“She thought it because I told her,” Alice said, feeling cornered.
She watched his expression go blank.
“It’s not too bad, Dylan. There’s just a muffled quality on that side. My other ear is fine. And it might remit over time,” she reasoned.
Dylan nodded. Alice knew what he was thinking. It was yet another thing he’d feel guilty for. She struggled for something to say. The aide started to wheel her out of the room without waiting for Alice’s okay. Her inability to even move of her own volition only amplified her sense of helplessness.
“Stop,” Dylan barked from behind her.
The aide abruptly halted. Dylan stalked around her chair, giving the aide a pointed glare. He looked down at Alice.
“I love you,” he said gruffly. He leaned down and kissed her mouth.
“I love you, too,” she whispered.
AFTER her testing, both Maggie and Dylan were waiting for her in her room. She ate her lunch in their company, and then was drifting off to sleep to the sound of their muffled, murmured conversation, when the doctor came to talk about the hearing exam.
Alice had mild to moderate hearing loss in her left ear. She wasn’t shocked. That’s pretty much exactly how she would have described it. Dylan asked the doctor several questions. Dr. Sheldrake explained that they’d need to do more diagnostic testing on the ear on an outpatient basis to know whether or not the damage was permanent. She’d be referring Alice to a specialist.
“Now for the good news. The rest of your tests came back clear, so we’ll be discharging you tomorrow. You’re going home,” Dr. Sheldrake said with a smile.
“Hallelujah,” Dylan muttered.
“Amen,” Maggie seconded.
Alice could only manage a shaky smile. She didn’t know where “home” was.
TWENTY-THREE
That afternoon when she woke up from her nap, Dylan wasn’t in the room. A nurse poked her head in the door and said that the doctor wanted her to do a supervised walk. She’d been up from bed to use the bathroom, but this would be a much longer walk, back and forth down the hospital corridor.
“Got to get you back in shape for your marching orders tomorrow,” the nurse joked.
Alice was mortified by how stiff, weak, and painful her muscles were. She felt like every inch of her body had been beaten. Fortunately, her joints started to loosen with the movement.
When she reached the waiting room, Alice immediately noticed Dylan. He sat next to Sidney Gates. She paused. She nearly called out to them. Something stilled her tongue. Dylan sat with his back to her, his head lowered, his broad shoulders stiff. For some reason, his pose called to mind solitude, despite the fact that Sidney was right there. Sidney’s face was turned partially in profile. He was talking quickly and soberly. Alice thought he was trying to convince Dylan of something. Whether it was her damn hearing loss, or there was just too much bustle around the nurses’ station, Alice couldn’t quite make out what Sidney was saying so emphatically. She suspected one thing, though.
Dylan wasn’t buying it.
Suddenly, she made out one of Sidney’s words: Guilt.
A sharp pain went through her that had nothing to do with the physical.
“Are you all right?” the nurse asked.
Alice nodded. “I’m just a little tired,” she said, turning to head back to her room.
“I’VE contacted Durand’s VP of legal, Charlie Towsen,” Dylan told Alice later that evening after she’d finished her dinner. “He’s going to be calling up at the castle tomorrow to schedule a meeting with you in regard to the trust. I want you to have someone in your corner who can work with you and answer all your questions. Charlie knows that document backward and forward.”
“I thought we weren’t going to be worrying about that until I got the genetic testing results,” Alice said uneasily.
“That was before all of this stuff happened with Kehoe. Kehoe was a member of our board. His arrest and some of the circumstances behind it have gone public. Even though we’ve managed to keep your name out of the papers so far, it’s just a matter of time before that breaks, as well. I’ve had to communicate some of the basic details of what’s happened to the other members of the board. I’m not the only one who has been bothered by reporters. We had to make a unified front. There’s no saying what Kehoe is going to reveal or claim when he’s charged. Kehoe runs a large international department at Durand. We needed to inform some of the people directly under him of some basic facts as well, so they aren’t totally unprepared when this story explodes.”
“So . . . this man, Charlie Towsen, and several other people at Durand Enterprises . . . you told them you think I’m Addie Durand?” she asked with shaky incredulity.
“You think you’re Addie Durand. It’s not a horrible truth. It’s an amazing one. Don’t let what Kehoe’s done take that away from you.”
“I don’t know if I’m Alan Durand’s daughter, and it was his company, not Lynn’s,” she said sharply. The news that other people knew something she’d been hiding for weeks left her feeling vulnerable. She was irritated at Dylan for initiating her exposure without her permission. Panicked.