Chapter 22: 22. Orphan
She shoved my head away, and I think a part of her shriveled skin touched my lip. Distancing myself, I wiped my mouth furiously with a napkin, only to get another kick.
"Allow
to clarify. Where are Mr. and Mrs. Devin? Don't you think they should step in when their son takes on an investigation on his own?" I was stunned by how inford she was, so she also knows that I had long moved out? Her cloudy eyes raked over the left side of the table, all eating, nobody looking up, not the least interested. She snorted before looking back at Henry.
"They are dead." Henry smiled at her, and my grandmother gave a smile back at him.
"Young man. Do you know how old I am?" She asked in a casual voice, as if they just had small talk. anwhile, I tried to digest Henry being the last one left of his family.
"Eons..." I mumbled absentmindedly, just for her to slam the table, shutting
up.
"No, Ma'm." Henry answered.
"I am really old. And I can give you a piece of advice. Not everything is as it seems." Her eyes were on
again.
"Ma'am, you are right. Not everything is as it seems." Henry agreed wholeheartedly, and I felt insulted by what he indicated with that again.
I need a cigarette.
"I go to the restroom." I stood up and went outside. The subordinates ignored
as the household did, and I walked to a dark corner in the garden to put a cigarette in my mouth.
I resolved on staying here and hiding until I could go ho, feigning a stomachache. After half an hour, I heard the walking stick of my grandmother along with steps from one of her n. I duck away in the corner to hide.
"Uh, my heart." I heard her wail, and my body moved to her side before I could control it, my arms outstretched and the cigarette having fallen sowhere in between.
"Got you." She creaked, and I cursed silently as we walked back to the corner I had stood in.
I picked up my cigarette from the ground and took a drag, asking her directly,
"You have people watching ?"
"You know, you look just like your grandfather, and that mouth of yours... I just want to make sure you are not making any girls cry." She harrumphed at .
"Thanks." I suddenly felt choked up.
"You don't have to care about him. He will co to realize I am innocent."
"Don't talk like a girl." She scolded
with disgust.
"Also, he should have realized by now. He just needs a reason to hold on." Her voice was so creaky it made
shudder.
"Yeah, thought so too."
"Take this." She handed
a credit card.
"My inheritance?" I smirked at her.
"Pah. As if you would get any." She beat
with her walking stick three tis before speaking again,
"Get out and take your friend with you. Both of you make
lose my appetite.
"You think your perfu doesn't churn my stomach?"
"Better than your aftershave." She snorted.
"Trying to be a man when you haven't grown hairs. Smokes and uses aftershave. Gets tattoos and looks like a delinquent. You should go to war and see what real life looks like."
"Have you ever been at war? Or grandpa?"
"Don't talk back to your elders." Her walking stick hit
a few tis while I let her, anwhile numb to it.
"Now, go." She waved
away with her stick, her young subordinate again coming to her side, as they walked away in snail pace.
I put the credit card in my pocket and walked away, eting Henry on the way, who had a bag with what seed like leftover food with him. Nice one; he got food for free again.
We walked down the hill, Henry again falling behind.
I took the bus, and when I changed to the next one, Henry was not there anymore.
Finally freed from his presence, I walked ho, again feeling sympathy for him after how my grandmother laid his wounds bare, just to show her support for .
Both his parents had died; was it because of the earthquake back then? Or whatever else it was that happened? Was his sister really the only one left for him, now becoming the victim of a horrible cri?
Had he seen the chat records? If there was not only Henrietta's diary, if there were even more texts where 'Kennith' was behaving psycho and threatening, then I would understand why he was so hellbent.
But now, he should have heard about the area code being falls, even if he had been unaware of it before. And I also helped him more than just a bit.
Do I really need to find the culprit myself, to free myself of his suspicion, to end our entanglent once and for all?
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