Fortune, page 8
“Oh, thank God!” Gina bursts into tears.
Ruby kisses her daughter’s forehead. “Just like you. You never cry until it’s good news.”
“I just… I couldn’t…” Gina sniffles.
“We’re all happy that he’s going to be fine.”
But there’s an edge to Ruby’s voice. An edge that perhaps only I hear.
And I get the feeling that she’s not sure everything’s going to be fine.
“Will we be taking him home?” I ask.
“Not until tomorrow,” Ruby says. “They’ve given him some medication, and they want to keep an eye on him for the night, make sure there’s nothing they missed.”
“Would they do that for just anyone?” Ava asks. “Or is it because he’s a Steel?”
Ruby sighs. “Does it really matter, Ava? Your father’s getting the best care.”
Part of me expects Ava to fight her mother, but instead she says, “That’s all I want. For him to get the best care.”
“He is. This is the best hospital in Grand Junction, and it’s one of the best in the nation. So he’s in good hands.”
“What should we do?” Gina asks. “We all came in the truck.”
“You all can go on home,” Ruby says. “Uncle Talon and Uncle Joe will come pick Dad and me up in the morning.”
“Are you sure we should go?” Gina asks.
“I’m sure. If you want, you can get a room at the Carlton, but your dad isn’t in any danger, so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be sleeping in your own beds.”
“If you’re sure,” Ava says.
“I’m sure.”
“Can we at least see Dad?” Gina asks.
Ruby bites her lip lightly. “He’s a little out of it right now. But yeah, if you’d like to see him. I’m sure he’d like to see you both. I got permission to bring you back, but only for a minute.”
Ava and Gina go with their mother back into the ER, while I stay in the waiting area.
A panic attack.
Ryan Steel had a panic attack at his anniversary party.
Ryan Steel, who’s never had a panic attack in his life.
Whatever they’re keeping from Ava has got to be the source.
And I swear to God, I will make sure it does not harm Ava in any way.
Chapter Thirteen
Ava
My handsome father is pale, and he’s wearing a green-and-white hospital gown. His eyes are closed, and an IV is attached to his left hand. Why an IV? He must be dehydrated.
Mom kisses his forehead. “Ryan, the girls want to see you.”
He opens his eyes and smiles—sort of. “Hey. How are my lovelies?”
“Scared to death,” Gina says.
“I’m so sorry.” Dad clears his throat. “I’m pretty embarrassed about the whole thing.”
“Don’t be embarrassed,” I say. “We’re just glad you’re okay.”
“I’m better than okay at the moment.” He gives a goofy grin. “They’ve pumped me full of something that’s got me feeling pretty good.”
“Good. Not that I want to see my father stoned, but…” I chuckle.
Dad’s eyes are heavy lidded, and a yawn splits his face. “I’m not sure I’ve ever been this stoned.”
Gina jumps on that. “You mean you’ve been stoned?”
“Of course not,” Mom says.
Dad just chuckles.
“Is there anything we can do for you, Dad?” I ask.
“Just let it go,” he says. “Let it all go.”
“Let what go?” Gina asks.
“Ryan, the drugs are talking.” Mom smooths Dad’s hair.
“I just don’t understand it, Ruby. Why this? Why now?” Dad furrows his brow but doesn’t go rigid. Probably the drugs. Just a second ago he wanted to let everything go.
“Ryan…”
“Whatever is bothering you, Daddy, just forget about it,” Gina says. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Right. It doesn’t matter,” I echo.
And still the tower pulses in my brain.
The tower.
The fucking tower.
“Girls, your father needs his rest,” Mom says.
“Okay.” I squeeze Dad’s right hand. “I’m so glad you’re going to be okay.”
“Me too, Daddy.” Gina kisses the top of his head.
“Let us know if you need anything, Mom,” I say.
“I will. I don’t want you girls to worry. Dad is fine, and we’ll be home tomorrow.”
“Let it go…” From Dad, his eyes now closed. “Just let it all go…”
I give my mom a quick hug, and I feel like…
I don’t know what I feel.
Like she’s holding something back in her hug, which doesn’t make sense. My mother’s a very loving mother.
Gina hugs her, and then the two of us walk back out to the waiting area where Brendan is.
“Everything okay?” he asks.
“Yeah,” Gina says.
I simply nod.
Because everything is not okay.
I’m trying to push that to the side and concentrate on what really matters, which is my father’s health. He’s not in danger.
But my strong and robust father, who has no history of panic attacks, had his first at his twenty-fifth anniversary party?
I don’t question his and my mother’s love for each other. So why would he have a panic attack at their party?
And inside I know.
It’s what Aunt Melanie told me I need to ask my parents about, and it’s what Aunt Marjorie told me to wait until after the party to bring up.
My father knows it’s coming.
And it has him panicked.
He may be stoned, but he will not let this go.
It’s after eleven by the time Brendan and I get back to town after dropping Gina off at Mom and Dad’s house and then heading back to Uncle Talon’s to turn in the truck and get both Brendan’s car and my truck.
Brendan walks me to the back door of the bakery and kisses me on the lips. “I love you. You okay?”
