steered the Prius onto the main road.
“Maybe we haven’t looked hard enough.” Sharp reached for his phone. “When he said he wished he could give his brother an alibi, he was lying his ass off.”
“Where to?” Lance asked.
“The office,” Sharp said. “I want to review everything we have on Joe Franklin and touch base with your mother and Stella. I also have to call Olivia’s sister and give her an update.”
Lance planned to call Morgan to let her know he’d be sleeping at the office. Sharp was losing control, which was understandable under the circumstances. But Lance wasn’t leaving him alone.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Morgan stirred. Pain in her neck jolted her awake. Sitting up in the hospital recliner, she blinked at the dawn light pouring through the open blinds.
A nurse was checking Gianna’s vital signs.
“You’re awake.” Gianna smiled.
Morgan rubbed at the cramp between her neck and shoulder. “How do you feel?”
“Fine,” Gianna said, though pain shadowed her eyes. “You should go home and get some sleep.”
“I just had some.” Morgan checked her watch. She’d slept at least five hours after Gianna had been brought back to her room after surgery.
The nurse left the room.
“Morgan, I appreciate all you do for me,” Gianna said.
“It’s my pleasure—”
“Let me talk.” Gianna rubbed the edge of the clear tape over the new catheter in her chest as if it itched. “A little more than two years ago, I didn’t care if I lived or died. Then Stella saved my life and helped me get clean. I had no faith in myself, but Stella did. I had no money. Kidney failure was a hard thing to accept. Even if I’d wanted to get some job skills and make something of myself, I was way too sick to work.” She dropped her hand to toy with the edge of the blanket. “I was pretty depressed, maybe even more than when I OD’d. That was an accident. I was careless with my life because I didn’t have much to live for. But after I got out of the hospital, I had to make a choice. Did I want to live or not? Dialysis requires commitment. It sucks, and if I didn’t really want to live, why bother? I could just stop going. No one could make me.”
Gianna spooned an ice chip into her mouth from a plastic cup on her tray.
Morgan had known Gianna had been depressed but not that she’d considered letting herself die.
“But Stella wouldn’t give up on me. She checked on me every day. She made sure I had food. She paid my rent twice. I was surprised how much it meant just to have one person who cared. I’d never really had that before.” Gianna paused again to swallow and fish out a second ice chip.
Morgan didn’t interrupt. She sensed Gianna had more that she needed to get off her chest. The young woman had lived with Morgan for over a year. Yet they hadn’t had this conversation. Morgan had been focused on getting Gianna healthier and guiding her through the transplant application process at several nearby centers. She’d been single-minded. She should have been more attuned to Gianna’s emotional wellness. Depression was common in dialysis patients, and Gianna had plenty of life baggage piled on top of her medical condition.
“Anyway. That night in the hospital when you said I was going home with you changed my life forever.” Gianna had been kidnapped and had nearly died. “Part of me wanted to say no. To just go home and die. Letting you all care about me was hard. As weird as it sounds, it was scary to want to live. What if I wasn’t worth all the effort? What if I failed? What if I did everything right and still died?” She paused, swallowing hard. “What if I went back to using?”
Morgan reached out and touched Gianna’s hand. “First of all, I don’t think you’d do that. Secondly, I would still support you.” But it would change things. Morgan couldn’t have a drug user in her home with her children.
“People relapse. It happens.” Gianna’s eyes hardened. “I was in pain every single day. It would have been easier to find some dope and not give a shit anymore. To want to live meant I was going to have to work every day at getting healthy. Even harder for me, I was going to have to let people get close. That was hard.” She looked down at Morgan’s hand over hers. “But I was too tired