Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 97951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 490(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 490(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
“No, you sit there and try to calm down. I’ll get it. I may not be as young as a baby bird anymore, but I can still soar like an eagle,” he joked as he got to his feet.
“Thank you, Grandpa.”
“No problem,” He winked at her, snatched her glass from the table, and headed out of the dining room, out of sight.
Silva looked around, her heart nearly jumping out of her chest. Her adrenaline soared and her head was really hurting now. It was no longer a ruse just to get him away from her. She looked at Grandpa’s glass of tea sitting there… half empty. The little bit of ice that was left sparkled in the brown liquid.
Come on! You told Lennox that you wanted to help! He finally calls you, tells you to do this on your next visit… and he promises it won’t kill him. BUT I’M SCARED! I don’t wanna kill Grandpa… but I want to make this stop! The way he just sat here and lied on my daddy! His own son! Lied on Lennox again, and on his poor girlfriend who I still haven’t even met, but I know it’s not true! I know Daddy didn’t say that to my grandparents. He would never do that, no matter how drunk he was. How could this man sit here and look at me with a straight face, and tell that horrible lie?! How could he do ANY of this?! I have to stick to the plan… I have to stick to the plan!
She looked over her shoulder, and up at the camera in the dining room. She’d purposefully sat in a chair that she knew her back would be turned towards. She was lucky for her lot in this family. His security team never monitored her—they let her be. She’d proven she could be trusted many years ago. Grabbing her purse from off the chair, she quickly dug inside of it, removing a bottle that was labeled as Tylenol. She popped it open and took out two of the pills, then a small satchel of herbs ground into a fine dust that was also stuffed inside of the bottle. She set the two Tylenol down onto the table, undid the satchel that smelled a bit like prunes, and made fast work to dump it into Grandpa’s tea. Her heart leapt out of her chest while she sweated as if caught in a thunderstorm. A horrible, pouring rain that had no ending in sight.
She looked at the glass, and her entire chest felt as if it were going to explode. She blinked several times and nearly screamed. placing her own hand over her mouth in disbelief. The sooty residue floated to the bottom, but a bit of it rose to the top, looking much like ashes perched atop the soft waves in a swimming pool.
IT’S COLD! NOT HOT TEA! IT’S NOT DISSOLVING WELL! SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!
She quickly jammed her finger in the liquid as she heard him approaching, Grandpa’s boots thundering and his steps quick as he whistled a little tune. She swirled the stubborn particles around as fast as she could, then pushed the glass aside. Praying the water would stop swirling like a tornado from the whirlwind motion of her finger before he noticed.
“Sorry about that, sweetheart. Took a bit longer. Mildred was in the ladies’ room powdering her nose and I told her to put a move on it because my grandbaby wanted another tea, with extra lemon.” He chuckled as he handed it to her.
“Thank you, Grandpa, and it’s okay. I’ll be fine, I think. I hope Mildred’s grandson is feeling better. She told me about his cold a couple of weeks ago.”
Grandpa sat down. “Gio is doin’ much better.” He regarded her with narrowed eyes and a scowl.
“Oh boy, you’ve really taken this hard, girlie. You don’t look so well, honey. You’re perspiring, and your complexion is all reddened and splotchy. You look like you’ve seen a ghost and instead of frightening you, it just made you queasy.”
“I’ll be okay, Grandpa. It’s just shocking is all. Sometimes folks are just full of horrible surprises. We tried to so hard to just keep this in the family, but—”
“Well, sometimes the truth has a way of coming out, but on the off chance that your father was mistaken, and he didn’t say such dreadful things, I’ll dig into that after I speak to Lennox. Gotta deal with one fire at a time. Oh,” he put his finger in the air, “and don’t worry about telling Lennox or your father about this discussion we had until I know what we’re dealing with. I will do the talking, okay? Hopefully by then I’ll have more information. You just make nice with him, and tell him that he needs to speak to me as soon as possible. I have to be careful about this, and so do you. Too many chefs in the kitchen spoil the soup.”