I glance up at him and squeeze his hand. “Thank you for that.”
“You’re welcome. It’s going to be a rough couple of days. What do you two need from Jenna and me?”
“Yes,” Jenna says, “what can we do?”
“Just be here,” Christian says. “The moral support is the most important piece. I honestly don’t know what we’re walking into. We’ll go directly to the coroner’s office from the airport. They want us to identify the body.”
“Christian.” My voice is a squeak. “No one’s identified her?”
He swallows hard. “They know it’s her because she was found at home, but they need a family member to confirm.”
“Who found her?” Jenna asks.
“I’ve had a home health nurse looking in on her since her heart attack. She goes twice a week.”
I’m staring at my brother, dumbfounded.
“I didn’t know that.”
He shrugs a shoulder. “I thought it was best to hire someone to look in, make sure she was taking her meds, had groceries, that sort of thing.”
“She never mentioned it.”
“Of course, she didn’t,” Christian says with a humorless smile. “She wanted to keep painting herself as the victim, and me the bad guy. I can only imagine the things she’s told you about being alone and unable to go places.”
That’s exactly what she told me.
“It was a lie. Sandra went twice every week, and sometimes more if Mom had appointments or other things she needed.”
“I can’t believe she didn’t say anything.” I rub my hand over my eyes. I’m not wearing makeup. I cried it all off, and adding more seemed a waste of time.
“I’m sorry, darling.” Sebastian kisses my temple.
“Me, too.”
We land in L.A. and are immediately ushered into a limo and driven to the coroner’s office, where we enter through a back door.
Liam and Nick were constantly talking into their phones during the journey from the airport and are all business as they escort us into the building.
“This way, please,” the doctor says, gesturing for us to sit in a conference room at the end of a hallway. “I’m Dr. Garcia. I’m very sorry for your loss.”
Number one.
There will be hundreds of sorry for your loss platitudes coming our way.
I hate that expression.
“Thank you for coming all this way,” Dr. Garcia continues. “As you know—”
“We don’t know anything,” I interrupt. “Can you please tell us how she was found, and what happened?”
“Oh, of course. Your mother was found yesterday afternoon at around two.” He frowns and looks at his hands on the table.
“You can be frank with us,” Christian says.
“We think she was deceased for about four days before she was found,” he says at last.
“How did she die?” I ask.
“Your mother was on blood thinners after her heart attack, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Her doctor recently changed her medication, but we think she was confused. Rather than switching to the new med, she began taking them both. Which was catastrophic for her. It seems she cut herself on something and bled out rapidly. There was no way to save her, even if someone had been with her.”
“Oh, my,” Jenna says on a sigh.
“So, it was an accident?” Sebastian says.
“Yes, sir,” Dr. Garcia replies. “There was no evidence of self-harm, or of anyone else being there. It was an accident.”
I stand, pushing the chair out from under me. “I’ll identify her now.”
“No, Nina, I’ll do it,” Christian says, but I’m already shaking my head no.
“You haven’t been in the same room with her in years.”
“I was there when she had the heart attack.”
“Briefly. And I’m not saying this to make you feel guilty or to hurt you. I’m not angry at you. I just think it should be me. You don’t have to do this. She did enough to you.”
Christian stands and takes my hand. “She did enough to both of us. We’ll go together.”
I blink rapidly, not willing to let the tears fall as Dr. Garcia leads us down the hall to another room that’s empty aside from a gurney and a body covered with a sheet.
Sebastian, Jenna, and the others wait in the hallway as we go into the room and stand next to the gurney. Dr. Garcia stands across from us as he grips the sheet.
“We just need a positive identification,” he says and then peels back the linens.
I don’t know what I expected, but it isn’t this.
She looks…peaceful. Pale. Her lips are blue. Her eyes are closed, and maybe for the first time in my life, she doesn’t look angry.
“It’s her,” I say.
Christian nods in agreement and then escorts me back to the hallway. Sebastian takes my hand, and we leave out the back door, headed to the limo.
“Let’s go home,” Christian says. “My house is ready for us.”
“I need a nap,” Jenna says. “And maybe a swim in the pool.”
“What about you, Nina?”
“I need a stiff drink.”
“We can do that, too.”
Chapter Seventeen
Nina
“YOU SHOULD EAT something.”