Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 56591 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56591 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
A long pause follows as I process the news. Doctor Shah adjusts her elegant gold earring, perhaps sensing the emotional weight in the room.
“What now?” I whisper.
The doctor glances at the door, then lowers her voice. “If I were you—and I may be overstepping here—I would move your grandmother to a different facility.”
“With this condition,” Dom cuts in, “is home care possible?”
“Yes, definitely,” the doctor replies. “But she would require monitoring for a few weeks before that transition is made.”
“What if she had medical staff on hand, twenty-four hours a day, for those initial weeks?”
Doctor Shah’s face brightens. “That would be ideal.”
Dom waves a hand. “It’s done.”
“Dom!” I exclaim, then glance at the doctor. “Uh, could we have a minute?”
“Yes, of course.”
Once we’re alone, I take one of his hands in both of mine, looking deeply into his eyes. “Are you serious about this?”
“Absolutely.”
“You’re so spread thin, Dom, all the jobs and all your employees and—”
“Hush, Izzy,” he says warmly. “I don’t want to hear another word. This is a goddamn travesty. If you’re worried about the financial side, we can sue the hell out of this hospital and every bastard who was involved in this lie. But she is not staying here.”
“Thank you.” I swallow a sob. “So much. You’re a good man, Dom. You’re…”
“What?” he asks, a fierce note in his voice.
“You’re a better man than your father.”
He clears his throat, clearly touched. “We should get the doctor in here to discuss your grandmother’s transition to home care.”
“You’re my lucky charm, Dominic,” Grandma says, as we sit around her bed. “Before you, it was the end for me. But now, I’ve got a chance.”
“I think Doctor Shah should get the credit, ma’am,” Dom says with a warm smile. “But I’m over the moon you’re doing better.”
“How could they make such a mistake?” Grandma asks. “They signed my whole life away!”
“It was Aaron,” I tell her.
She frowns. “Aaron wanted me to think I was sicker than I am? Is that what you’re saying?”
I’m done sugarcoating, done protecting my deranged uncle. “Absolutely,” I tell her. “He wanted leverage on me, to blackmail me into getting secrets about Dom’s business. When you got ill, I guess he saw his chance and seized it. I should’ve known it was suspicious when he wanted to be so involved. But even for him… this is sick.”
Grandma slumps back on her pillows, sighing. “That sick, sick boy,” she whispers. “Where did it go wrong for him?”
“It hasn’t gone wrong for him, Grandma. He’s been selling drugs and using people and hurting them, all without a care in the world. He’s been having a grand old time. But not anymore.”
“No?” Grandma says.
I look at Dom for a long moment, then at the woman I love most in this world. “I’ve got information about people dealing drugs and worse on properties he owns, and now there’s this stuff with the doctors. I’m going to pass what I have onto the police. And…” I take a breath, knowing this might annoy both of them. “I’m going public. About all of this. He doesn’t deserve to get away with it. If there’s one thing Uncle Aaron cares about, it’s his image. I’m going to take that from him.”
For a beat, Grandma looks terrified. But then I see the old Maggie come into her face, fierce and unafraid and ready to do what it takes.
“He was going to let me die,” Grandma murmurs. “Without the proper care, I could have, right?”
“Yes, Grandma,” I whisper.
She sits up straighter. “Then show him no mercy, Isabella. Don’t give him an inch.”
“I just need to figure out who to call, how to get the word out there.”
“No, you don’t,” Dom says.
“Huh?”
“I’m the founder and CEO of a company that spans the entire nation. I’ve been on more magazine covers than I care to think about. For better or worse, I’m a celebrity. We’ll do this together.”
I’m so touched, I don’t know what to say at first.
“Thank him, Izzy,” Grandma says, smiling.
“Thank you,” I say. “I mean it.”
“We’ll go public with everything,” Dom says. “Even how that twisted fu-freak Sebastian tried to use my father’s sins against me, as if it were my fault.”
“It’s a new start,” I murmur, gently rubbing Grandma’s hand. “We can put it all behind us. The ALS. The blackmail. The… betrayal. The stuff with your dad, Dom. We can get it out, let the sunlight burn off the poison, and start afresh.”
He smiles at me, nodding. “He tried to turn us against each other. To ruin us. Now, we’ll show him how fucked he is when we work together.” Dom winces. “I’m sorry, Maggie.”
Grandma shakes her head, a feisty grin spreading across her face. “Sorry? I agree. He is fucked.”
We laugh together, a release all of us desperately need.
CHAPTER 24
DOMINIC
Isit in the back of the limo opposite my woman. She’s dressed in an elegant dark dress, her hair styled expertly around her shoulders. She’s got dark eye makeup around her eyes, giving her a dangerous look. It’s been a day since the revelation at the hospital: a day of activity.