Alveus (ABC's Inc. Romance #1) Page 6

  Not for the first time, Lexi wished that she was an automaton – a machine incapable of feeling. Her emotions had almost become eradicated, but she marveled over the undefeatable hope that continued to linger. Yes, even hollow, emotionless and empty – that small battered sliver of hope endured it seemed, just to stoke her pain. There were only three options she could think of for dealing with the condition. She could ignore it to the detriment of her physical health, or vacate her mind entirely, which would probably lead to the third option – suicide. Lexi wasn’t willing to consider the last two alternatives. She’d always been charged with possessing a stubborn tenacity, perhaps also due to that same shard of hope. But then another thought occurred to her – she could just leave.

  Germany was a large enough country to get lost in; there would be no problem with the language. Still, she would have to disguise herself, and with no money or identification… Lexi pondered the thought. Yes, even so, starting over seemed to be the right way to go. It would just take some planning. Perhaps if she could get to the American consulate… but Lexi couldn’t leave Oma; not right now.

  When Dane brought his grandmother home from the hospital, she’d swiftly recovered from her injuries. With her pretend illness no longer necessary, the wheelchair disappeared and Oma spent more time downstairs. She and Lexi shared their meals in the dining room and she returned to her former activities with charitable organizations, introducing her granddaughter to her all of her associates. She was strong, happy, and content. As far as she was concerned her grandson’s love life was taken care of, and her work in that area was done. Naively, Lexi had felt the same way. With stars in her eyes, she’d eagerly soaked up Oma’s stories of Dane’s childhood antics.

  Twelve-year-old Lexi had won the battle over her adult heart. While Oma regaled her with the stories, Lexi could picture the boy she remembered – protective, courageous, dependable and witty. He could always bring her out of a funk by turning her mind toward the humorous side of a situation. Young Lexi had lived for his visits and it had devastated her when he’d gone off to college without giving her a second thought. It seemed history was repeating itself.

  The first time she learned Dane had called his grandmother, Lexi didn’t allow herself to feel hurt that he hadn’t asked to speak with her. She understood that his business was consuming and that he was only taking time away from it to dutifully check on Oma’s welfare. His actions toward Oma reflected the way he had been with young Lexi, reinforcing her love for him. Although, as subsequent calls came from him, without even leaving a message to pass on to her… Lexi’s emotions took another all too familiar beating. Oma seemed unaware of the slight. Perhaps she thought that Lexi had a cell phone in which she received his calls. Whatever, Lexi kept her disappointment to herself.

  She’d learned to conceal pain while still a teen, when her loving family cocoon had taken its first beating with Alicia Alberton’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. Her family sanctity had split apart completely, as each member dealt separately with the life changes the discovery had thrust upon them. Her formerly doting parents were oblivious to the sacrifices Lexi made in order to appease their wish to conceal her mother’s debilitation. She never resented setting aside her dreams for the parents who had given her everything, and considered it selfish to whine about it. Although it was easier to simply avoid the outside world, Lexi became proficient at portraying the confident daughter of Alberton Technology’s founders. She took over the role of parent, or more aptly caregiver to her parents, dividing her time between them. Even after her mother had succumbed to the symptoms of the disease, her father never turned his love back in her direction. Instead, he dwelled on the loss of his beloved until he joined her. Lexi put her devotion into the business her parents had nurtured, their legacy, and her last remaining tie to them. When Uncle Richard severed that tie, she fell into the bottomless pit of apathy. Until, Oma’s love attached itself to her. Now, repeating the cycle, Lexi kept Oma from sensing her pain over Dane, as she also began to be concerned over the elderly woman’s well-being.

  After performing a full battery of tests on her, the hospital had released Dane’s grandmother with a clean bill of health. Admittedly, the first several days, Lexi had been impressed by the woman’s vigor, but then Oma began having dizzy spells. A call to the doctor assured them that it could be a reaction from the pain medication she’d been given. He couldn’t see any reason to be concerned unless they persisted. Well, not only did they persist, but she started having headaches and confusion as well. The stubborn woman could not be convinced to see the doctor!

