Nora?”

“That’s right.” I take my visitor’s sticker and press it onto my shirt. “How is she?”

“She actually had a really good day,” the nurse tells me, smiling. “Things are looking pretty good. The doctors were saying that she’ll probably be able to go home soon. She’s made a big improvement, and it seems as if she’ll make a full recovery with a little more rest and relaxation.”

That’s another relief, piled right on top of the first. The tension in me uncoils even further, although there’s still something off that I can’t shake.

“That’s great to hear,” I say. “Thank you.”

I head down the hallway to my grandmother’s room. She’s asleep when I enter, so I try to move quietly to the chair by her bedside.

Unfortunately, my grandmother’s renewed senses are just a little too sharp. She wakes up, turning her head as I sit down next to her.

“Hello, Declan,” she says. Her eyes are bright, and she seems more alert than she has been for the past couple of weeks. I can see what the nurse was saying about a “good day.”

“Hi, gran,” I say. “They’re telling me you’ll get to go home soon.”

“So I’ve heard.” She lets out a gusty sigh. “Can’t be too soon. I can’t wait.”

I smile. “What’s so bad about the hospital?”

“Well, for one thing,” she grouses, “every meal is the same. I want to cook something in my kitchen. If I have to taste Jell-O one more time, I swear—”

“Gran,” I interrupt. She falls silent, serious. I’m glad to see the improvement in her. She seems sharp, way more aware than she has been since the coma, but I need to have this conversation with her. “When you leave here, I’m hiring a home caretaker for you.”

As I expected, she scowls, clicking her tongue. “Now, Declan, I hardly need all of that fuss.”

“You just had a stroke,” I remind her. “We got lucky with your recovery, but we might not get so lucky next time. I want someone to be around to take care of you when I can’t.”

She looks like she wants to argue some more, but stops herself when she sees the look on my face. “Okay,” she relents. “Fine. You’re right. But I want to have veto power over who you hire, do you understand me?”

“Of course. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“Maybe I’ll pick a hot young man,” she muses, her eyes twinkling with humor. “Someone fit, who works out every day. What do you think?”

I roll my eyes, chuckling. “Whatever you say, Gran. You do have veto power.”

She smiles, turning to the flowers on her bedside table. I’ve been replacing them with a fresh bouquet every couple of days, just to keep her room from feeling too drab and depressing. If the battle for recovery is half in her mind, I want her surroundings to be dynamic and lively, just like I hope she will be again.

Today, they’re lilies. She reaches out a fond hand to brush her fingers across the petals. “It’s good to have things back in order,” she murmurs. “I feel like I can think clearly for the first time in a while.”

She turns back to me, her gaze shrewd.

“You look like you’ve been through a lot,” she says. “You look tired, Declan.”

“I am tired,” I admit.

“Did I miss something big?”

“I was going to tell you about it once everything was over, and I just got the good news this morning.” I sigh, settling in for a long story, and tell her all about my father’s latest bullshit—the takeover attempt, and everything my team did to fend it off.

She listens in wide-eyed silence, only breaking in every now and again to ask me for an explainer. When the story’s finished, she shakes her head. “Goodness gracious. I knew he was no good, but I never thought Johnathan would do anything like that.”