Next in Line for Love by Bliss Harper

Author:Bliss, Harper [Bliss, Harper]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9789887912477
Publisher: Ladylit Publishing
Published: 2019-12-12T16:00:00+00:00

22

Jill

It’s way past ten o’clock when Ali finally calls me.

“Where are you?” is the first thing she asks.

I had expected her voice to sound all triumphant and smug with the knowledge she gathered to lure me to Paris but she sounds small—like I’ve never heard her before

“In my apartment,” I reply.

“Can I come over?”

“Of course. Ali, are you okay?”

“I’d rather tell you in person,” she says, then goes silent.

“Of course. Come on over. I’ll be waiting.”

While I wait for Ali, I prepare for the worst. It doesn’t take someone with a medical degree to see that Jeffrey hasn’t been well. Maybe it’s worse than I allowed myself to imagine. All the possibilities show up as an endless slew of lit-up words in my mind: cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, cancer again. He’s not a young man and the untimely death of his daughter, added to the high-pressured environment he chooses to immerse himself in every single day, must have taken a toll.

Ali barges in, her eyes a little red, but not bloodshot enough for me ask if she’s been crying.

“It’s heart disease. He needs bypass surgery,” she says. “Do you have his doctor’s phone number? I would really like to call him.”

“Ali.” I put my hands on her shoulders. “Calm down. It’s late. We can’t be calling anyone now.”

“He’s a doctor and this is a fucking emergency, Jill.”

“Talk to me.” I coax her to the couch and sit her down.

“He won’t have the surgery until he has announced the new face of the company, but I’m not ready. Not for the board to accept me, let alone the shareholders. Why did I stay away so long? I should have been here. I should have seen this happening. Why didn’t anyone fucking tell me?”

It suddenly seems to be hitting Ali hard that she might lose another member of her family. I don’t think she even knew herself how much she cared about her father before now. “Ali. Darling.” I put my hand in the back of her neck. “This is not your fault. Your father is a very stubborn man. He was always going to wait until the last possible moment to confide in you.”

“He shouldn’t have had to confide in me. I should have noticed. It was so obvious tonight that he’s seriously ill.”

“Then we’ll do everything we can to make him better.”

She finally looks at me. Her eyes are a little moist. “I told him to have the surgery as soon as possible and to appoint you as interim CEO.”

My eyebrows arch up of their own accord.

“It makes perfect sense. Even I can see that,” Ali says. “Dad said he needed to think about it, but surely he must have thought about it before.”

I let a short silence fall as I process Ali’s words. What she’s proposing isn’t too far removed from what we had initially planned. “What did Sebastian say?”

“He didn’t agree because you’re not family, but that’s bullshit. Besides, who else is going to do it? Him?”

“Your dad doesn’t want him.

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