  Frieda came running into the room. “Frau Brighton is throwing up,” she announced fretfully. “I need help getting her to the bed.”

  The dead flowers forgotten, Bruna and Lexi ran out of the room heading toward Oma’s suite. Frieda followed. “She is refusing my assistance, saying that she’s fine,” the young woman explained.

  “We’ll see about that!” Bruna determined. Even though Bruna worked for Marta Brighton, neither woman took any guff from the other. They had become fast friends and confidants, decades ago.

  Lexi found Oma collapsed on the floor. “Call an ambulance!” she shouted to Bruna. “Frieda, help me get her onto the bed.” An image of finding her father passed out on the floor of his office replayed in her head. It was shortly before he had died in his sleep. The doctors had accounted it to his heart. Panic seized her. Don’t die on me, Oma!

  By the time the ambulance arrived, Lexi had her cleaned up and Oma was fighting consciousness. As she followed the gurney out of the bedroom, Lexi noticed an open box of chocolates on the side table. Frieda, after anxiously straightening the bed rushed over to close the lid on the box. Lexi saw the Abare Chocolates name on the package.

  “Where did that come from?” she pondered aloud. Bruna, having come back to grab a small satchel she’d packed, gave her a curious look.

  “Didn’t you send them to her?” she asked. Lexi shook her head.

  “No,” she answered. Grabbing the small case from Bruna, she hurried to the door. “I want to ride in the ambulance with Oma,” she said, rushing to catch up with the attendants.

  Chapter Seven

  “Cyanide poisoning?”

  Lexi had been pacing up and down the same corridor of the hospital emergency area, waiting for someone to come out with information on Oma. The longer the wait, the more frantic she became. Finally, as she was close to succumbing to tears, the doctor approached her.

  “She was having trouble breathing and we’ve put her on oxygen,” the doctor shared. “We will be moving her to a room shortly. She’ll have to stay on oxygen for a while, but she can have visitors. It was a lucky coincidence that we just had some teenagers brought in about a week ago who’d been hiking in the mountains and ate raw elderberries. Frau Brighton’s symptoms were the same, so we tested her for the toxins.”

  “But Oma hasn’t been hiking, how could she have gotten the poison?”

  “Perhaps in a fruit salad?” he suggested. “I’ll have to wait for more test results to come in, but it looks as though you’ve caught it before it had time to cause any damage to her heart. We’ve given her an antidote which will bind with the cyanide allowing her body to remove it through urination. Barring any unforeseen complications, she should be free to go home in a couple of days.”

  Oma was asleep when they brought her into the private room. Bruna came by for an update, so the two women left the room to have a quiet conversation.

  “You must put the home number into your phone,” the housekeeper fretted. “I’ve been so worried and couldn’t get away until now. I hate leaving Frieda alone at the house, and Georg was away on an errand.”

  “I don’t have a cell phone.”

  “In this day and age, how can that be?”

  “I…I lost it at the airport,” Lexi lied.

  Bruna tsked and then dropped the subject. It was more important to hear about Oma’s welfare. Lexi filled her in on the d
octor’s diagnoses, starting with the news that she would recover and be home in a couple of days.

  “Do you have any idea how Oma could have ingested cyanide?” Lexi asked. “The doctor suggested elderberries.”

  “Marta isn’t very fond of most berries,” she answered, shaking her head. “She doesn’t like the seeds getting caught in her teeth, so I don’t buy berries for her. “She hasn’t had much fruit in the last couple of weeks, except maybe some canned peaches.”

  “Can you think of anything that she has eaten, that none of the rest of us has?”

  Bruna thoughtfully shook her head, “Now that she dines downstairs, we all eat the same dishes. You know that, as you take your meals with her.”

  “Right, well I want to get back to her room in case she wakes up,” Lexi said. “I don’t want her to feel she’s been deserted.”

