Page 157 of Now Their Starlet

Unease roils in my gut. It’s hard to untangle. On one hand, I’m hesitant to believe him. He’s never been a liar in the same way Gina has, but it all seems too good to be true.

Well, too good to be true if you’re me. Less so if you’re Gina.

Part of me feels bad. This feels deeply wrong. Probably because I know the hell of living under a conservatorship.

But maybe this is karma. Divine intervention for what Gina did to me and all the other people she hated with her own obsessions. It makes an ugly sort of sense that she’d attract someone with an equal amount of obsessive cunning.

“Well, then…” I say, clearing my throat.

“Well then,” Stuart echoes, that eerie smirk on his lips. “This will likely be the last time we speak, Andromeda. For what it’s worth, thank you.”

“For?” I snort. I never did that man any favors.

“Learning how to to file your paperwork meant that filing your mother’s went incredibly smoothly,” he states plainly.

“Uh, huh.” What the hell else am I supposed to say to that? You’re welcome?

All six of us watch, frozen as he walks into his own car and drives away.

“Did that actually just fucking happen?” Beck gasps, clutching at his chest like he’s been holding his breath the entire time.

“I think—I think it did,” Leo mutters.

Everett squeezes my hand, directing my attention to him. His gaze darts across my face, performing that usual diagnostic he does to try to gauge how I’m feeling.

“I’m okay,” I say in answer to his unspoken question.

Strangely enough, I mean it.

I’m sure Nancy and I will have a field day dissecting this at our next therapy session later this week, but right now? I at least feel like I’m standing on steady ground.

“I’m okay,” I repeat, sounding a bit more sure of myself.

“Good,” Everett murmurs, pressing his lips against my forehead. “Then shall we go?”

“Yeah, let’s,” I nod.

The drive to the hospital is silent. I’m sure we’re all processing this new information in our own ways. Either that, or the guys are giving me space to process this new information.

When I take Everett’s extended hand as I step out of the SUV, I shake out my free hand, trying to shed all the mixed emotions from earlier.

“Today is going to be a good day,” I murmur to myself.

“It will!” Beck says, grabbing my other hand and squeezing it.

When we make it to the familiar floor of my dad’s hospital room, Dr. Abel is waiting for us.

“Andi!” he says, glancing up at us from his clipboard. If it weren’t for the broad smile across his face, I think I’d be a little concerned that he’s waiting right outside my dad’s door. “I have some wonderful updates, but I think you’ll probably get the gist of them when you see for yourself.”

His words make my heart stop in my chest. Maybe I should get my heart checked out too, because I swear it just skipped a couple of beats.

Everett gives my hand a gentle squeeze and nudges my shoulder with his.

That’s all the encouragement I need to leap forward and throw open the door to my dad’s hospital room.

He turns from looking out the window, his expression immediately melting into a soft, warm smile.

He’s thinner than he was before the hospital stay, the skin on his neck carrying the most notable of changes, but I don’t give a shit about the skin on his neck. I care about him. And the fact he’s awake and smiling at me.