Chapter 13 – Alice
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Once, when Alice was a child, her little safe have amid her mother’s screams and punishments was the huge office in the west wing of the Dawsey mansion, which always smelled of lavender disinfectant and tobacco. Now, the only place she knew she would find any comfort was a sterile, white hospital room, so absurdly equipped that it could even be called a miniature house.
However, one thing between the two places, between the past and the future, had not changed.
The man stretched out on the bed in front of her at that moment.
“Alice.” Lucas Dawsey smiled broadly as soon as he saw her, his voice damaged from years of smoking a
and the oxygen tube connected to his nose “There you are, my dear.
“It’s so good to see you, Grandpa.” she forced herself to smile instead of crying, as she sat in the armchair next to his bed “How are you? Has the cough improved? I’m sorry I missed the last visiting day, but… A lot has been going on at home lately.” Alice reached for her grandfather’s slightly trembling and wrinkled hand through the sheets, hating how he looked increasingly thin and bony “How are you feeling? Are they feeding you well? You know you can tell me, if anything happens…”
“Don’t try to divert attention from the subject that really matters, young lady.” Lucas coughed, annoyed “Even with these nurses trying to stuff me with tasteless food and supplements all the time, you know damn well there’s no way an old man like me is much better off than this.” He sighed, adjusting the breathing tube to his nose “Now, tell me how I can get out of here to go home and teach Kendra a lesson for marrying you without my consent. What? Did you think I wouldn’t know? Even though the medical staff in this place are more nosy than the old ladies in High Society?”
“L… I didn’t want you to worry, Grandpa.” Alice lamented, while all her plans to make this visit as calm as possible fell apart. “Mother… She left me no other choice.”
“That
girl… I had so much hope that, at some point, she would stop being so spoiled and selfish, after getting two daughters to raise…” Lucas gritted his teeth “If she hadn’t been able to take care of my company and my bank accounts before you turned 18… I would have made you my heir and none of that would be happening. She thinks I don’t know that she’s screwing up the company I fought my whole life to grow, but I do… And now, you’re stuck in a marriage with our poor Millie…” he lamented, his blue eyes beginning to fill with tears “Please, tell me that Massimo is not mistreating you two. Even though Tomasso was one of my best friends and I would have loved to see one of his children with one of my granddaughters, I was already reticent about marrying Amber to him after all these years when he was clearly avoiding the engagement… But now, after the accident and what happened at the Bianchi companies… My poor Alice, how could this happen to you? You deserved so much more than that ”
“It’s okay, Grandpa.” Alice held the hand he reached out to touch her face “I didn’t want to worry you by telling you this, but… The last few years with mother haven’t been easy. It’s
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Chapter 13:
horrible to say this about the woman who put me in this world, but… Even if it’s within a forced marriage, I think Millie and I will be happler away from her. Massimo may be doing this to get revenge for Amber abandoning him and my mother no longer wanting to support him 14 his father’s successor, but… Eventually, he will have to get over it, right?” She tried to smile, although that only made her grandfather look even more sad, as if he blamed himself for the whole situation.
“I’ll sort it out, Alice. I promise. Kendra may have tried to buy off all the hospital staff to keep in the dark about what’s going on outside of here, but some still have a bit of a conscience. At some point, I will be able to contact some of my friends and they will give you a good amount of money, a place to stay and security. You can believe me. There are others out there who won’t be fake and traitorous, like the ones I sent you to look for in the past and who refused to help…”
“It’s okay, Grandpa, really. Mother may have tried to destabilize me, but I will keep my legs steady, like you taught me to do.” She smiled “A Dawsey always does what’s best with what he’s given, right?”
only your mother and sister had learned this, too, maybe they wouldn’t be acting like two shrews.” Lucas sighed “And if only you hadn’t fallen prey to some Don Juan who left you pregnant, maybe now there would be a good family that could take in their daughter–in–law…
he lamented, making Alice flinch, as always happened when he mentioned that subject You’re always a girl too kind for your own good… Just like Elise… Oh, my poor Elise..”