Apprehension races through me. “You’re not leaving, are you?”
“I didn’t want to be presumptuous.”
I brush my arms against the chill. “I need you tonight, Brendan. This is all such a mess.”
“I need to go over to the bar and just check things out. But I’ll be right back, okay?”
“All right. But I don’t want to be alone. I’ll come with you to the bar.”
He nods, and we walk the three buildings down and enter the bar through the alleyway. It’s hopping, and we get pounced on.
“Ava, how is Ryan?” comes at me from dozens of voices.
This wasn’t the best idea. I should’ve gone up, gotten into bed, and waited for Brendan. But I didn’t want to leave him. I wanted him with me. I needed his strength and his presence.
“Shit, I’m sorry,” Brendan says in my ear. He pushes a key into my hand. “Go up to my place and wait for me there. I’ll take care of all this.”
“You’re a lifesaver.” I head up to his apartment, unlock the door, and go in.
I inhale the aroma of Brendan. It’s only been a few days that he’s been living in his refurbished apartment—paid for by my family, unbeknownst to him—and already it smells like him. That aromatic mixture of warmth and spice and man.
I inhale, letting it give me some peace, and then I walk to his bed and sit down. Even though it’s late and I didn’t get much sleep last night, I can’t relax.
I rise, pace around the apartment for a few moments, until my gaze lands on his bookshelf.
Only a few books grace it—books he either was able to save after his apartment got trashed or that he bought new. A couple of bartending manuals, a couple of commercial novels, and a couple of classics.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
I haven’t read that since I was a kid, so I grab it. It falls open, revealing some folded white pages.
I open one, and my jaw drops.
It’s a quitclaim deed, transferring all Steel real property to my father, Ryan Steel. The signature at the bottom reads Bradford Steel.
My grandfather, who I never met.
My fingers lose hold of the paper, and it flutters to the ground.
I pick it up and stare at it again.
I don’t understand any of this. Why would my grandfather want to transfer all his property to only one of his children?
It doesn’t make any sense. Since my grandfather’s death, Dad, Uncle Joe, Uncle Talon, and Aunt Marj have all owned the property in equal shares.
This document would change that.
Is my father supposed to be the sole owner of all the Steel land and real property?
I’m still staring at the paper when Brendan walks in.
“Ava?”
“What the hell is this?” I shove the paper at him.
“Were you snooping?”
“Not on purpose. I thought I’d read to try to relax.”
“Fuck.” He grabs the paper from me and glances at it. “I just put those in there.”
“Those?” A couple of papers are still left in the book. I pull them out and hand them to him. “Could you explain all this, please? Is my father supposed to be the sole owner of all the Steel land?”
“No, I don’t think so. The deed has to be recorded to be valid, and this one hasn’t been.”
I take the paper from him…not gently. “But it’s dated… My God, it’s dated like fifty years ago.”
“Right. And he didn’t die until about twenty-five years ago.”
“How did everything transfer?”
“I don’t know, Ava. That’s something you have to ask your dad and your uncles. It either transferred through probate or through a different deed. Possibly through a trust benefitting your dad and his siblings.”
My pulse is rising. “Why do you even have this?”
“That’s a long story.”
“Well, I’m not going anywhere until I hear the whole thing.”
Brendan takes his hair out of his low ponytail and threads his fingers through it until he looks like a wild man. “No more secrets. We promised, right?”
“We did.”
“All right, then.” He sighs. “These are the copies of documents that I found under the floorboards of this place a couple of months ago. I told you about the lien and about the birth certificate.”
“Why were they here?”
“If I knew the answer to that question, I would gladly tell you, but I don’t.”
I walk back to his bed and sit down. “I’m so confused. There’s some connection here that we’re not seeing. Some reason why your family and mine are getting the same messages. And the tower, Brendan. The tower.”
“This doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Nothing is changing in your life.”
“But this all has to do with my family.” I gulp back tears. “My family is my foundation. My rock. How can you say that nothing is changing?”
“I can say it because you, Ava Steel, are who you are.” He firmly places his hands on my shoulders. “That will never change. And we don’t even know what these documents mean.”
My heart is racing, and my breath, I…
“Brendan, I…”
He releases my shoulders, sits next to me, takes me in his arms. “Relax, baby. It’s just panic. Just like what happened to your father.”
He’s right. I’m twenty-four years old and in excellent health. I’m way too young to be having a heart attack. Still, the squeezing in my chest, the shortness of breath…
I try.
I try to hold on.
I try…
But…darkness falls before my eyes.
Chapter Fourteen
Brendan
“Ava?” I kiss the top of her head.
She doesn’t respond.
“Ava? Ava, are you all right?”
Her eyes open. “Brendan… Please…”
“Baby, tell me what it is. What do you need? What can I do for you?”
“Don’t… Feel… Good…”
I don’t think. I only react. I scoop her into my arms, head down the back way, managing to dodge the bar patrons, and put her into my car.
Then I race back to the hospital.
As I drive through the night roads, I keep one eye on Ava. Her eyes open and close, but she does not react.
