Chapter Forty-Two

Owen eventually found his grandmother’s room and knocked on the open door.

“You just missed Olivia,” Soonja told him, instead of greeting him. “She just this minute left in search of coffee.”

“I came to see you, anyway.” Owen pulled up the chair beside her bed and sat down. “How are you doing?”

“Oh, I’m fine! Swimming to the eyeballs on painkillers, I’ve got this happy little button that tops me up at the slightest twinge! Isn’t private medical insurance grand?”

“Glad you’re taking it in your stride,” Owen said.

Soonja laughed. “I’m treating it as a dignified dry-run for the apparently inevitable onset of age. And you’re in a better mood than Olivia.”

“How is she doing?” Owen rubbed the back of his neck. Guilt was making him uncomfortable.

“I know that look. You haven’t talked to her at all, have you?”

“Not since Saturday night. I was meaning to, but with your fall and work…”

“Owen! That’s just so inconsiderate, to say the least.”

“I know. Has she said anything about Jude?”

“He is in surgery still. Olivia will let me know when it’s all over. By the way, that was a wonderfully thoughtful thing you did for Jude, the boxset of figures. I didn’t think you had it in you.”

“It just seemed the thing to do at the time.” Owen shrugged. “I was taking that time myself, and it was helping, then he called by unannounced, and we had that interest in common.”

“And it’s a drop in the ocean compared to his hospital bill,” Soonja added.

“...Yes.”

“Which Olivia doesn’t understand is small change to us. Your present to Jude was pennies.”

“Yes.”

Owen shifted in his chair, staring out the window. Soonja’s room had a good view, looking out over the hospital garden and the rooftops beyond to the city skyline.

“What am I supposed to do about her?” he asked as last.

“Right now or in general? Right now, nothing. Find her, be nice, keep her calm until Jude’s out of surgery. The rest is problems for the future. Today, it’s all about Jude.”

Owen nodded. “All right.”

“However…” Soonja began, “I sense that something happened between you during the conference. Am I right?”

“Well…” Owen hesitated for a moment.

“You slept with her, didn’t you?”

“Grandmother!”

Soonja waved her hand dismissively. “Oh don’t give me that look. I was never a prude, after all.”

“All I will say is that it felt great to be with her again and now I don’t know what to do.”

“It doesn’t seem like a dilemma to me, honestly. What’s bothering you?”

“Jillian.”

“What about her?” Soonja asked.

“Well, I need to clear things with her first; otherwise, Olivia will not return, you know that. But there’s something that has been nagging me since all this started.”

Soonja raised her eyebrow, urging him to elaborate.

“I don’t think Jillian is really pregnant, or if she is, I don’t think it’s mine. I have to find out, but I’m not sure how to go about it yet.”

“Confront her,” Soonja said decisively. “Make her admit the truth. And if that doesn’t work, well, obviously, we shall have to pay the bitch off. Remove her from your life so that you can be with Olivia.”

“How much?”

“It doesn’t matter.” Soonja waved one hand airily. “So long as she’s not plugged into your bank account for the rest of your life, there is no bill we cannot meet.”

Owen nodded. His grandma was right. He had to make sure Jillian would stay out of his life once and for all.

“Any other advice, while I’m in the mood?” Soonja asked.

“I had a weird encounter on the way here,” Owen admitted.

“Oh? Tell on.”

He told her about the encounter with Nolan Rickards on his way to find her room. Soonja raised an eyebrow progressively higher as the tale unfolded.

“Rickards? The scholarship boy? I remember him, oily little tick. Oddly grey little boy too, hung around the edges of your circle?”

“We rather bullied him, if I’m brutally honest.” Owen shrugged.

“Name me one child who wasn’t bullied at some point,” Soonja replied. “And then try and name three who weren’t also bullies themselves. It’s a toxic system; the one thing I regret was sending you off to that awful school.”

The admission stunned Owen as solidly as a brick to the head. He jerked rigid and sat blinking at her for several seconds.

“What? Say that again?”

“What did I say?” Soonja shifted in her bed, winced at her hip, and thumbed the painkiller button. “I’m high as a kite, you’ll have to remind me.”

“About regretting sending me to boarding school.”

“I wanted to keep you at home, but all your parents wanted was to travel and enjoy their life and, of course, not work at the company. I had no choice. I still had an empire to run after your grandfather died. That’s the plain truth of it. And I’m sorry you were unhappy so much of the time there.”

Owen shrugged again. “Means a lot to hear you say it.”

“Then think on that while we wait on the Fatemaker’s will.”

“The what?” Owen shook his head, derailed by the sudden shift into apparent nonsense.

“Oh, the big model in that kit, Jude tells me that’s its name: the Fatemaker.” Soonja smiled dreamily, fresh painkillers taking effect. “I was reminded of the paper cranes, you know, that old story.”

“Yes. But that honestly wasn’t in my head when I ordered the box.”

Soonja shrugged, swaying slightly.

“Doesn’t matter,” she said. “Go and find Olivia. I’m going to pass out now.”

Owen helped his grandma lie down and get comfortable. He leaned in and gave her a kiss on the forehead. “Get some rest, Nana. And thank you for listening. I think I know what I need to do now.”

Soonja smiled and caressed his cheek tenderly. “Go get your girl, honey.”

Owen stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him silently. He took his phone out of his pocket and dialed Olivia’s number.

“Where are you?” he asked once he heard her voice on the other side of the line.

“The café on the ground floor.”

“Wait for me there. I’ll be down in a minute.”

Owen started following the colored lines on the floor, hoping that this time they will lead him to Olivia quickly.