While Alice was growing up, her aunt, Kendra’s younger sister, had always been a sensitive and almost untouchable topic for Lucas. Alice had never learned much about Elise other than the fact that she died at age 17 from heart complications and that, of his two daughters, Lucas was certainly more attached to her.
However, since he had been hospitalized and his life seemed to be slipping through his fingers every day, more and more Alice heard her grandfather mourn the loss of his daughter. Not that she couldn’t understand him. Just the idea of one day this happening to Millie, leaving her alone in that world, made Alice want to die, too.
“I asked Colson to remove all of her paintings and store them in your office safe before she fired him. When you come home, they will all be there.” Alice assured, wanting to cheer him up, although her experience as a nurse didn’t make her have many expectations that one day he would be back at the Dawsey mansion.
“The best butler our family has ever had. I hope the money I put in his account before Kendra locked me in here has provided him with the retirement he deserves.” Lucas sighed, his breathing a little arrhythmic “One day, I’ll do this for you, too. I have not worked like a mule for the past 73 years to leave my dearest granddaughter and great–granddaughter helpless in the end, just because my eldest daughter doesn’t know how to be a good mother…”
“Just worry about following what the doctors say and continuing to regain your strength day after day, okay…” Alice got up so she could adjust his pillow better, when she noticed something that made her gasp “Grandpa! Your breathing tube is not fully connected to the
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Chapter 13 Alue
cylinder!”
“Oh, that…” Lucas grunted, not at all surprised “Leave that crap as it is. It makes my nose dry and bleed. Besides, I don’t even need it anymore. I’ve been like this for a few hours and it hasn’t made any difference.”
“I bet you won’t be able to say the same thing when your emphysema decides to show that it’s still there.” Alice scolded him, now standing up completely “If it’s been hours, then the cylinder is probably already empty. I’ll look for a nurse. Stay there, okay? And don’t do anything like that again!”
“Your grandmother would be proud to see you acting like her.” He just laughed, coughing a little in the process “Well, God knows I can’t stop you. Go then. These nurses never answer my room bell anyway, unless I tell them they are dying.”
“I imagine it’s because you’re not exactly an easy patient either.” Alice snorted “Try to breathe deeply and slowly until I come back, okay? And, if your breath fails, press that bell until it breaks, so someone will come…”
“Just go, Alice.” Lucas rolled his eyes, completely unconcerned “It’s good to have you around, anyway. Even if it’s to scold me like I’m 23 and you’re 73…” he tried to sound good–natured, but a strong cough that shook his body stopped him “Well, I think at least I can rest easy here knowing that it was Massimo the one who Kendra married you to. I understand why he’s bitter Ow that he’s stuck with medicine, hospitals and a limited body like I am, I
I also trust that
kid wouldn’t be able to change that much. Tommaso raised him to be a good man.
“I know.” Alice murmured, not wanting her grandfather to be even more disappointed or agitated “Just give me a minute, then I’ll come back so we can talk more, okay?” She gave his hand one last gentle squeeze, before leaving the huge hospital room.
She knew very well that Kendra wanted to put her own father in a cheaper and less luxurious
place, but there was no way someone as important in the hospital field as Lucas could be admitted to any dubious clinic and not spark gossip about it.
And, if Alice’s mother hated anything in her life, it was being criticized.
Therefore, she had to walk through a few corridors of the hospital before finally finding the large glass–walled ward that was at the center of the meeting between the private wards of several patients. Surely there would be someone there who could solve her grandfather’s problem easily and Alice would still have at least half an hour to spend some time with him, before returning home, to prevent Massimo from discovering that she had left the mansion without his consent…
“What are you doing here?” each of those words was said with a growl, just as she was ready to approach the place where the nurses could see her.
And, even though that bad luck seemed more like a nightmare, not even when Alice closed he. eyes tightly for a moment, the sound of the wheels moving over the marble on the floor stopped. Not until she slowly opened her eyes once more. And there he was.
Massie
With an expression of pure resentment on his far, just like the night she had found him bleeding in his bed
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