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CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

GARRET

After Jade leaves for class, I check my phone for any updates about my grandfather. I don’t have any messages from my dad or anyone else in my family. But what William said had to be true. He wouldn’t lie about something like that, which means my grandfather must be getting better. What if he comes out of the coma? Shit. This is bad. But even if he wakes up, he still has to recover from the stroke. That could take months, or maybe even years.

I’m too on edge to go to class so I skip it and go home. As soon as I’m there, I turn on the TV. There isn’t a single story about my grandfather. No updates. No news that he’s getting better. Nothing.

I fire up my laptop to see if there’s anything online. I go to click on the Internet icon but notice something strange on my screen. An icon I don’t recognize. I wonder if I accidentally clicked on an ad and it downloaded something to my computer. The icon looks like a dial with numbers on it. I’m not sure if I should click on it because it could be a virus. But my curiosity wins out and I click on it.

A series of numbers pop up on my screen, each one in their own little box. The last one keeps changing, scrolling really fast. Then I notice the second to last number has now changed.

An icy chill courses through me as I realize what this is. It’s a timer. A countdown to the end of the year.

“Fuck!” I drop my laptop on the couch and back away, like it’s possessed. The numbers keep scrolling, the seconds rolling by, the minutes right next to it. And then the hours and the days. I quickly calculate it in my head to make sure this really is what I think it is. And it is. Based on today’s date and the current time, the numbers on the timer are set to count down to the end of the year.

I pick up my laptop and click on the icon to shut the timer down. The numbers go away, but in their place are the words, Time’s running out. And then the program closes and I’m left with the icon again.

How the hell did that timer get there? Did my grandfather do that? Is he awake now? I get my phone out and call my dad. His voicemail picks up and I leave another message. Why isn’t he calling me back?

I need to know my grandfather’s condition. I need to know if he’s still in a coma. William said he was, but that’s just what my grandmother told him. Maybe she lied. Maybe my grandfather’s out of the coma but she doesn’t want anyone knowing until she makes an announcement to the press. And maybe my dad knows, but has been lying to me so I don’t worry. Maybe that’s why he won’t answer my calls.

I call my grandmother for the millionth time this week. And like all the other times I’ve called, she doesn’t answer. What the hell? I need someone in my damn family to pick up the phone.

I try to think of who else to call. Who else would know the truth about my grandfather? Katherine. I hate her, and she’s the last person I want to talk to, but she’s my only option right now.

She picks up on the second ring. As usual, she skips any kind of greeting. “Your father isn’t home. And Lilly is at school.”

“I called to talk to you.”

“Is that so?” I can almost see the smirk I know she’s making. “And what would you like to talk about?”

“My grandfather. Do you know how he’s doing?”

“Yes. In fact, I just got off the phone with Eleanor.”

“And? What did she say?”

“She said Holton was up and reading the Financial Times. He still has no appetite but—”

“Wait. When did he get out of the coma?”

She sighs. “Why aren’t you asking your father these questions? I don’t have time for this.”

“Dad’s busy. I keep getting his voicemail. Just tell me when he got out of the coma.”

“Yesterday. He gradually became more alert and by this morning, he’d improved even more.”

“How is that possible? Everyone said he was dying.”

“He’s getting the best treatment in the world. And he’s a very important man. They’re not just going to let him die.” I hear her heels clicking as she walks. “I have other commitments to attend to. I’ll tell your father you called.”

She hangs up.

I feel like I might throw up. My grandfather’s out of the coma. So why wasn’t it on the news? Why didn’t my grandmother tell the press? Do the doctors think he’ll have a relapse? Why hasn’t anyone called me? I should’ve been told as soon as he woke up.

My phone rings. It’s still in my hand and I answer without looking. “Hello.”

“Hello, Garret.”

When I hear his voice, my heart shuts down. I stop breathing. And wait to see if it’s really him.

“It’s your grandfather. I wanted to let you know I’m doing well and am expected to make a full recovery.”

I force myself to breathe again. I don’t want my voice to be shaky. I need to sound strong. Let him know I’m not afraid of him.

I clear my throat. “How are you feeling?”

“My appetite isn’t quite back to normal and I’m still a little tired, but other than that, I feel fine.”

As he’s talking, I realize his speech isn’t slurred or impaired in any way. That doesn’t make sense. If he had a stroke, he wouldn’t sound like this.

