A Very Inconvenient Scandal by Jacquelyn Mitchard

Author:Jacquelyn Mitchard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MIRA Books
Published: 2023-09-15T13:23:54+00:00

8

“This isn’t your fault,” Gil told Frankie, not once but four times on the phone. He was on his way back from the airport; she was on her way to the hospital. “If someone died every time somebody else had bad thoughts about him, there would be about twenty people left on the earth.”

Frankie’s tears shut off. “Died?” she said. “Do you think he’s already dead? And they’re just keeping him on life support?”

“No, sweetheart. It was just a way of looking at things. I’m sure Mack will be fine. The cold water was on his side, for one thing.”

Still, Frankie was sure her dad would die or be forever impaired, drooling in a hospital bed on the same porch where Beatrice had died. Frankie’s last encounter with him would always be the moment she hung up on him. Yes, Mack was wrong—short-sighted, impossible, tone-deaf, foolish, arrogant. But he was still Mack, still her father, whom she had idolized since she toddled. Gil hung up, promising to get there as quickly as he could.

At the hospital, she jumped out of the car without even pausing to close the passenger door. Through the maze of halls she threaded a path to Intensive Care. “Only family,” the charge nurse said. “His daughter and his wife are in there already.”

“No, that’s his wife and his mother-in-law. I’m his daughter,” Frankie said. “Look, here’s my ID.”

Outside the doors, Carlotta sat huddled on a hard molded chair. “How is he?” Frankie asked.

“He’s sleeping. He was conscious for a few minutes, and the good news is he was completely lucid. So far.”

“What’s the bad news?”

“Well, I don’t want to be the one to—”

Frankie demanded, “Just say it.”

“He gave explicit instructions that he did not want to see you.”

Frankie staggered. She had to sit down. The tables had turned with a vengeance. Who said that? Tennessee Williams? Frankie couldn’t remember.

“Could I see Ariel?” She added, “Could I even look in?”

“I don’t think so,” Carlotta said. “I’m so sorry.” She smiled sympathetically. Everything about her demeanor and her tone was respectful, muted, suggestive of truth. Something in her smile, however, assured Frankie that Carlotta was enjoying being the gatekeeper, the bringer of bitter tidings.

“What went wrong out there?” Frankie asked.

“I have no idea. I don’t know how those scuba things work.”

Frankie still thought that she could sense that insider’s glee—the thrill of being at the center of a disaster. But it was probably her imagination.

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