A Silken Thread - Brenda Jackson [126]
He wished he could but he couldn’t. In one afternoon she had discovered that not only was her mother a manipulating and heartless person, so was her grandfather. Brian’s heart ached for her.
“I can’t, baby.” When she flinched he wrapped his arms around her. “But when it’s all over and we learn the truth about everything, we will deal with it together. Okay?”
“Yes, okay. So tell me.”
He hesitated for a moment. “It’s about your aunt Blair.”
Her brows lifted. “Aunt Blair? She’s been dead for a long time. Remember, I told you about her being in a car accident a week before her wedding to Griffin’s uncle. She was in a coma for a while and then she died.”
He shook his head. “No, that’s not true.”
She blinked. “What’s not true? Are you saying she wasn’t in a car accident?”
“Yes, she was in a car accident and, yes, she was in a coma. What she didn’t do was die. Your aunt is alive, Erica. Your father only found out last year. Your mother fabricated her death, and all this time your aunt has been alive and kept at this exclusive nursing home in Cleveland.”
Erica just stared at him as if what he’d told her was the most ridiculous thing she’d ever heard. But then, as if his expression indicated the truth of his words, she shook her head. “Please tell me it isn’t true. That Mom didn’t lie to us about that, as well.”
“I’m sorry but she did,” Brian said softly. “And your aunt Blair might hold the key to why your mother is so obsessed with this curse. Matt has made arrangements for us to visit the nursing home tonight when the head administrator and the private nurse leave. It seems they are on your mother’s bankroll and will do whatever she wants them to do regarding her sister’s care. We don’t know what we might find. She still might be in a coma and not able to shed light on anything, I don’t know. But we felt it would be worth a shot before we confront your mother to expose all her lies.”
“When will all the lies and deceit end?” Erica asked softly before snuggling her face in his shirt again.
Later that evening the two couples and Matt were escorted through the back door of the Westminster Nursing Home. The male nurse who was being paid to sneak them in was very cautious as he moved them from one empty corridor to the next.
“I don’t know a lot about the patient you want to see. But I can tell you from what I was able to find out after checking the charts, she isn’t comatose. But her nurse, Ms. Vickers, is required to keep her drugged up if she has too many outbursts.”
“That doesn’t surprise me,” Matt said. He had met them here in Cleveland where, for the past two days, he’d been working out the intricate details of making sure they had a way into the nursing home after hours.
The nurse beckoned them to walk quickly as he moved them to another part of the building. “This is where she is being kept as per her caretaker’s orders.”
April glanced around. This part of the building looked spacious, elegant, and it was obvious anyone who was put in this wing was connected to money. Goose bumps ran down her arm as she realized she was about to meet her half sister.
The nurse ushered them into a huge room and the door was closed behind them. April glanced around the same time everyone else did and their gazes lit on a woman sitting in a wheelchair at a table reading softly to herself. She glanced up when she saw them and smiled, and April’s knees almost buckled beneath her.
She was beautiful. Her hair was elegantly styled and her skin shone. Karen Sanders might have kept her sister well hidden from the world, but at least she had kept her in Delbert fashion.
“Did you come to read to me?” Blair asked them. She then added, “No one has read to me about the cat and the fiddle. I used to have a cat once.”
Following Erica’s lead, April moved closer. The three men hung back.
“I would love to read to you, Aunt Blair,” Erica said, sliding into the chair across from her. “You like hearing nursery