“You didn’t have a stroke.” I blurt it out.

“No. Apparently I was drugged. The toxins in my system caused the coma.”

“But the news said…” My voice trails off.

He chuckles a little. “Garret, please don’t tell me you’re that naive. After everything you’ve seen and heard over the years, you can’t possibly tell me you still believe the stories you hear on the news.”

I ignore his insults. “Who drugged you?”

“I can’t say for sure. It could’ve been any number of people. I have no shortage of enemies. But when I find out who did this, it will be the end for them. I might even take care of them myself.”

He says it like it would be fun. Like he’s looking forward to it.

“Garret, have you made a decision yet?”

“There IS no decision. You’re not doing this. The plan is off.”

Shit. I shouldn’t have said that. He has to be in control and I just told him he’s not. He’ll take that as a challenge. Shit!

“You know, Garret, when you’re faced with death, as I was earlier in the week, you realize that time is precious. Hours. Minutes. Seconds. They pass by so quickly and then they’re gone. It’s a shame to see them wasted. Wouldn’t you agree?”

“What are you getting at?”

“Your life, Garret. Your future. It needs to begin now. Today. Giving you this month to decide just seems wasteful. Think of all you could accomplish in that time.”

My heart’s beating again, going so fast I’m having trouble breathing. “You gave me a month. You’re not taking it back.”

“Things have changed. And after further consideration, I—”

“No! This is YOUR game! And those were YOUR fucking rules! You’re not changing them now.”

The only sound I hear is my heart thumping in my eardrums.

He’s silent. And then, “Fine. The rules remain. Goodbye, Garret.”

He hangs up and I toss the phone aside. I remain on the couch, my hands over my face, rubbing my forehead. My head is pounding, probably because I wasn’t breathing for most of that conversation.

I sit up and notice my laptop next to me. I wake it up and click on that icon again to make sure the timer is still running. It is. It’s still counting down to the end of the year.

How the hell did that get on my computer? He must’ve hacked into it. But how? He’s in a hospital bed. He just got out of a coma. How did he have time to get this done?

Someone’s helping him. There’s no other way he could do it. And if someone’s working with him, they could be anywhere right now. They could be in this town. They could be on campus. Watching Jade. Following her. Fuck!

I grab my keys and sprint to the door. When I open it, I almost run the mailman down. He’s standing at the door, the mail in his hand.

He holds it out to me. “I was just putting it in the box, but if you’d like to take it.”

I grab the mail. “Yeah, thanks.”

I toss it in the house and as I go to close the door, I spot a large white envelope with the Yale seal. I step inside and pick up the envelope and rip it open. It’s an official acceptance letter along with registration instructions.

“Shit!” I toss it on the floor and race out to my car. When I get to campus, I go to Jade’s classroom and peer through the glass panel in the door to make sure she’s there. She doesn’t see me but some other girl does and rolls her eyes. What the hell’s her problem?

I wait outside the classroom on a bench in the hall. I call my dad again. This time, he actually answers.

“Hello, Garret. Katherine said you called.”

“Yeah, and she told me the truth about Grandfather. Why the hell would you lie to me about that?” I hear how loud I am and lower my voice. “I needed to know! I need to protect her!”

“I wasn’t lying to you. I just haven’t had a chance to call and tell you.”

“And you knew he didn’t have a stroke?”

“Yes. But that can’t be public knowledge. Very few people know what really happened.”

“Do you know who did it?”

He clears his throat. “No. But your grandfather has numerous enemies who would be happy to see him gone.”

“What am I going to do? He called me just now and—”

“My father called you?”

“Yes.”

“I’m surprised he’d call you. He hasn’t even called me yet.”

“He called to tell me the plan is still on. He tried to move up the timeline but I wouldn’t let him. Dad, there’s a countdown timer on my laptop. Who would’ve done that? You think he’s working with someone?”

“I don’t know but I’ll find out.”

“Until you know, what should I do? I’m waiting outside Jade’s classroom right now because I don’t want to leave her alone. I don’t trust that she’s safe.”

“If my father set the rules, he’ll abide by them. She won’t be harmed.”

“Maybe not now, but she could be in a few weeks. The end of the year isn’t that far away. I need to stop him.”

“Just stay out of it. I told you I’d take care of it and I will.”

“I’m not going to just sit here and do nothing!”