  The room was quiet except for the low hissing of the oxygen feeding from the wall. Lexi tried to occupy herself with an old magazine she’d picked up from the waiting lounge. She was better with speaking languages rather than reading them and soon dozed off from the effort. A stirring from the bed awakened her.

  “Oma,” she cried, rushing to the bedside. “You had us so worried. The doctor says you’ll be fine and back home in a few days.” Lexi explained what had happened.

  “Come here ein bisschen,” Oma opened her arms to Lexi. “Lie beside me.”

  Lexi climbed in next to the elderly woman and put her head on her shoulder. Oma stroked her fingers through Lexi’s hair, combing it out of her face.

  “I’m fine, now tell me what has you so upset,” she coaxed.

  “I just don’t like the thought of losing you, Oma.”

  “You have no family, ein bisschen?”

  Lexi shook her head. Oma tightened her embrace and gave her arm comforting strokes. Lexi wanted to pull away and reinforce her iron shield; certain that if she became dependent on Oma’s love it would prove to be an illusion. Still, the soothing gesture worked to put her fears aside, and she fell into a peaceful sleep.

  A hushed conversation brought Lexi from her slumber.

  “Come to think of it, I don’t recall ever seeing her with a purse.” Oma’s voice reverberated through her chest. “I automatically assumed that she and Dane were keeping in touch.”

  “There’s just something strange about that relationship,” Bruna responded.

  “I agree,” Oma answered thoughtfully. “So then, you did get in touch with my grandson to keep him abreast of my situation?”

  “Yes, although concerned, he was relieved that you will recover. He said he would return to Germany as soon as he traced down a manufacturer – whatever that means.”

  Lexi sat up, apologetic for dozing off.

  “No worries, ein bisschen,” Oma said, “You are a comfort to me. Georg is waiting to drive you back home to freshen up. Bruna will sit with me awhile. Now, go.”

  After a soothing bath, Lexi went down to the kitchen to find a bite to eat. The mystery of Oma’s poisoning occupied her mind. No one seemed to suspect foul play, what would anyone accomplish by killing off such a kind, generous lady? But Lexi didn’t like unsolved puzzles and searched her mind for clues. After all, she’d spent the last couple of weeks by Oma’s side for almost every waking hour.

  After a light salad, Lexi went to the downstairs parlor where Oma had set up their voluntary charity work. They were in the process of sending out bulletins to the members of the garden club, setting up a tour of the older local estates in full bloom. Oma had been impressed with Lexi’s computer skills as they worked on them together in Opa’s office. Satisfied with the end product, they printed them off and were about to stuff envelopes with the bulletin and a handful of tickets for each member to sell. Lexi sat in thought, as she mechanically folded and stuffed each packet. She deliberated over every luncheon they’d attended, but if the fruit salads had been poisoned the hospital would be full of socialites.

  Her brain finally tired from dissecting every memory, so she packed things up and went upstairs to her rooms. As she passed Oma’s suite she glanced into the sitting room and remembered the box of chocolates. Abare’s Chocolates, which everyone thought Lexi had ordered for her. But Lexi hadn’t, so who sent them? She grabbed the box of candy and went in search of Bruna.

  “Bruna, I need to get back to the hospital,” Lexi announced to the housekeeper. “I want to have these chocolates tested for cyanide.”

  “Oh my God, of course,” Bruna said. “The chocolate dipped fudge, no one else has eaten them. Georg is busy in the garden. I can take you when I finish the strudel.”

  “I can take her if you like,” Frieda called from the hall where she was dusting the hanging portraits.

  Lexi sat watching Oma sleep, a German tabloid lying unattended on her lap. Frieda had driven her to the hospital, but chose to wait in the lounge playing on her phone. While the chocolates were taken to the lab, Lexi waited with Oma to hear the results. The two women debated about who would have sent tainted candies to the elderly lady. Not many knew they were her favorites. Exhausted, Oma had finally surrendered to sleep. Lexi left the room to find Frieda, and was in the waiting lounge when the doctor delivered the news. The chocolates had indeed been laced with cyanide. He already reported their findings to the authorities.

