“I took lots of notes at the nursing home.” Panicked, she waved her arms. Her face had shifted into at least three variations of cherry red, her palms going to her teary eyes. “He thought it was fascinating because he used to work with coma patients. After I turned in my paper, he wanted to know more.”
All right. No big. I shook my head. “Why the tears?”
“Did you see what the email said?” She put it in front of my face again. “The part about the coma? He thinks it’s medically induced, and I don’t know what that means, Knight. But that’s weird, right? You said the coma was from trauma… not that.”
But I also saw she could have been mistaken, copied her notes down wrong like he said. Maybe she thought she heard something different when speaking to my mom’s doctors. I framed her face. “I’m sure you just misheard. How many doctors and medical staff did you interview that day? I’m sure you just wrote down something wrong like your professor mentioned.”
But then she tapped around on her phone again, showing me something she definitely shouldn’t have. She had a picture of a chart in her phone, my mom’s name in the top corner.
My mouth parted. “Why do you have this?”
Her knees came up, and she cradled them. “I… I thought it would be help—”
“You’re not listening to me.” She moved off my lap, to my side and I basically put her there. I put the phone in her face. “Why do you have a picture of one of my mom’s fucking medical charts? You shouldn’t even have access to that. What the fuck, Greer?”
“I just stumbled upon it. I swear. It was just sitting there in a pocket next to your mom’s bed. Maybe one of the nurses or doctors left it there or something—”
“And so that meant you should take fucking pictures of it!” Enraged, livid as my body heat traveled a million and a half fucking degrees. “What right did you fucking have?”
“I didn’t. Fuck.” She covered her face, opening her hands. “It was out of line, but that doesn’t deny what I read. What I saw right there.” She pointed to the picture. “I didn’t copy anything down wrong, Knight. It’s all right there, facts.”
“And it’s still probably a fucking error.” I didn’t want to look at what she was showing me anymore, the lies and invasiveness…
The betrayal.
She showed her professor this, my family just a pack of freaks for her viewing pleasure. Her term paper had been about general psychology terms, not prying into my goddamn life. I got up, finished with this shit.
“Knight, please. Just listen to me!”
Hence, the reason for her tears. She obviously didn’t want to show me this, worried how I’d react, and she should have been worried.
She should fear.
I grabbed my coat, ignoring her as I left the dorm room and slammed the door. I hoped she got a good grade on her term paper.
I hoped it was all fucking worth it.
Chapter Twenty
Knight
My grandpa called the next day, asking me if I wanted to go to New York City with him for the day. He was going into town for business, and since I needed something to do besides dwell on bullshit, I took him up on the offer, readily taking the car he sent for me. I met him up at the airport, and we had a nice calm ride through the air on private charter, barely talking an
d just hanging out. That’s how things used to be way back when before school and women got in the way. It was just Gramps and me, simpler.
I wished for simpler times again as I let him go about his day. I didn’t attend his business meetings with him, of course, opting out to shop and hang out in the city. But once all that concluded for him, we ended up at the flower market. Gramps didn’t do much of his own gardening, but he liked to pick out blooms personally when he wanted them. I stayed nearby as he thumbed petals for the flower boxes at the house, giving my opinion when asked. I wasn’t really into all that shit, but did enjoy just being near him, near family. Some things were obviously put into perspective recently.
My fingers thumbed my phone screen, distracted a little when he asked me my opinion this time. I pointed at one bunch in his hand. “Red looks good.”
My grandpa merely chuckled in response, knowing I didn’t know anything about this shit. Even still, he asked and I appreciated that. His house was my house too, always would be. He pinched a bud. “I’ll make a note, son. I’m thinking we need more in the gardens too.”
I headed over to look at what he wanted for that, more reds, pinks, and even some teals. He had his assistant Joshua with him so anytime he liked something or stopped to look, Joshua made a note. I supposed I’d have a Joshua one day, why I was getting my business degree to take over things one day. My family’s presence was very prominent in my small town. We owned many business just like the Prinzes, my boy Royal’s family.
When I missed another cue for my opinion about the flowers, my grandpa turned, smiling at me. “You’ve been distracted, yes?”
I had, but also had too much pride to agree. I shrugged. “Nothing to be concerned about.”
“Is it school?” He waved a hand for Joshua to do what he wished, and the guy nodded like the manservant he was, leaving us before ducking behind a set of bushes out of sight. Having people around to serve me and my family was just something that came along with the territory of my life, used to it since I always had been around it. Grandfather frowned. “You haven’t mentioned anything.”