“You need to calm down or Jade’s going to figure out what’s going on.”

“She already knows.”

“I told you not to tell her.”

“I didn’t have a choice. Carson was—”

“Garret, I can’t talk right now. I’m meeting with some people and they just walked in. We’ll talk later.”

He hangs up just as Jade’s class dismisses.

She spots me as she walks out. “What are you doing here?”

“I’ll tell you when we get to the car.” I take her backpack and hold her hand and walk her out of the building.

“What’s going on, Garret? Is this about your grandfather?”

“Yes.”

She sees the serious look on my face and knows I’m not here to give her good news. We don’t speak until we reach our cars. I parked right in front of her.

I unlock her car and open her door for her. “You go first and I’ll follow you.”

“Wait. You said you’d tell me what’s going on when we got to the car.”

“Let’s just go home. I’ll tell you there.”

We drive home and go inside and the first thing she sees is the letter from Yale, which is still on the floor.

She picks it up. “Is this an acceptance letter?”

I take it from her, tossing it back on the floor as I lead her to the couch. We sit down and I tell her what happened while she was at class; my talk with Katherine, then my grandfather, then my dad.

Jade’s trying to be strong, but she looks terrified, her arms crossed tightly over her middle, her foot nervously tapping the floor. “So what does this mean? We just wait for your dad to do something?”

I shake my head. “No. I’m going out there. I’m going to go see my grandfather.”

“What good’s that going to do?”

“I don’t know, but I can’t sit here and do nothing. Maybe we can work something out. Maybe I’ll just agree to take over the company.”

“Garret, no. You’d hate that. That’s not what you want to do with your life.”

“It doesn’t matter. I have no life if you’re not in it. So if taking over the company means he’ll leave you alone, I’ll do it. I’ll even go to Yale. Maybe you could go back to Moorhurst. We could get an apartment in between. It wouldn’t be that bad of a commute.”

“Are you seriously considering this?”

“I don’t have any other alternative.”

“But he wants you back in the organization.”

“Maybe if I do this other stuff, he won’t push me to be a member.”

“So am I going with you?”

“I don’t want you that close to him. I like the idea of keeping you thousands of miles away. But I also don’t feel good about leaving you here alone.” I stop to think of how to keep her safe while I’m gone. “Maybe William could help. He has really good security. Maybe he could loan us one of his security guards to watch the house.”

“Why wouldn’t you just ask your dad?”

“Because I’m not going to tell my dad I’m going out there. I’m going to try to talk to my grandfather alone first. If I can’t get him to change his mind, I’ll get my dad involved. But I can’t tell I’m going. He doesn’t want me there. He told me to stay out of it. If he finds out what I’m doing, he’ll try to stop me.”

“I don’t like this, Garret. I don’t think you should go out there. You should just let your dad handle this.”

“I tried that, and he didn’t do anything. And I can’t keep waiting for him. I need this to end.”

“How do you know your dad didn’t do anything?”

“What do you mean?”

“Your dad was the last person to see Holton before he went in the coma. Do you think he—”

“Jade, no. It wasn’t him.”

She nods. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I know he wouldn’t do that.”

Actually, I think he would. But when he talked about what happened to my grandfather, he didn’t sound guilty or nervous or anything. Then again, he’s good at hiding that shit.

“So when are you leaving?” Jade asks.

“I’m going to try to get a flight out today.” I take my laptop, facing it away from Jade. When the screen pops up, I pull the timer icon to the trash bin. “But first I need to see if William can get someone out here to watch the house.”

“Why do I need that? Holton’s at the clinic and he said he’d leave me alone until the end of the year.”

I was hoping I wouldn’t have to tell her about the timer and my theory about how it got there. But I have to tell her in order to explain why she needs protection and why she needs to be extra careful while I’m away and even when I get back.

No more secrets. She needs to know the truth. All of it.

“I need to show you something.” I pull the icon out of the trash and turn so that she can see my laptop screen. “I found this when I turned the laptop on earlier.” I point to the icon.

“What is it?”

“It’s a timer.” I click on it and the numbers appear. “It’s counting down to the end of the year.” I shut the timer down and the message appears, telling me time is running out.

Jade inhales sharply and covers her mouth with her hand.

I set my laptop aside and pull her into my arms. “I’m sorry, Jade. I didn’t want to show you that, but I had to because I need you to know how serious this is. I need you to protect yourself and not take any risks.”

