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Clare grabbed a chicken salad sandwich and a cup of soup from a drive-through. By the time she was done, she’d decided to talk her way into Mrs. Mares’ room and ask her questions. The cops weren’t planning on doing that until the morning, after she’d had time to rest. If Clare could get in there tonight and get information, Vanguard’s night shift could work while everyone rested, they’d all be one step closer to ending this.
Was that what she wanted?
Gage would probably cut her loose as soon as the case was done. If he hadn’t already. Things weren’t exactly polite between them, not even for the sake of being professional and cordial. Too much water under that bridge. Bitter water that seemed to want to choke both of them.
She swung by to see Selena on her way to Mrs. Mares’ room. Her friend sat beside his bed, reading a magazine.
Clare knocked on the open door. “Hey.”
Selena looked up from the open magazine in her lap. She whimpered, tossed the magazine on the chair, and came over. Arms open.
Clare gave her a hug. “How is it going?”
Selena dragged Clare back to the chair and paced while Clare sat. “They think they can reverse what the doctor gave him. That he might wake up soon, maybe tomorrow.” She waved her hands up and down. “It’s just… I don’t…”
“You were gonna break up with him.”
“And now he’s been shot!” Selena gasped. “How am I supposed to pretend like everything’s fine, and then I’ve got to wait until he’s better so I can break it off? Or I just leave him here alone and he wakes up to no one, with no clue what happened.”
Clare knew so many people who had married and stayed with their significant other for years that she’d forgotten breakups were a part of life. Some were amicable, some less so. Hopefully the effects were limited—two people who realized before they were married that it wasn’t going to work, like Selena with Alex. Gage had walked away when she’d been pregnant, and his departure devastated her.
“If you feel that way…” Letitia stepped into the room. “Then I’d advise you leave now. When Alex wakes up, he’s going to have plenty to occupy him with the pending charges and fighting his case. He’ll need all his strength to get through the court case. You being here will only confuse things.”
“Mom.” Clare stood.
“No, she’s probably right.” Selena sighed.
Her mother hadn’t had a long-term relationship in her life, as far as Clare knew. Maybe she’d had a boyfriend for a few months, but she’d never been married. She worked probably ninety hours a week, and she was excellent at what she did. The trade-off might be a dry personal life, but maybe that was what she wanted out of her life.
“She isn’t.” Clare knew for sure, even if her life looked a lot like her mother’s.
“I’d think you might understand.” Letitia shrugged and set her purse on the counter by the tiny sink. “Being a business owner. Why get caught up in emotional turmoil when there’s work to be done?”
“What did you say to Gage that made him walk away?” He’d said she offered him money to break it off—whether he thought she was behind it, or her mother.
Letitia lifted her chin.
Selena glanced between them.
Clare put her hand on the younger woman’s arm and shook her head. To her mother, she said, “Maybe we should step out into the hallway so we can talk about this.” There was an unconscious man lying in hospital bed in the room, after all.
“Why? Gage wasn’t the kind of male you deserved in your life.”
I was pregnant with his baby.“He was in my life anyway. Part of it.”
“All that worked out for the best, though.”
“Because I lost the baby?”
Selena gasped.
Clare said, “What did you offer him, Mom? What did you give him to walk away?”
“More than enough.” Her mother’s face had a guarded expression.
Clare’s stomach flipped over. The meal had helped, but now it sat there in her midsection and decided to sour. She swallowed. “You gave him money to leave?”
He’d walked away, shaking his head. Wanted nothing to do with her now that he’d thought over what happened.
