Page 103 of Scorned Beauty

“As if rehab wasn’t prison.”

“And it left you with abandonment and trust issues.”

And being called trash.

“Now, you have good friends who care for you…Bianca and Sera…” She smiled. “I met them. And I met their cousin Dom at Billy’s funeral.” Her smile turned sly. “I knew that man wasn’t just a sympathetic bystander. Bianca told me he adopted Ginger.” Harriet stroked the cat’s fur and Ginger erupted into a purr box.

“No adoption happened,” I retorted. “She’s stillourcat, Harriet.”

Huh. That jab of emotion, even if it was of irritation, was a welcome sensation. I reluctantly attributed it to Dom. Earlier this morning, the same feeling rattled me when a beautiful arrangement of dark purple dahlias arrived. With it was a note:

These flowers reminded me of you.

Resilience and elegance.

I hope one day you realize you were meant to stand out in a crowd and not hide from it.

D

Elegance…I scoffed. What? Did he see a dahlia and then google its significance? Or did he have one of his minions come up with the type of flower to send me?

I hadn’t seen him in three days, and I refused to think that was why I was annoyed at him. Bianca and Sera informed me he never, not once, brought a hookup or a date to the penthouse. It was his sacred place he reserved for family. And now I kickedhim out of living there. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. Relief? Pressure? Pleasure?

Before I could overthink and give myself a migraine, Miss Sheila, the facility administrator, poked her head in the room. “Sloane, you gotta minute?”

I glanced at Harriet. “You okay with Ginger?”

She waved me off. “Go, we ladies are fine.”

I followed the administrator to the office and was shocked when I saw Sera and Bianca there.

“What’s the meaning of this?”

“Don’t be mad.” Sera stood.

“What’s going on?” I almost backed away from the room with the feeling that I was about to get flattened by a bulldozer. Of course, my suspicious mind went to Dom.

Miss Shiela rounded her desk and sat behind it. She pushed a folder across it. I recognized it as my Capstone proposal. “I told you they were great ideas, Sloane, and they were doable if the board would approve it.”

“They rejected it. What changed?”

Sera handed me another folder. “Bowman Inc. has acquired controlling shares of the Delphine group. We’re impressed with your proposal to improve resident care and staff training with the focus on specialized assistance for seniors. We have resources to upgrade the computer system and improve response times for emergencies.”

Sera’s specialty was in business process re-engineering, and I’d heard Bowman Inc. mentioned before. I wasn’t sure what kind of company it was. The last thing I wanted was for the nursing home to be used for money laundering. My duality about being a nurse and serving the mob came crashing back.

I wanted to break free from them, not get further involved.

“I’ll have to think about this.” I held up Sera’s proposal. “Is this my copy?”

“Yes.”

“Then, excuse me, I need to get back to Harriet.”

Sera and Bianca didn’t follow me to Harriet’s room, but they were waiting for me outside the Delphine building.

I was glad they took the hint that there were questions I wanted to ask without putting them at a disadvantage by exposing the inner workings of the mafia.

“Coffee? Jabbin’ Java?” Bianca asked.