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Marianne chuckles and pushes me forward. “I’m just here to get this visitor into the system, so when she comes back tomorrow, it’s an easy entrance.”
His smirk grows. “I can give you an easy entrance.” The innuendo is clear, and my cheeks heat even though his words aren’t directed at me.
“Behave, Garza,” Marianne says before looking at me. “He’s a flirty ass, but he’ll be able to get you checked in just fine.” This is directed more at the man than at me, as she casts him a warning look and then strides away.
Then he laughs and looks at me. “Alright, let’s get you checked in.”
I nod gratefully and then stand there awkwardly while he gets together a bunch of forms for me to fill out. I frown. This doesn’t seem normal. I kind of thought it would just be a matter of me giving them my ID and them adding me to the visitors’ log.
He slides a clipboard with all the forms on it under the plexiglass. “You’ll need to fill these out and bring them back to me. If you give me your ID, I can get you put into the system and run a quick background check while you do.” My brows raise and he chuckles. “We need to make sure you’re a mentally sound individual before letting you in. Can’t have you smuggling in a metal file to one of our patients.”
“Oh, right. That makes sense.” I dig in my bag and pull out my driver’s license, sliding it under the glass toward him, before curling my hand around the clipboard and turning toward the line of chairs along one wall.
I’m halfway to the closest one when he calls out. “Oh, wait! I need the name of the patient you want to see.”
I turn back and swallow before opening my lips and saying the name I haven’t said in almost ten years. “Maxim Stewart.”
Chapter 18
Garza blinks at me. His mouth falls open. Snaps shut and then open again to gasp out. “Sorry. Who did you say?”
I take a deep breath and repeat my father’s name. “Maxim Stewart.”
Garza scrambles up and around the counter. The lock on the door beeps before it opens, and he’s striding toward me. His brown eyes run over every inch of me from my messy, dirty hair all the way to my scuffed up converse. He slides his gaze back to my face, like he’s studying me, and then he shakes his head. “Holy shit, you’re one of the daughters, aren’t you? Are you the one he tried to…”
He trails off like he realizes it might not be the best thing to ask if I’m the daughter that Maxim Stewart tried to kill. But he doesn’t understand that my dad wasn’t trying to kill me, he was trying to save me. Or at least I think that’s what he was trying to do. Granted, it wasn’t the best way to show it, but still there is a distinction that I think is important.
I tip my chin up and meet his gaze. “I am.”
“Holy shit,” he says again as his gaze drops from mine, straight down to my chest, as if he’s trying to see my scars through my wrinkled t-shirt. Kohaku moves again, this time in agitation. Like he can tell where Garza’s looking and he doesn’t like it.
I hold up the clipboard so it’s in front of my breasts. “Is that a problem? Am I not going to be able to see him?”
Garza blinks and quickly pulls his gaze up to my eyes. “Oh, no, no. It shouldn’t be a problem. He’s able to have visitors, he just hasn’t had any in… well,ever. As far as I know, he’s been granted the ability to leave, but he chooses to stay here.”
The sounds of waves rushes to fill my ears, covering whatever else this man is saying to me, as my brain takes that information, turns it over and examines it. My father could leave this place if he wanted to. He could have come to find me, find Desi, but he didn’t.He didn’t. Instead, he stayed here, still under lock and key, when he could have had his freedom, his family.
Or at the very least, his daughters. I’m not sure Mom would take him back, even if he begged.
Kohaku shifts again, until I can feel his little fox head pressed between my breasts, while the rest of him coils around my back diagonally and his tail drapes over my shoulder. His version of a hug in this form.
Garza must realize he’s lost me, because he guides me over to the chair and urges me to sit down and fill out the paperwork, while he retreats behind his desk again to run my ID through their system.
I fill out the paperwork on auto pilot, only halfway reading the consent form that basically absolves the facility if I’m attacked by whoever I’m visiting, which again doesn’t seem normal, but what the hell do I know?
When I’m finished, I stand on shaky feet and return the clipboard back to Garza. He smiles at me, as I do, and then hands back my ID. “You’re all set, Rosalind. Visiting hours tomorrow are from one to five. You’ll just come the way Marianne brought you, and present your ID. Then we’ll get you in to see your father.”
The way he says ‘your father’ makes it sound like Maxin Stewart is some kind of legend here, like he has a reputation that precedes him or something. I suppose it could be because he allegedly stabbed his daughter repeatedly, but it feels like something else.
I just can’t put my finger on it.
“Thanks,” I smile. “I’ll be back tomorrow.” I’m halfway to the door before I turn back, leaning against the counter to get his attention again. “Is it okay for me to bring something with me? Not a metal file, of course, but like… donuts? Would that be something I can bring for him?”
Garza nods slowly, like he can’t figure out why I’d want to bring my father a treat. “We’ll have to run it through the metal detector, but it should be fine.”
I give him another smile and tap my hand on the counter twice. “Great, thank you.”
And then I push out into the evening air.