“How did your grandfather do that? How did he get that timer on your laptop?”

“I don’t think it was him. I think he might be working with someone.”

Her shoulders fall and she lets out a heavy sigh. “You said the other members didn’t care about you anymore. You said they weren’t in on this.”

“I don’t know if it’s another member. It could be someone else. A freelancer he hired.”

“To do what? Scare me? Kill me?”

I hug her tighter. “No, Jade. That’s not what I meant. He’ll keep his word. He won’t do anything before January. But he could have someone watching you. And who knows? Maybe that person would do something to scare you. I have no idea. Which is why I need you to be extra cautious. And why we need the security guys.”

She pulls back and looks at me. “What are you going to tell William? You can’t tell him what’s really going on.”

“I’ll just tell him I’m going to visit my grandfather and don’t want to leave you here alone. He’ll understand. He knows the risks involved in families like ours. He travels a lot and I’m sure he has a security team to watch over his wife. You can never be too careful.”

I pick up my phone and call William. His voicemail answers and I leave a message. Then I take my laptop and start searching for flights.

Moments later, my phone rings. It’s William.

“Garret, I got your message. You said you needed something?”

“Yes, I need to get someone to watch the house for a few days. I have to go to Connecticut to see my grandfather and I don’t want Jade here alone. I want to hire a security guard for while I’m away. I thought maybe you could give me a recommendation.”

“I’ll do better than that. I have several security personnel who travel with me. They’re all excellent and I’d be happy to send a couple of them out there to watch the place while you’re away. You’ll need two so they can work in shifts.”

“That’d be great. Would it be possible for them to be here by tonight?”

“Absolutely. I’ll have them leave right away. But Garret, why are you calling me instead of your father? He, too, has an excellent security team.”

“We’re kind of having a fight,” I lie. “We’re not talking right now.”

“Oh. I’m sorry to hear that. Do you need anything else from me?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Okay, well, once I have it arranged, I’ll send you the details about the men I’m sending out there so you’ll know who to look for and when to expect them.”

“You’re sure we can trust these guys? You’ve done background checks? You know them well?”

“Yes, the men I’m sending out there have been with me for years.”

“And they’re not part of—they’re not . . .freelancers?”

“No. They’ve never worked for them. Garret, I’m glad you’re doing this. It’s smart. After we met at my mother’s house in October, I worried about the two of you. I didn’t think you were taking enough precautions, given that you’re a Kensington and have connections to—well, you know what I mean. Anyway, it’s good to know you’re being more careful now. I’ll get everything set up and be in touch later with the details.”

“Sounds good. Thanks for your help.”

“What did he say?” Jade asks as I set my phone down.

“He said he’d have two of his security guys out here by tonight. I want to meet them before I go so I’ll plan to leave in the morning.” I take my laptop and search for flights. “There’s a 6 a.m. flight. I’ll take that one.”

“Why do I need two guys? Isn’t one enough?”

I get my credit card out and buy the ticket. “We want someone watching the house 24 hours a day, so we need two so they can alternate shifts. And actually, one of them should go to class with you. Well, not go in the class, but wait outside.”

“Garret, you’re freaking me out. If Holton’s not going to do anything to me, I shouldn’t have to be escorted to class by a security guard.”

“I’d just feel better if you weren’t alone. It’s just for a couple days. I’m flying back on Sunday.”

“That’s not enough time to do anything.”

“I have tomorrow and Saturday. That’s plenty of time. All I’m doing is talking to him, seeing if we can come to some kind of agreement.”

She’s quiet. I know she’s scared, and although I don’t like scaring her, I’m not going to pretend I don’t have concerns. Because I do. And I need her to know that so she doesn’t take risks. She needs to be aware of her surroundings and never go anywhere alone.

We have dinner later, then wait for William’s security guys to show up. They arrive at eight. I invite them inside and question them for a good hour. They’re older, probably late thirties, and huge. Both of them used to be in the military. They’re very serious and call me ‘sir’ even though I’m almost 20 years younger than them. By the time we’re done talking, I feel better about having them here, although I still wish I didn’t have to do this.

I hate leaving Jade, but I feel like I don’t have a choice. I need to deal with my grandfather. In person. By myself.

And when I get there, I’m prepared to do anything to make this end.