The Phoenix's Rebirth for Revenge novel · Chapter 17 of 32

Chapter 17: What Gran Knew

I stood on the top step with my hand over my mouth.

The oak creaked as she straightened.

The gardenia drew back from the crack.

"Bed," my mother said. "Both of us. You've got the hospital gala committee at nine, and you'll look like a corpse."

Sabine said something I couldn't hear.

The light under the door went out.

Their heels went up the back stairs, one pair quick, one pair slow.

I counted to three hundred in the dark.

Then I let myself out, turned the iron key twice behind me, and left by the garden gate with my shoes in my hand.

Gran was awake when I got back to the cardiac floor.

Ambrose was in the chair, and the monitor was beeping a steady sixty-two.

They both looked at my face.

"Shut the door," Gran said.

I shut it.

I told them, quickly, what my mother had said in her own kitchen.

I didn't tell them about the gardenia.

I didn't tell them where I'd been standing the last time I smelled it.

When I finished, nobody said anything.

Ambrose had gone very still.

He stood up.

"Sit down," I said.

"She tried to kill your grandmother at lunch."

"I know. And if you go over there tonight and say it to her face, she'll cry, and call the police on you, and you'll be the man who threatened a grieving mother." I held his eyes. "It's my mother. I'm the one who says it."

← Chapter 16 · All chapters · Chapter 18 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend