A Good Day for Chardonnay (Sunshine Vicram #2) - Darynda Jones Page 0,122

puddle on the floor when they got back.

“Can you apologize for me, too?”

“Of course.” She leaned forward and pressed her mouth to his. “And when I get back, we can talk if you want.”

“About?”

She cupped his cheek in her hand. “When you’re ready.”

“If this is about the devil’s doorbell, I was born ready.”

She laughed softly and slipped out of bed. Pushing her IV stand wasn’t as difficult as she thought it might be. She snuck past the nurse’s station and got on the elevator, ignoring the few questioning glances that came her way.

She tapped on Mrs. Fairborn’s door and eased inside to the sound of a moan. Alarm spurred her forward. She found the woman in bed, an arm thrown over her head, a drink in the other hand, and a horrible moan coming from her throat.

“Mrs. Fairborn!” Auri rushed up to her, dragging her IV stand and knocking it first into a chair and then into an important looking piece of equipment with lots of buttons and lights. “Are you okay? Can I get someone?”

“Oh, it’s you, Aurora. No, I’m fine, sweetheart. I’m just really enjoying the service. Once they figure out I’m okay, they’ll send me home. No one waits on me hand and foot at home anymore. All my servants left me when I never paid them. It’s horrible.”

She took a drink of her juice as though she were sipping a piña colada on the beach. Not that Auri had ever had a piña colada on a beach, or anywhere else for that matter, but someday hopefully.

“I wanted to apologize.”

“For what, sweetheart? For saving my life?”

“No one told you?”

She gave her a patient smile.

Auri pressed her mouth together, trying to gather the courage to tell her the truth. After a couple of false starts, she finally fessed up in a lengthy soliloquy that bordered on Shakespearian. “I’m the one who told Billy Press the necklace was at your house. I mean, I didn’t say your house specifically. I told him it was still at the old boardinghouse. He must’ve figured it out. I took a picture of it because I was going to use it to prove you were a serial killer a long time ago, then I changed my mind about exposing you for being a maniacal murderer because I don’t want you to go to jail since you don’t brush your teeth and I thought I would steal the necklace to botch the chain of custody and give it to my mom so she could get it back to the family, and then I thought maybe you could write a letter so that after you died people would know that the drifter Hercules Holmes was innocent all along.”

“I see,” Mrs. Fairborn said, her brows knitting in confusion.

“Anyway, none of that matters.” She wanted to take Mrs. Fairborn’s hand but didn’t dare. The woman probably hated her. “It’s my fault you were attacked. It’s my fault you and Cruz almost died. He wants me to apologize for him, too, but he has nothing to apologize for. It was my idea. All of it. And I am so, so sorry, Mrs. Fairborn. I promise I will never almost get you killed again if it’s the last thing I do.”

The woman’s pale face softened. “What if I told you I’m glad this happened.”

Auri gaped at her.

“Well, not the getting attacked part or you and Cruz almost dying, but I’m glad you found those articles.”

“You know about the articles?”

“Your grandparents told me. I’ve been silent too long, Aurora. People need to know the truth.”

“The truth?”

“Yes. Elusive as it so often is. The last time I tried to tell it, I was intimidated into keeping my mouth shut. Threatened.” Mrs. Fairborn held out her hand. Auri took it instantly, the elder woman’s smooth skin like tissue paper between her hands. “No more. Women have been intimidated into silence for too long. When we get home and everything returns to normal, you come to my house and we’ll chat. You can be my voice. You can tell the people what really happened all those years ago.”

“You’re not mad?”

“No, sweetheart.”

“So, you’re not going to kill me and bury me under your floorboards?”

A tinny cackle erupted from the woman that ended in a short fit of coughs. “Never,” she said after she recovered.

Sheepish didn’t even begin to describe how Auri felt. But there was still one thing bothering her above all else. “I don’t understand, Mrs. Fairborn. Why was Billy so obsessed with