“Yeah, but I’m a little worried about seeing him again. Do you think he remembers what he told us?”
“No. I think he was totally out of it when he said it.”
“I think so, too, but I have to ask him about it. I need to know for sure if this is true and find out what else he knows.”
“So what do you want to do until we go to the hospital? Do you want to get out of here?”
“No, I want to stay here. I want to get into bed and pull the covers over me and just feel safe for a minute. And I want you beside me.”
He smiles at that last part. It’s one of the few times I’ve ever come out and actually asked him to be there for me. “I can do that.”
I take off my jeans and climb into bed in my t-shirt. Garret joins me, lying on his back. I scoot closer to him and he kisses the top of my head as he secures his arm over me. “It’ll be okay, Jade.”
He says it, but I don’t think he believes it.
25
When we’re back at the hospital we meet Ryan at the lab where he works.
“Did they move Frank to his new room yet?” I ask him.
“No, but he should be there within the hour.” Ryan’s in a much better mood. I don’t think he ever expected his dad to leave the ICU. I was kind of thinking the same thing after I saw how bad Frank looked. “Let’s go somewhere else to eat. I can’t take any more hospital food.”
Ryan drives us to the restaurant in his old, beat-up car that barely works. I glance over at Garret and he gives me a look, reminding me of our conversation. He’s not judging Ryan’s car, so I need to stop assuming that he is.
We go to a pizza place not far from the hospital. It has a buffet that you pay for as you walk in. Ryan pays for all of us, which breaks my heart because I know that he’s completely broke. But I don’t say anything because it’s his way of being the big brother, a role I know he misses since I left.
“This morning the doctor said Dad will probably be in the hospital for at least another week,” Ryan tells me as we’re eating. “Probably more than a week. So he won’t be home for Christmas.”
“That’s okay. We’ll just hang out in his room for Christmas.”
“Well, I kind of made plans to be with Chloe’s family for part of the day.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m just saying that it’s not going to be much of a Christmas this year. Dad will probably be asleep for most of the day and I’ll be at Chloe’s. You might be stuck alone at the house unless you want to go to Chloe’s with me.”
“She won’t be alone,” Garret says. “I’ll be here.”
Ryan seems surprised. “You’re staying here? And your family’s okay with that?”
“They’ve had plenty of holidays with me. Besides, I’m there all the time.”
“So you’re leaving after Christmas?”
Garret looks at me. “I thought I’d just stay here until Jade goes back.”
I can tell Ryan’s concerned. Now he thinks Garret’s being some clingy boyfriend who won’t leave my side. And I can’t tell Ryan the real reason why Garret’s sticking around.
When Garret goes to the restroom, Ryan lectures me. “That guy is being way too possessive, Jade. I don’t like it. It’s one thing to spend Christmas with you, but then to hang around for another couple weeks before school starts again?”
“It wasn’t Garret’s idea. He wanted to go back, but I asked him to stay.”
“Why? That’s not like you at all. You always say you want your space.”
“I know. But I thought it would be nice to have someone to do stuff with. You’re busy with work and Chloe, and Frank is in the hospital.”
“Are you telling me the truth? Did you really tell him to stay?”
“Yes.” It’s a lie, but just a little one. If I wasn’t so stubborn about being independent, I would’ve asked Garret to stay.
Garret returns to the table. Ryan keeps a close eye on him like he doesn’t trust him.
Back at the hospital, my stomach is in knots as I prepare to see Frank. My lunch isn’t sitting too well and I regret eating anything at all.
“Could I see him alone?” I ask Ryan. I give Garret a look to stay with Ryan and keep him occupied.
“Um, sure.” Ryan seems confused by my request but doesn’t question me.
I go into Frank’s room. He looks a little bit better, but he’s still hooked up to a bunch of machines with tubes everywhere. I try not to focus on it.
“Hi, Frank. I hear you’re getting better.”
“Jade, it’s so good having you home. I’d give you a hug but I can’t really do it with all these tubes in me. Ryan says you’re quite the hugger now. They teach you that in college?”
He’s making jokes, a sign that he’s much more alert than the last time I saw him.
“No, that’s all Garret’s doing. He’s really into the hug thing.”
“He seems like a nice young man. But I didn’t like it when he wouldn’t talk to you for all those weeks.”
“I know. But we’re past that now. He’s a good guy, Frank. You don’t have to worry.”
From the way Frank is acting, I can tell he doesn’t remember what he told me earlier.
“Frank, I need to ask you something.” I sit next to him on the bed.
“Sure, honey. What is it?”
“I don’t know if you remember, but this morning Garret and I were visiting you in your room. You were kind of out of it from the drugs, but you said something.”
He half smiles. “What did I say? I hope I didn’t embarrass you in front of your boyfriend. If I did, I didn’t mean to.”
“No, it’s nothing like that. You said that, um. . .”
“Go ahead. Just tell me.”
“You said that Royce Sinclair is my father.”
As soon as the words are out, I see Frank’s heart rate monitor going off. I instantly regret saying it. What was I thinking? He’s sick! I can’t drop a bomb like that on a sick person!
