trailed off. “You need to let an old man rest. Can’t get any sleep around here.”
I leaned back in the chair, exhaling instead of yelling or crying or just rehashing the same conversation again and again. I looked away, but my gaze settled on the framed photograph on his nightstand.
Where did he find that?
“Granddad…” I reached for the picture, touching the faded image. “How did you get this?”
He didn’t answer. I swallowed, but my mouth was dry.
I hadn’t seen this picture since the fire. I didn’t think it survived.
Me. Him. Nana. At the shop. The ice cream cones stacked.
“Granddad.” I squeezed his hand. “I thought this was gone. How…”
He stirred, frowning at the frame. His shoulders shrugged. “Copy. Someone gave it to me.”
“Wow.” The tears returned. “I just…I haven’t seen a picture of Nana in so long. And the shop. Look at the shop.”
“Take it.” He waved me away. “And those papers on the dresser. Those are yours.”
I ducked away from the IV and took the folder. My stomach turned.
Last will and testament. Great.
“Granddad.”
“Yours.” He forced a smile. “Now go. I’m fine. Just an accident. Want to get some sleep.”
No arguing with him. He closed his eyes out of spite.
“Okay.” I held the frame to my chest. “But I’ll be back in the morning.”
I left my number at the nurses’ station, just to make sure they had a sticky note on their computer monitors in case something went wrong. With his will and paperwork in my arms, I felt more than a little paranoid.
Home wasn’t much better than the care facility. I pushed through my locked door and ignored another barrage of calls from Maddox.
The pitter-patter of rain tinked off the windows. It beat down harder as I struggled to find something to do to keep from thinking about Granddad. Dishes didn’t help. I already did most of my laundry. I didn’t need more cookies.
I made peanut brittle instead.
But my eyes returned to the stack of papers Granddad passed to me. His will. I hadn’t read it, didn’t even know what would still be relevant inside of it. Most of everything was lost in the fire, and what wasn’t was already sworn to his debts and medical care. I thumbed through the folder and started to read.
My feet thunked from the coffee table to the floor.
The signature and date had to be wrong. There was a mistake.
Granddad updated his will two days before the fire?
I flipped through the pages, searching for any reason he might have updated the document. I was probably making too much out of it though. The date meant nothing. Granddad was the superstitious one. I didn’t see anything in lotto numbers or dice rolls.
But something roiled in my stomach, and it wasn’t a good instinct.
My phone rang again. I answered it without looking, fearing it was the care facility.
I should have hung up on him.
“Josie.” Maddox’s voice rumbled right into my core. “You gotta hear me out.”
My thumb hovered over the button to disconnect.
“I don’t want to talk to you.”
“I needed the money, Sweets.”
“Nolan hurt us. He burned down my shop. He wants nothing more than to fuck me. Why would you ever take a job from him?”
“I know.”
My fingers trembled, too aggravated and exhausted and emotionally drained to deal with Maddox and his lies now. “Nolan threatened me two weeks ago. Made a pass at me and, when I rejected him, got aggressive.”
“Mother fucker—”
“That is the man you worked for. That is the man you let trap you. He wanted to frame you, Maddox. He might have put you away if he didn’t get everything he wanted then.”
“What was that?”
“Me to admit that I let you back in my life.” I swallowed. Hard. “It was a mistake. I see that now.”
“Josie, I needed work. I needed money.”
“How long have you been his little errand boy? What did you even do for him?”
“Josie—”
“Answer the question.”
“I did whatever he couldn’t do himself.” Maddox grunted. “He paid me to rough up Bob Ragen, to get him to withdraw his offer on the property so you’d sell only to him.”
“I’m hanging up now.”
“You weren’t selling anyway, Sweets. I made us some money doing what Nolan wanted.”
“And if Bob burned down the shop?” I couldn’t do this anymore. I slammed the will onto the table, but my eyes caught a familiar name.
One that didn’t belong in Granddad’s will.
“I swear I’m going to find who did this, Josie. I’ll fix it. I needed money a year ago. Bad. I planned to