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I closed my eyes, blocking everything out while thinking about what he’d said. Daily medication. The one thing I’d been trying to avoid. But if I thought my tapping was getting worse before, I couldn’t imagine how bad it would be once the fog in my brain cleared and I had a chance to think about the implications of everything that had happened today. I was officially in a spiral. I had to get back on track.
Tears pricked the corners of my eyes, but I refused to let them flood and fall. Instead, I opened my eyes and nodded.
“Okay.”
A timid knock sounded on the door, and I startled. For a moment, I thought it might be Jace until I remembered that he’d never lightly tap on a door.
He wouldn’t knock at all. He’d barge right in.
“Come in,” I called, now expecting Eugenia. But it was Oren.
“Greer,” he said. “May I come in?”
“Of course.”
“I’m on my way out. Just wanted to check on you and drop off those samples,” the doctor said, leaving a fat packet of strips of individually sealed tabs on my nightstand. “One pill every day.”
“I understand. Thank you, doctor.”
He smiled and nodded before leaving the room, shutting the door firmly behind him. Oren waited across the room. “Thank you for allowing me to check on you. I didn’t mean to intrude.”
“You didn’t,” I replied, readjusting my position on the bed. “I’m glad you stopped by.”
He approached, the light overhead reflecting in the shine of his expensive loafers. It struck me how much younger he was than Sterling and Eugenia. Even as an older man now, he came off as preppy, polished, and his face was exceedingly kind. I thought back to the first time I met him in front of the porch at Richmond House.
“It looks like you’re feeling better,” he said. “I just came by to check on you before heading back downtown.”
“I have a question,” I blurted out impulsively. Almost completely imperceptible at first, his face became a frozen mask. “It’s okay. Whatever the answer is, I won’t judge. But…did you know about my grandfather? That he was a pedophile?”
I thought I detected relief in his slow exhale.
What did he think I was going to ask him?
“You found out then.”
“A long time ago,” I answered.
“Yes,” he said quietly. “By the time your mother left, I knew. She told me what had happened to her. Your mother was a special person. She didn’t deserve that.”
“Why did you continue to do business with Sterling? How could you even stand the sight of him?”
“I have no excuse for not cutting ties…except to say that I had my own private reasons for wanting to stay close to your family. To make sure I understood the extent of your grandfather’s finances.”
Well, that was cryptic.
“Oren, I’ll be honest with you. I don’t know what to do. I want to finish the book, but everything’s gotten so complicated.”
“Life is complicated, Greer. Have you ever thought that maybe fate sent you back here to uncover truths? The ultimate truth? So you could make things right?”
Actually, what got me here was trespassing in my bra, but this didn’t seem like a good time to bring that up.
“Make it right how? The Historical Society isn’t going to let me publish the truth.”
“Probably not, but just forget about the book for a second. You have years to finish it, and you can write whatever nonsense they want you to write, can’t you? This is about you—your family. The book is just a means to discover what went on here. What’s going on now.”
“Now? I don’t even know how to begin. I have no idea what’s going on, and I have no idea where to start.”
Oren leaned back in his chair and looked at me thoughtfully.