He notices the monitor and takes a deep breath, calming himself. A nurse rushes in. “Everything okay in here?”
“Yes. Everything’s fine,” Frank says. She checks the monitor, which is back to normal, then leaves. I’m wondering why Ryan isn’t racing in. Garret must’ve taken him somewhere.
“Jade, I didn’t mean to say that.” Frank’s talking softly. I have to lean in just to hear him.
“Yeah, I didn’t think you did. And at first I didn’t believe you. But then I went home and saw that article you told me about that showed my mom at a speech with Sinclair.”
“I told you about the article? What the hell did they put in me? Truth serum?”
“Tell me what you know. I’m scared, Frank. I think this guy might come after me.”
“He has no reason to. You just need to get rid of that letter you have. Tear it up. Or burn it. And never mention this again. Tell Garret that I didn’t know what I was saying this morning. Tell him it was the meds.”
“The letter was stolen. It’s gone.” I proceed to tell Frank about the threatening phone calls and how my room was broken into. Then I tell him about the fundraiser and how I met Royce Sinclair and how Garret’s dad has been protective of me ever since.
“Jade! How could you keep all this from me!” He takes a few more deep breaths to keep his heart rate in line.
“I didn’t want to worry you. I thought I could handle it myself. And after the break-in, I thought I was safe. But I’m not so sure now.”
“So you’re saying that Garret’s father knows the truth about Sinclair and your mother?”
“I don’t know. But if he does, that doesn’t make sense. If Sinclair is so worried about people finding out the truth, why would he tell Garret’s dad? Maybe Mr. Kensington only knows part of the story.”
“Have you asked him about this?”
“No, because I know he won’t talk about it over the phone. I’ll have to wait until I get back to Connecticut.”
&nbs
p; “This can’t wait. You need to talk to him right away. You need to go back there and find out what he knows.” Frank’s voice is urgent. It only confirms my fears.
“But I want to be here for Christmas with you and Ryan.”
“We’ll do Christmas later. You need to get this figured out, Jade. If you’re in danger you need to know. And I need to know.”
“You really think he’d harm his own daughter?”
“Yes. I do.” He answers with such conviction that a chill runs through me. “I don’t mean to scare you, honey, but I need you to know that this is very serious. He wants to be president. And given that he’s the frontrunner nominee, he may actually have a chance of that coming true. He’ll do what he needs to do to make sure nothing gets in the way of that. If he was just running the family business or doing anything else, I wouldn’t worry at all. But with this campaign, he has too much at stake.”
It’s a good thing I’m in a hospital because I’m finding it harder and harder to breathe.
“What else do you know? Did he ever try to hurt my mom? I mean, after it happened, did he ever do anything?”
“He, uh. . . I don’t know, Jade. I don’t think we should talk about it. It’s over now.”
“Tell me. What did he do?”
Frank takes another deep breath and lets it out. “He owns a pharmaceutical company. His family does.”
“Yes, I know. What about it?”
“Well, I think he had someone giving your mother pills all those years. That doctor at the free mental health clinic downtown? That one she saw all the time? I’m almost positive he was working for Sinclair.”
“Why? What was he giving her?”
“Your mother said they were antidepressants, but they never seemed to help her, so I took one from your house after she died and had it tested at a private lab. The guy from the lab said the pills contained a substance that causes severe hallucinations and is extremely addictive. It could cause other addictions as well, like your mother’s addiction to alcohol. I think sometimes your mother didn’t even know who you were, Jade. I think she was hallucinating, thinking you were someone else. Someone trying to hurt her.”
“How could you not tell me this?”
“Because if I told you, I would’ve had to tell you the whole story about your father and we’d be in the situation we’re in now. But then that letter showed up and—” He sighs. “I swear, if your mother hadn’t wrote that damn letter none of this would be happening.”
I sit there trying to think it through. Frank’s theory about the hallucinogenic drugs makes sense. Sometimes my mom didn’t even call me by my name. She’d call me other names. And she’d scream at me for no reason. Like she was completely crazy. I thought it was the alcohol. In fact, the one and only time I met that doctor from the clinic, I told him about her odd behavior and he told me it was from her drinking. I was 13 at the time. I believed him. Why wouldn’t I?
“So why did he drug her?” I ask. “He could’ve just killed her.”
“He obviously wanted you to still have a mother. Maybe he thought it was better to have you with her than in foster care or with an adoptive family, both of which could cause you to look into your past someday. Whatever the reason, I’m convinced he was controlling your mother with those drugs. He had to make her crazy so she’d never talk. Or if she did talk, nobody would ever listen.”
“Can we come in now?” Ryan walks in, startling both Frank and me.
“No,” Frank says. “We need another minute.”
“You’ve been in here forever. What are you two talking about?”
“I was telling him about what happened a couple weeks ago,” I say, trying to explain the serious looks on our faces. “You know, with that guy.”
“Oh. Sorry. Go ahead. I’ll be right outside.” Ryan leaves.
“Jade, I’ve been meaning to ask you about that. How are you doing?”
“With all this going on, I haven’t really thought about it.”
“So that boy doesn’t go to school there anymore?”