  “I’m sure the police will be getting in touch with you at Frau Brighton’s residence. The nurse will be getting her ready for the night, if you’d like to say your goodbyes.”

  “Thank you doctor,” Lexi said. She turned to Frieda. “I won’t be long.”

  “Okay, I’ll go on out and bring the car to the front for you. Take your time.”

  Lexi went back to the room to share the news with Oma. Kissing her goodbye, she made her way to the exit. It was evening, but the front of the building was lit up. There were several vehicles lined up at the curb, although she didn’t see Frieda’s car among them. As she searched the parking lot, Lexi was approached from behind. Swiftly, she was strong-armed into the back of a waiting sedan!

  “Well, princess, it seems you’ve been a naughty girl.”

  »ɞ»ɞ«ɞ«

  “What would I ever do without you?” Dane gushed, giving his London office director a kiss on the cheek. “Someday I’m going to whisk you off to our own private island.”

  “Right,” she answered dryly, “like I’m gonna put up with your shenanigans twenty-four seven. You’d better get out of here if you’re going to catch that plane. Give Oma my love; I’ll find out what’s going on at Alberton Technologies.” Dane started out the door. “Oh, and boss,” she called out after him. “Thanks.”

  During the short plane ride, Dane thought of what awaited him at his grandmother’s home. Oma will have been released from the hospital and happily back at the estate by the time he’d arrive. She’d been secretive, unforthcoming with information about her illness the last time he had spoken with her.

  “It will be easier to explain in person,” was all she would say.

  Dane knew that he’d spent more time away than he had to. It wasn’t necessary to detour to the London office, but he’d wanted to allow Brenda the time off she’d need to help rid her two children of the flu. Admittedly, he was avoiding a reunion with Aly.

  He’d been kept busy enough in Hong Kong to keep memories of his last night with her, at bay. It was always challenging working with the Chinese; there was so much etiquette to be followed. With the amount of businesses involved, it was practical to have an office in Hong Kong, but Dane was happy to entrust his office director, Jun Cheng to manage things. As the CEO of Brighton Industries, it was sometimes vital for him to deal personally with the businessmen – Chinese value rank and status, but Dane depended on Cheng’s knowledge of Chinese culture.

  The entire blame for the delay couldn’t be put on him, Dane reasoned. After rushing to get to the Hong Kong meeting, the L&W business executives delayed further conference to consult with the stars. He’d wanted to visit the automobile manufa
cturer’s assembly room to inspect the faulty engines himself, but of course he couldn’t without an executive escort. Jun Cheng used the time to formally introduce Dane to some of the other manufacturers they had dealings with. Of course there were plenty of beautiful Asian women willing to spend the evenings with him, but uncharacteristically he had no inclinations to take them to his bed. Aly was like a fine Bordeaux, once tasted, all appetite for other wines is ruined.

  “What do you mean, she’s gone!?”

  Dane didn’t realize he’d shouted the statement until he saw Bruna cringe. His grandmother, however, was not affected by the outburst. She remained irritatingly calm, with that all-knowing look that always grated on his nerves. If he wasn’t so relieved to see her looking so fit, he would… Well, he wouldn’t do anything more than look at her incredulously, as he was doing right now.

  “Sitz, jungen,” Oma said. “We are all concerned about her disappearance, but you must hear the facts before running off half-cocked.”

  Dane sat as she requested, wondering disrespectfully if the old woman had any idea what her last statement sounded like in today’s society – the visualization itself, half-cocked. The right side of his mouth turned up in a taunting grin. Actually, that might be accurate. Oma centered her laser, behave-yourself, gaze on him before beginning.

  “The last I saw Aly was at the hospital. She brought a box of chocolate in to be tested for cyanide, and she was right to suspect it.”

  “Chocolates, where did they come from – why did she think you were purposely poisoned? Wait a minute, you were poisoned intentionally!? Are you sure? Why would anyone want you dead?” Dane was back on his feet, pacing the room. Oma remained silent until he turned his focus back to her.