His Rival Fixed What He Broke novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Lake Forest

Margot and Elias reach Thaddeus before the van, she throws out the sedative, and Otto arrives at the gate and goes white at the watch.

The nurse was standing at the kitchen counter in Lake Forest with a small paper cup in her hand.

Inside the cup were two white pills and a glass of water waiting beside it.

"It's his heart medication," she said. "It's time for his four-thirty."

Margot took the cup out of her hand.

"His heart medication comes in a brown bottle," she said. "I filled his pillbox myself on Sunday."

"Mr. Whitcombe's doctor changed the prescription."

"Otto's doctor is not my grandfather's doctor."

The nurse's face went still.

Margot walked to the sink, tipped the cup over the drain, and ran the tap.

"You're done for today," she said. "Please wait in your room."

Behind her Elias Brubaker stood in the kitchen doorway with his coat still on, and he had not said a word since the car.

He had driven her himself, fast, and he had not asked a single question on the way.

Now he stepped aside to let the nurse pass.

"You'll want the study," he said to Margot. "The lights are on."

Thaddeus Ellery sat behind his desk with his cane across his knees and a legal pad in front of him.

He was seventy-four, white-haired, and wide awake.

"You're home early," he said. "And you've brought Elias Brubaker."

"Grandpa, are you all right?"

"I'm tired of being told I'm not."

He looked from her face to the watch box in her hand, then to the man in the doorway.

"Did Otto finally show his teeth?"

Margot sat down on the arm of a chair because her knees had stopped working.

"He told the board you move to Hartwell House at six," she said. "Tonight. There's a doctor's letter. A van."

"Ah," Thaddeus said.

He did not look surprised.

He looked at Elias for a long moment.

"You came yourself."

"I was in the building," Elias said.

"Of course you were."

Margot looked between the two of them.

"You know each other."

"We've had lunch," Thaddeus said. "Twice. Your husband doesn't know about either one."

Outside, tires crunched on the gravel at the far end of the drive.

Elias crossed to the window.

"Two cars and a white van," he said. "It's ten to six."

Margot stood up.

"They're early."

"They're on time," Thaddeus said. "Otto's always on time. Help me up, please."

She took his arm and he rose without the cane, and they went out through the front hall together.

The gate at the end of the drive was closed.

Otto stood on the other side of the bars in his charcoal suit, with a man in a gray overcoat beside him and two big men in dark jackets behind.

The neighbours' porch lights had come on across the street.

"Margot," Otto called, in the kind voice. "Open the gate, love. Nobody's angry. The doctor only wants to see your grandfather."

"He's not seeing anyone."

"He's confused, Margot. He's had an episode. Ask the nurse."

"I did," she said. "I poured the pills down the sink."

The man in the gray overcoat looked at Otto, and Otto's smile slipped for the first time.

"You what?"

"They were sedatives, and they weren't his."

"Those were prescribed."

"By who?"

He said nothing.

Across the street a woman stepped out onto her porch with a dog on a lead.

Otto lowered his voice.

"Open the gate, Margot, or I'll call the police and tell them my wife is being kept from her husband by a competitor."

"Do it," Elias said from beside her.

His voice was quiet.

"Call them. Tell them in front of all of Lake Forest."

Otto's eyes went to him, then to his right hand.

Elias had taken the watch out of the box.

He held it loosely at his side with the cracked glass turned out.

Otto stared at it.

The color went out of his face.

"Where did you get that?" he said.

"I bought it for you," Margot said. "Last month. Four months of looking. You'd have known that if you'd opened the box."

"Give it to me."

"No."

"Margot, give me that watch."

He had both hands on the bars of the gate now, and he was not smiling at all.

Elias didn't move.

Behind them, on the porch, Thaddeus Ellery's cane tapped twice on the stone step.

"Margot," he said.

She turned around.

Her grandfather stood in the lit doorway, small and steady, with the hall light behind his white hair.

"You signed something at your anniversary dinner last year," he said. "Between the dessert menus. Do you remember what it was?"

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