Her Secret, His Duty

When she’d lost her husband she had spiraled into a depression so deep nobody seemed to be able to pull her out. Trey knew one of the most difficult decisions his mother had made was to move her own mother here instead of keeping her living at the estate. But Eunice needed more than what Kate and the family could provide.

After several months of residency Eunice had appeared to rally from her depression. She seemed quite content where she was, in a small apartmentlike set of rooms with an aid who stayed with her twenty-four hours a day.

He nodded to the security guard on duty outside the front door and entered into a small lobby with a couple of elegant chairs and a front desk.

“Good evening, Mr. Winston,” Amy Fedder, a middle-aged woman behind the reception desk greeted him. He was a frequent visitor and knew most of the people on staff.

“Hi, Amy.” He walked to the desk where there was a sign-in sheet and quickly signed his name and the time he’d arrived. “Have you heard how she’s doing today?”

“I know she had dinner in the dining room and earlier in the day she joined a group of women playing bingo.”

“Then it sounds like it’s been a good day for her,” he replied, a happiness filling him. He adored his grandmother. “Thanks Amy, I’ll see you on my way out.” He left the front desk and headed for the elevator, which would take him to the second floor where his grandmother’s little apartment was located. It amused him that her place was in what the nursing home called the west wing.

There were only forty residents at any given time in Brookside and almost as many staff members. The nursing home catered to the wealthy and powerful who wanted their loved ones in an upscale environment with exceptional care and security. Every member of the staff had undergone intense background and security checks before being hired and there was a front door and a back door, both with an armed security guard on duty at all times.

He got off the elevator and walked down a long hallway, passing several closed doors before he arrived at apartment 211.

He knocked and the door was answered by Serena Sue Sana, a tall beautiful African-American woman who went by the nickname of Sassy. She was of an indeterminable age, but Trey guessed her to be somewhere in her mid-sixties.

“Mr. Trey,” she greeted him, her white teeth flashing in a bright smile. “Come in.” She opened the door wider. “Ms. Eunice will be so happy to see you.” She leaned closer to him. “She’s had a good day but seems a bit agitated this evening,” she whispered.

He nodded and walked into the nice-size living room with a small kitchenette area and doors that led to the bathroom and two bedrooms, one large and one smaller.

His eighty-six-year-old grandmother was where she usually was at this time of the evening, her small frame nearly swallowed up by the comfortable light blue chair surrounding her.

Her silvery-white hair was pulled up neatly into a bun atop her head and her blue eyes lit up and a smile curved her lips at the sight of him. “I know you,” she said, her affection for him thick in her voice.

“And I know you,” Trey replied as he walked over to her and planted a kiss on her forehead.

“I’ll just go on into my room so you two can have a nice private chat,” Sassy said.

“Before you go, would you make this television be quiet?” Eunice held out the remote control to Sassy.

“I’ll take care of it,” Trey replied. He sat in the chair next to Eunice and took the remote control and hit the mute button as Sassy disappeared into the small bedroom and closed the door behind her.

“I love Sassy to death, but she likes to watch the silliest television shows,” Eunice said. “And sometimes I just like to sit and visit with my favorite grandson.”

“I’ll bet you say that to all your grandsons,” Trey said teasingly.

She giggled like a young girl. “You might be right about that.” Her blue eyes, so like Trey’s mother’s, sparkled merrily.

“I heard you played bingo this afternoon,” Trey said.

Her smile instantly transformed into a frown. “Did I...? Yes, yes I did, although I didn’t win. I never win.” She leaned closer to him. “That woman from downstairs in 108 always wins. I think the fix is in.”

Trey laughed and leaned over and covered her frail hand with his. “You don’t have to win all the time.”

Her eyes flashed and her chin jutted forward with a show of stubbornness. “Adairs always win,” she said, her voice strident as she pulled her hand back from his and instead worried the edge of the fringed shawl that was around her shoulders.

“That’s what we do,” she muttered more to herself than to him. “We win.”

“Speaking of winning, have you talked to Mom lately?”

She frowned again in thought. “She called yesterday...or maybe it was the day before.” She shook her head with obvious agitation. “I can’t remember. Sometimes I can’t remember what happened when, except I have lots of memories of when you boys were young. You three were such a handful. But sometimes my brain just gets a bit scrambled.”

“It’s okay,” Trey said gently. “I was just wondering if she told you that I’m considering a run for the Senate.”

Eunice’s eyes widened. “No, she didn’t tell me.” Her fingers threaded through the shawl fringe at a quicker pace. “She never mentioned that to me before.”

“Then I guess she didn’t tell you that we think she’s also considering a run for the White House,” Trey said.

Eunice appeared to freeze in place, the only movement being her gaze darting frantically around the room as if seeking something she’d misplaced and desperately needed to find.

“Grandma, what is it?” Trey asked.

She stood from her chair and began to pace in front of him, her back slightly bent from the osteoporosis that plagued her. “No. No. No.” The word snapped out of her louder and more frantic with each shuffled step of her feet.

Trey stood in an attempt to reach out and draw her back into her chair, but she slapped his hands away and continued to pace.

“This is bad news.... It’s terrible, terrible news.” She stopped her movement and stared at him, her eyes wide with fear. “You shouldn’t do this. She shouldn’t do this. Pandora’s box, that’s all it will be.”

“What are you talking about? Grandma, what are you afraid of?”

Her eyes filled with tears as she looked at him in horror. “Secrets and lies,” she said in a bare whisper.

Chapter 4

It has to be here, Debra thought frantically as she searched the area on top of her desk. The early morning sun drifted through the office window, letting her know it was getting later and later.

She moved file folders and papers helter-skelter, her heart pounding in her ears as she looked for the missing paperwork. It had to be here, it just had to be.

She distinctly remembered putting the guest list that Trey had given her next to her computer the night before, but it wasn’t there now.

She was already dressed to go to work and had come into the office to grab the list before leaving her place. In a panic she now fell to her hands and knees in the plush carpeting, searching on the floor, hoping that it had somehow drifted off the desk, but it wasn’t there, either.

She checked the wastebasket to make sure it hadn’t fallen into it somehow during the night. Nothing. No list magically appeared.

Half-breathless from her anxious search, she sank down at her desk chair. Think, she commanded herself. After she’d placed it on the desk the night before had she come back in here for any reason and mindlessly placed it elsewhere?

No, she was certain she hadn’t reentered the office again last night. After Trey had left she’d watched a little television and then had gone upstairs to bed. She had not come back into the office.

Was it possible she had sleepwalked and moved the list?

She couldn’t imagine such a thing. As far as she knew she’d never sleepwalked in her life. Besides, she would have had to maneuver herself not just out of her bed, but also down the stairs and into the office all the while being unconscious in sleep.

Impossible. Utterly ridiculous to even entertain such an idea, but the darned list didn’t get up and walk away on its own.

Granted, she’d been unsettled after Trey had left. Maybe she had wandered in here and taken the list someplace else in the house before she’d gone to bed.