Page 137 of Fierce-Matt

“I’m Madelyn. It’s nice to meet you and I’m glad you got here so quickly.”

“Do you know anything that happened? My father is talking to my mother now.”

“His voice is calmer. She has that effect on him. He talks about her so lovingly.”

“That’s nice,” she said. It never happened prior. She hoped her mother witnessed it now.

“We heard the yelling and I was close by and came in. I knew your brother was here. I’d asked the front desk who it was,” Madelyn said.

“Did my father or EJ say what he was trying to get my father to sign? Was it just a medical proxy so that he’d be able to get updates and information on his condition?”

She hoped it was nothing more than that but feared that wasn’t the case.

“I don’t know,” Madelyn said. “Your father got worked up and kept talking about money and that EJ wouldn’t get anything. That he never wanted the business before and wouldn’t have a shot of it now.”

She sighed. “Do you know if my father actually signed anything?”

Madelyn shook her head. “I don’t know. Your father didn’t say either.”

“Anya,” her father said.

She turned. “Yes, Dad.”

“Mom is on the way. She hung up.”

“Okay. Madelyn is here to see you,” she said.

“Who? Don’t let another woman in here before your mother arrives. She’ll get jealous. I don’t want to fight with her.”

Madelyn laughed and moved in. “Elliot. I’m hurt. We’ve been playing checkers together for days.”

“Oh, it’s you. I didn’t remember your name. You’re not a woman. You’re just a kid.”

Madelyn looked as if she was recently out of college. For someone so young, she was very mature and professional. At least with her father.

“Dad,” Anya said. “That’s mean. Say you’re sorry.”

Eliot shrugged. “She’s just like you, Anya. All she does is laugh when I beat her.”

She batted her eyes. When her father found time to play any game with her, she always lost because she didn’t take it seriously. She’d laugh over it too.

Those days she had when laughter was free and there weren’t a lot of worries were long gone.

“It’s okay,” Madelyn said. “Why don’t you put the baseball game on and see who is winning before Amber gets here?”

Her father turned his head, found the remote and did as he was instructed.

“I’ll stay until my mother gets here,” Anya said.

“If you don’t mind, I’m going to call a nurse in to assess him quickly. I’d just like to make sure his heart rate and blood pressure are okay.”

She nodded. “Thanks. I’ll step out for that. He doesn’t like me to see him getting care.”

Might as well leave before she was told to.

Anya moved down the hall to a waiting room and pulled her phone out to call Matt.

If there was one thing she’d learned in life, it was to be proactive.