She Lost Her Name, She Took Back Her Place novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Visiting Hours

"I watched the valet," I said. "That's all."

Adrien's eyes did not leave my face.

"You watched a valet hang up a jacket and decided it mattered."

"He took it off for a reason. Old men with bad hearts keep their medicine where they can reach it. I wanted to know where it went."

It was close to the truth, and I said it in my gentlest voice.

He rubbed his forehead with the back of his wrist, his shoulders sagging.

"The ambulance is waiting," he said. "Come with me."

"Your family will want you alone."

"My family is in that dining room discussing what they will say to the press. You are the only person tonight who did something."

He walked out, and I followed him to the car.

The hospital waiting room was on the fourth floor, with plastic chairs and a vending machine humming against the wall.

We sat three chairs apart for forty minutes.

A doctor came out once and told Adrien his grandfather was stable.

The heart had not been damaged beyond what it already was, and they would keep him overnight.

"The first spray bought him time," the doctor said. "Whoever gave it, thank you."

Adrien looked at me.

I looked at my hands.

When the doctor had gone, he sat down in the chair beside mine.

His cuffs were still stained.

He had pushed his sleeves up to the elbow.

I could see the dark hair on his forearms and the tendons moving when he flexed his fingers.

I looked away from them and then looked back.

"Why did you do it?" he asked.

"Do what?"

"I told you at the door that I didn't want you there." His voice was low. "A good many people at that table would have let him choke before they spoiled the fish."

"That isn't fair to them."

"It's accurate."

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