AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh, not really, but not because I don’t like them. There is something kind of…”
“Calming about them,” Lily fills in for me.
“Yes, exactly that. Thanks.”
She offers me a smile— a tight one that doesn’t quite meet her eyes and any calming effect from the paintings all but disappears.
I follow as she leads me through to a bright airy lounge looking out over the manicured lawn and garden.
“This is beautiful,” I tell her, passing a huge floor to ceiling window to a corner of the room where it’s only as we get closer I realize contains a hospital grade bed and several monitors that beep away at a steady rhythm.
“It’s my grandfather’s favorite room and is why he asked to be set up in here. Before he got sick, if he wasn’t working, the garden is where you would find him.” Lily continues forward but I stop as I take in the man lying prone in his bed with his eyes closed. “Grandfather, you have a visitor.”
“Lily…is it…” His voice breaks as he slowly peels his eyes open.
“Yes, it is. She’s right here, just like you asked,” Lily tells him, taking his hand in hers.
Turning his head a fraction toward me, he struggles to focus for a moment. Then recognition has his eyes warming.
“Kennedy, come…sit, please,” he invites, pausing to catch his breath, lifting a frail hand and pointing with a bony finger to the chair beside his bed.
I step forward, positioning the chair slightly so that it’s facing him more. “Thank you. Doctor Ed—”
“Walt, dear, just Walt now. No need for such formalities.”
“Okay. Walt.” The word feels strange on my tongue, but I go with it. “I’m not quite sure why I’m here,” I say honestly.
“How’s your mom? Such a lovely woman,” he asks, disregarding my question, and I’m not sure if it was intentional or not.
“Err…she’s doing okay, thank you.”
“Good. She must be…glad to have you home. You’ve been gone such a long time. It must have been hard for her. And…you too.”
I sense Lily close by and turn to look at her. She simply smiles, and my earlier feeling of trepidation returns.
“I used to…get coffee every morning. Seeing the love between your mom and dad…always made me smile. Now though, it’s…gone.” He continues to ramble on about my parents for the next few minutes, and while it’s great, it’s also making me extremely edgy.
“Walt,” I say, interrupting him. “This is all very lovely to hear”—I pause, softening my tone before continuing—“but what is it that you wanted to talk to me about?”
His eyes find mine; pale blue like that of the ocean near the shore. You can clearly see right through to the depths below, or in this case the truth. Whatever Walt Edwards called me here for, it wasn’t to have a friendly catch up about my parents.
“My apologies,” he says. “I get a little…carried away with my memories sometimes. Your father…was a great man, Kennedy. But like all great men…he had his faults too.” He pauses for several seconds, breathing in deeply. I can see that talking is taking it out of him, and I feel bad for snapping at him before. “Do not pity me, child. When you have heard…what I have to say, you’ll… Well, let’s just get it over with…shall we.”
I shift uneasily in my chair, trying to seem unaffected. Lily appears at my side and asks if I’d like anything to drink. I decline.
“One thing before I…continue. I really have no right…but I shall ask anyway. Please take…care of Lily. I’m the last of…the family.”
“Grandpa,” Lily admonishes. “I do not need anyone to take care of me.” Her cheeks redden, but I can see that most is from anger rather than embarrassment. She may look sweet, but I can assure you Lily Edwards has a fire inside her.
Ignoring her outburst, Walt continues, “Please, she will need…protecting.”
“I’ll do what I can,” I say, even though I have no idea how he thinks I can protect his granddaughter and from what exactly.
“Good,” he says, seeming more relaxed now. “I’m dying, as you…can probably tell. This secret I have carried with me… for all these years…has slowly been eating away at me. I don’t ask for your forgiveness…that is too much to ask…for what I did. Just get justice…for you and your dad and brother.”
The mention of my dad and Nolan has my heart pounding so fast inside my chest I can hear it in my own ears. What the hell could Doc Edwards possibly know—
“Your father was murdered, Kennedy.”
