He smiled without humor. Just melancholy. “No. I’ll call Martin to bring me back tonight. I don’t expect to be staying. I’m going because I want to talk to the doctors who examine her. Maybe this was a real and very strange heart attack. If so, then I’ll stay, and I’ll call home to let you know. But what I expect to hear is the same thing I heard the last several times. No sign of medical issues. Healthy, middle-aged woman who has no apparent reason to be in the hospital. And if that’s what I hear, I have some decisions to make.”
Her heart hurt for him.All he ever wanted was to build a relationship with the woman who birthed him. He had Vivian, but it’s hard to let go of the hopes for a second, different kind of mother. He doesn’t deserve this.All she could do was wrap her arms around him.
“I’ll take care of Gran. Keep me updated, all right?”
Strong arms wrapped around her to hold her tight. “I will. I’m sorry, Hanna. I feel like I say that a lot. But you might have saved her life tonight, and either way, I’m grateful. You don’t deserve what she keeps throwing at you.”
“Neither do you,” she murmured. “We’ll get through this. I promise. Together.”
“Together,” he echoed. She heard the wonder in his voice, the hope, and embraced him harder so he knew it for the truth.
When the ambulance crews arrived, they loaded a histrionic Darlene onto a stretcher to load into their vehicle. Gregory followed, grim and serious, storm clouds in his eyes as he watched the medical personnel fuss over his mother. Then they were gone, and Hanna had her hands full accepting praise and condolences from the guests before she ushered them politely out the door and ushered a blessed silence in.
Only in that quiet did she remember what she felt before Darlene collapsed. Still in her dress, shoes in one hand, she walked the corridors of Greenhill Hall expecting to feel the same chill.
She felt nothing. Not even when she cracked open the door to the basement to peer into the darkness below.
12
Afterwards, When We Began
Little remained of the party but refrigerated leftovers and displaced furniture. Hanna had explained the situation to a disgusted Vivian, overseen the cleanup, ensured the caterers and string ensemble had already received payment arrangements, and told the house staff to worry about setting the house to rights tomorrow. Everyone needed downtime tonight.
Then Hanna wandered the halls like a lost soul until she saw the car’s headlights hit the front window. Martin had called with the brief message that he was fetching Gregory home, and she’d tried to distract herself with a book or videos on the laptop to no avail. She couldn’t settle until she heard what happened and saw what state Gregory returned in.
Martin preceded his friend into the house. When he saw Hanna in the foyer, he gave her a wince of a smile and mouthed the words,He’s pissed.That told her quite a bit of what she wanted to know. So did the dark look on Gregory’s face as he filed into the house. Even with the storm clouds in his eyes, he still dredged up a weak smile when he saw her and crossed the floor in several long strides to wrap his arms around her.
“Jesus fucking Christ on a whole-wheat cracker,” he said with a heavy, relieved sigh. “What a bloody circus.”
She held him tight, arms snug around him and head against his chest. “Sounds like it went well.”
“For some values of ‘well’.” He set his cheek against the top of her head. “The good news is, my mother did not have a heart attack. Oddly, that’s also the bad news.”
“Because it means your mother faked a heart attack at your business party.”
“Yes.” With one last squeeze, he pulled away to look at her. “I’m so sorry you had to deal with everything after that. You have stepped up so many times tonight, and I’m in awe of how much aplomb you’ve shown while doing it. Seriously, I want to be you when I grow up.”
Laughter bubbled out of her. “I only did what you would have done if you were here. And I was glad I could help. You had enough to deal with already.”
“That, I did. Still. I never want you to think I take you for granted. I see what you do, and I’m grateful for it.” His smile held more warmth, more energy this time. “Come on. I’ll tell you what the doctors said while I get out of this stupid tuxedo. I’m surprised you still have that dress on.”
He’d undone the tie and loosened the fastens, but she couldn’t imagine the rest was comfortable. “I thought about changing. It’s a little embarrassing to admit that I didn’t want to take the dress off until I had to. It’s probably the last time I’ll get to wear it.”
“Nothing wrong with that. Embarrassing is admitting that the first time I wore a tuxedo in this house, I walked down the stairs, saying lines from ‘Pride and Prejudice’. It seemed like the thing to do at the time.” He took her hand into his. Together, they walked up the stairs towards the master suite. “Is Gran all right?”
“She’s fine. I told her what happened. She said it didn’t sound at all like a heart attack, and she’d know, since she had one. But she also said not to judge until the report from the doctors came in, because the human body is strange and everyone reacts differently.”
“We can go ahead and judge, then,” Gregory said. With his free hand, he pulled the tie off from around his neck. She wondered if he would pitch it over the banister and was disappointed when he didn’t. “The doctors in the emergency room remembered her from her prior visits. We have a reputation now.”
Hanna groaned. “Oh, no.”
“Oh, yes. They assured me their prior experiences wouldn’t bias their care. In fact, I think that and the information that two people had been unable to find her pulse ensured they treated her with additional attention. No one wants to say someone’s faking it unless they can back it up with hard data.” He nudged open the door to his suite with his foot.
“I take it they got the data.”
This time, the tie did sail, across the room and onto the darkness of the doorway that led to his giant closet. “They did. First, you should know her nurse had difficulties finding the pulse in her wrist as well. Even when my mother was awake, alert, and making an ass of herself, the nurse had a difficult time finding it. They said it could have been shock, or dehydration, or just an oddity of positioning.”
Hanna gusted out a relieved breath. “That’s comforting. I was worried I’d missed it and put her life in danger.”