Chapter 39 Unfinished Answers
Sloane
My mind was spinning from the medical charts she had just shown me.
My grandmother hadn't just faded away from old age. She had been winning. She had been getting better. And then, like a candle being blown out by a sudden draft, she was gone.
"Did anyone else know?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper. "Was anyone else with her during those days when she was feeling stronger?"
Patricia leaned back, her chair creaking.
"I don’t know, Sloane. That’s the other strange thing. Your grandmother was insistent that she didn’t want anyone else to know that she stopped improving."
I frowned. "Why would she do that?"
"I always believed it was pride," Patricia said with a sad shrug. "From my time with her, she looked like a powerful woman who hated being seen as weak, but maybe she also hated being seen as recovering if she wasn't sure it would last.
But you’re her granddaughter. You might know her better than I ever did. Maybe she was hiding it for a different reason."
"Thank you, Patricia," I said, standing up. My legs felt like lead. "For everything."
"Be careful, Sloane," she warned as I reached the door. "Medicine is supposed to be predictable. What happened to Evelyn Hartford wasn't."
I left the hospital and walked out into the cool night air.
It was late, the sky a dark, bruised purple.
I thought I should probably go straight back to the estate to dig through her office, but my brain was too tired to process any more secrets tonight.
I needed to go home. Or, at least, to the house I was currently sharing with Cade.
…
When I walked through the front door, the house was quiet, but the lights in the kitchen were still on. I dropped my keys on the side table. The sound seemed to echo through the whole ground floor.
Cade was standing by the counter, a glass of water in his hand. He looked up, his eyes sharp and scanning my face for information.
"You’re back late," he said. He didn't sound angry, just observant. "I thought the plan was for you to work from home for a while."
I walked into the kitchen and slumped into one of the chairs.
"I couldn't just sit here, Cade. I had to know."
"Know what?", he asked.
I hesitated, rubbing my face with my hands.
"I went to see Jonathan. And then I went to the hospital to find the doctor who took care of my grandmother at the end. I wanted to find out why she put you in the will. I wanted to know if there was a real connection, if she knew about Lily."
Cade set his glass down on the marble counter with a soft clack. He leaned against the island, watching me.
"And how would that help, Sloane?"
“You said it yourself, Lily noticed patterns in Hartford Hotels. And before my grandmother died, she noticed similar patterns, just like Lily before she died.
I took a deep breath before moving on. "And also…”
Cade waited for me to continue
“Also what?”, he asked, almost sounding impatient.
I sighed, looking at the grain of the wood on the table.
"Also, it helps because I think my Aunt Claire knew Lily. I saw her face when she looked at that photo. She looked like she’d seen a ghost.
She worked for my grandmother in the hotel. If my grandmother knew Lily, then maybe they were the ones trying to help her.."
I looked up at him, my heart feeling heavy in my chest.
"But if my grandmother didn't know her, and only Claire did..."
Cade didn't hesitate. He finished my sentence with the coldness of a judge.
"Then it means Claire might have had something to do with my sister’s death. And your grandmother found out."
I didn't answer. I didn't have to. The silence in the kitchen was heavy with the weight of that realization.
I had spent my whole life looking up to Aunt Claire. She was the one who taught me how to hold my head up in a boardroom. She was the one who told me that Hartfords don't cry, they compete. And now, I was sitting here admitting she might be a murderer.
"I'm sorry," I said, my voice cracking slightly. "I didn't want to just start making assumptions. I wanted to find something solid."
Cade looked at me for a long time. His expression softened just a tiny bit, but his voice stayed firm.
"So, what did you find out then?"
"The only thing I found out that you weren't even in the will at the start. Jonathan told me my grandmother never had a marriage clause. She called him suddenly, only a few weeks before she died, and asked him to add you."
Cade’s eyebrows shot up. This was new information for him, too. He didn't say anything, but I could see the wheels turning in his head.
"And that's not even the strangest part," I continued. "The doctor, Patricia, she told me that my grandmother actually got better. A few weeks before she died, she was recovering. And then, in two days, she got worse. The doctors couldn't figure out why."
Cade’s entire posture changed. He straightened up, his eyes turning dark and focused. "She got better, and then she died for no reason?"
"The doctor said it was like a got sick again overnight," I said. "But she didn't think it was the same sickness. She said it was something else that she couldn't catch in time."
Cade took a slow breath
"Do you think someone was involved, Sloane? That someone might have made her condition worse on purpose?"
I shrugged, but my shoulders felt stiff.
"That’s the only explanation that fits. She finds out something terrible, she changes her will, and then suddenly, she’s dead? It’s not a coincidence, Cade. It’s a cleanup."
The room went very cold. We were no longer talking about a will or a marriage. We were talking about a double death. One two years ago, and one just a few months ago.
Cade walked around the counter and stood in front of me. He looked down at me, and for the first time since we had been forced back together, I didn't see the angry ex-boyfriend or the cold businessman. I saw a man who was tired of carrying a secret.
"Sloane," he said, his voice low and steady. "There’s something you should know.
I looked up at him, my breath catching in my throat. This was the wall I had been hitting for years. The "why" that had broken my heart and left me wondering what I had done wrong.
"What is it?" I asked.
“Something I never told you about why I really broke up with you"