When we come screaming into the emergency room parking lot, I take her hand, but when she doesn’t move, I scoop her into my arms again and carry her in.
“Sir?” the receptionist says. “Weren’t you just here? Is she all right?”
“I don’t know. She seems to be responsive. Sometimes.”
“All right. Let’s get her back.”
A nurse comes out with a wheelchair.
I place Ava in the chair. “You okay, baby?”
Her eyes are glassy, and she doesn’t reply.
“Fix this,” I say to the nurse. “You’ve got to fix this.”
“Are you her husband?”
I shake my head.
“Then we’ll need to call her next of kin.”
“Her next of kin is… He’s already here. Ryan Steel.”
“This is Ryan Steel’s daughter?”
“Yes. Ava Steel.”
Things go better after that. She’s whisked back to the ER, and I follow her.
No one says a word to me. Just as well, as I’m liable to pummel anyone who tries to keep me from Ava.
Several orderlies help get her onto an exam table, and then she turns her head and looks at me.
Thank God.
“Brendan?” she ekes out.
“Everything’s okay, baby. You’re at the hospital. We’re going to take care of you.”
“I’m all right.”
“Ava, you’re not all right. You weren’t responsive for over half an hour.”
“I just didn’t know how to respond, Brendan. I was afraid. My heart was beating so fast. For a moment, I couldn’t get my breath, so the only thing I was able to do was turn my mind off.”
I kiss her forehead. “Whatever you had to do doesn’t matter. We’re at the hospital now, and we’re going to figure out what’s going on.”
She closes her eyes. “I think I just…panicked.”
“Like your father did?”
“Yes. My chest hurt so bad, my breath got shallow. And I was so scared, so I closed my eyes… I just wanted to escape into oblivion. For a moment, I think I did.”
“Did you lose consciousness?”
“I don’t know.” She closes her eyes for a few seconds and then reopens them. “I don’t know, Brendan. Just…stay with me. Okay?”
“I will never leave your side.”
A technician comes in with a machine. “I’m going to do an EKG,” he says. “You need to remove your shirt.” Then he glances at me.
“I’ve seen it before,” I say dryly.
I help Ava get out of her shirt, and the technician puts the magnetic pads on her chest and stomach. Then the EKG starts.
“How does it look?” I ask him.
“The doctor will discuss the results with you.” He prints out a portion of Ava’s EKG, and then he unhooks her.
“That’s it?” I say.
“Yeah. Getting prepped for an EKG takes longer than the test itself.”
I have no idea what the lines on the EKG mean, but the technician didn’t look alarmed. Of course they’re probably trained not to look alarmed.
Next, another tech comes in. “I’m going to draw some blood, Ms. Steel.”
Ava simply nods, and the tech wraps the rubber band around her upper arm and pats the veins in the crease of her elbow.
“You have good veins,” she says.
“Thanks…I guess…” Ava murmurs.
“Why are you drawing blood?” I say.
“Just some routine lab tests ordered by the ER doc.”
“We haven’t even seen the ER doc.”
“You haven’t?” The tech scans the clipboard. “Well, he’s seen the chart, and he ordered these lab tests. I’m sure he’ll be in soon.”
I sit on the ER bed, holding Ava’s hand. Moments tick by, until—
Someone opens the curtain harshly. A young man in green scrubs enters. “Ms. Steel? I’m Dr. Tonaki. Your EKG looks great. Now we just have to wait and see if your blood tests indicate any reason for your symptoms.”
“Okay.”
Dr. Tonaki takes a stethoscope and listens to Ava’s heart and then to her lungs. “Let me check your airway. Open up.”
Ava complies, and then the doctor feels her neck.
“No swollen lymph nodes in the neck. Heart and lungs sound great. EKG looks good.”
“So what happened, then?” I ask.
“Given the symptoms, which seem to have resolved, I’d say you had a panic attack, Ms. Steel.”
Ava sighs. “Just like my father.”
“Yes, I understand your father, Ryan Steel, is currently a patient here. I just came on duty an hour ago, but my colleague, Dr. Amos, probably saw your father.”
“Ava,” I say, “do you want me to find your mother and father? Tell them you’re here?”
She shakes her head. “They’ve had enough to deal with tonight. And I won’t be spending the night here.”
“I don’t think you’ll have to,” Dr. Tonaki says, “but I do want to wait until we have the lab results before I discharge you.”
“Do I have to?” Ava asks. “I really just want to go home.”
“Baby, you need to listen to the doctor. I think you’re probably fine, but we need to make sure.”
Dr. Tonaki makes a few notes on the chart. “Your panic attack was mild, so I’m not overly concerned. I’ll be back to check on you in a bit.” He leaves, closing the curtain behind him.
“Mild?” Ava says.
“It was a lot milder than the one we witnessed your father have,” I say. “The doctor knows what he’s talking about.”
“This is ridiculous. My father has never had a panic attack in his life, and neither have I.”
“If I had to wager a guess,” I tell her, “I’d say your panic attack was caused not just by the documents you found in my book but also because of worry for your father. For your family. And…”