“No. I don’t think he’s officially kicked out yet, but I don’t think he’ll be back.”
“Are you sure you’re okay? You haven’t said much about it.”
“I know. But Garret’s helping me get past it. We talk a lot.” It’s a lie. I haven’t talked about that incident since it happened. Not even to Garret. “Now tell me what to do with this other situation. I’m totally freaking out here, Frank. So Sinclair had my mom drugged and then what? You think he somehow killed her? But I found her dead on the bathroom floor. She didn’t have injuries. She overdosed.”
“I think she did that to herself. I don’t think he had anything to do with it. She probably hit a point where she couldn’t take the hallucinations anymore.”
My heart sinks thinking about the life my mother had after that horrible night. She didn’t mean to be a bad mom. That’s why her letter sounded like it came from a different person. It was a different person. It was her before those pills turned her into the mother I knew.
“Jade, are you 100% sure you can trust Garret?”
“Yes, of course.”
“And what about his father?”
“I would’ve said no a few months ago, but now I think he’s trying to help me.”
“Then I want you to go back to Connecticut and find out what Garret’s father knows. And if you’re sure you can trust him, I want you to stay there. Stay at his house. You said they have good security, right?”
“Yes. They have security people and a gate around the entire place.”
“Then you need to go there. You shouldn’t be in Des Moines right now with Sinclair here. It’s too risky.”
“Maybe I could stay a few more days. I feel bad leaving you guys so soon.”
“No, you need to go right away. You need to be safe.”
“Fine. I’ll go. But I’m spending today with you.” I hug him, trying not to disturb all the tubes he’s hooked into. “I love you, Frank.”
“I know, honey. I heard you the other day.”
I pull back. “You did? I thought you were out of it. You looked half asleep.”
“I heard you. And I love you, too. Now why don’t you go get Ryan. He’s probably quizzing your boyfriend out there seeing if he’s good enough for you, which you know he never will be in Ryan’s eyes.”
“Yes, I know.”
Ryan goes back in to see his dad. I take Garret to the cafeteria and tell him everything Frank said, including the stuff about my mom and the pills and how we have to talk to his dad as soon as possible.
Garret gets his phone out. “So when are we leaving?”
“Frank said we should leave tomorrow. Will your dad be home?”
“I don’t know. I’ll call him quick.”
I go use the restroom while he calls. When I get back, he’s already making plane reservations. It’s probably costing him $6000. Maybe more.
“Add that to the money I already owe you,” I tell him.
He shakes his head no as he swipes his phone. “My dad’s in New York right now, but he’s coming home tomorrow morning. I told him to meet us at the house and that we had to talk to him.”
“Did he ask why?”
“No. But I kind of think he knows why.” He sets the phone down. “Six in the morning. That’s the only flight I could get.”
“How much was it? Because I’m serious, Garret. I’m paying you back.”
He leans over the table. “By the time you have the money to pay me back, I will have convinced you to marry me and it will be our money, not yours or mine. So it won’t matter.”
Once again I’m taken aback by his assumption that we’ll somehow end up together someday. And not just together, but married! I’m sure he’s just saying it to get a reaction out of me.
He sits back, a smug smile across his face, knowing his comment has my head spinning.
“We’re not going to—”
He puts his hand up. “What d
id we say about any discussion of the future?”
“Fine. But I’m still paying you back.”
26
“Did you ask your dad if I can stay at your house?”
“I don’t need to ask him. You’ve already stayed there before and he didn’t care. And it’s not like we don’t have the room.”
“What about Katherine?”
“She’s at her parents’ house in New York with Lilly.”
“I still think you should ask—”
“Jade, you’re staying at the house no matter what anyone says, so stop worrying about it.” He stands up. “Let’s go see Frank before he falls asleep again.”
By the time we get there, he’s already sleeping. Ryan’s waiting out in the hall. “Dad said you’re going back to Connecticut for the rest of break.”
As soon as he says it I realize I don’t have a story to tell Ryan. How am I going to explain this to him?
“Yeah. I’m sorry, Ryan. It’s just that—”
“Dad said it was his suggestion.”
“Um, yeah. It was,” I say, wishing Frank had told me the story he apparently gave Ryan.
“He said something about how Garret’s family does all this stuff for Christmas and how you’d have a better time there than here. But is that what you really want to do?”
“Yeah, it is.” I can’t look at him when I say it. I don’t like lying to him and I really don’t like making him feel bad.
“My family does make a big deal over Christmas,” Garret says. “I guarantee Jade will have a nice holiday.”
Ryan ignores him, keeping his focus on me. “He said you’re leaving tomorrow, but can’t you stay a couple more days? You just got here. We barely had any time together.”
“I can’t, Ryan. We already got the plane tickets.”
“We won’t see you again until school’s out. I can’t get out there to pick you up until May.”
“I know.” I wish I could tell him the real reason I’m leaving because now he thinks I don’t want to spend time with him. And that’s not true at all. I had all these things planned for Ryan and me to do over break.
Ryan gets quiet and I know he’s mad at me for leaving but he’ll get over it. He never stays mad for long.
Knowing You (The Jade Series #2) Page 22
