A Fresh Start (43 page)

Kate had thought Mr. Hayes was another patient with Alzheimer and was confused like her grandmother often was.
 

Mr. Hayes said nothing. He merely smiled apologetically at her.

Later, when her grandmother finally let go of Mr. Hayes, she found out that his mind was perfectly clear. He’d stepped in and pretended to be her grandfather, simply to make her grandmother smile. He even apologized to Kate, telling her he was sorry if he had overstepped the boundaries.
 

Kate didn’t think he did anything wrong. She understood his intentions and was filled with gratitude toward him.

When her grandmother had started addressing Kate as ‘Tiffy’, who was her mother, Kate would patiently correct her. But that only brought about confusion, and sometimes frustration, to her grandmother. Not wanting to upset her grandmother, Kate went along with whatever frame of mind her grandmother was in.

As Kate started chatting with Mr. Hayes, she realized that he was, in fact, a volunteer at the home. He was there every day, lending a hand, and at the same time, keeping himself occupied.
 

Every day since then, he was a constant companion to her grandmother. Despite the smile he wore, Kate could sense a deep melancholy in him. His smiles never seemed to reach his eyes, and whenever he thought no one was looking, he would stare into the distant and sigh.

So even after her grandmother had passed away, Kate continued her trips to the elderly home. Whenever she could, she would pitch in, but her trips were mainly to accompany Mr. Hayes.
 

Though he had been kind to his grandmother, it took a while for Mr. Hayes to open up to her. It took him over a year to reveal to Kate the accident that changed his life.

And two years after her grandmother passed away, Mr. Hayes himself collapsed from a heart attack and his health had been deteriorating since.

She smiled at the frail old man lying in bed and moved forward, intending to put the oxygen mask back in place.
 

“Kate, promise me that you’ll help him,” Mr. Hayes said as he grabbed her hand.

Her brows furrowed, but she retained her smile.

Having known Mr. Hayes for nearly five years, she’d heard all the stories about Tyler Hayes as a boy. Now and then, Mr. Hayes would take out a photo album and tell her the stories behind the pictures.
 

But that was all she knew of Tyler. The boy behind all the stories.
 

She hadn’t even met Tyler Hayes in person before.

Mr. Hayes and Tyler had long been estranged and neither had tried contacting each other in the past twenty years. Throughout all the health episodes that Mr. Hayes suffered in the past years, Tyler never showed his face or even graced Mr. Hayes with a phone call.
 

He was basically non-existent.
 

But Mr. Hayes was right; she couldn’t blame Tyler. Mr. Hayes had his part to blame for Tyler’s behavior.

“Kate…” His frail voice brought her back to the moment.
 

“I promise.”

“Thanks, Kate. Thanks for letting me play the grandfather that I never stepped up to. You’re the best granddaughter anyone could ask for.” Then he closed his eyes, and it looked as if he’d simply fallen asleep. But the long, monotonous beep from the heartbeat monitor indicated otherwise.
 

Kate stepped out of the room while the doctor and nurses flew into a flurry of activities.

She didn’t know how long she stood outside, but eventually the doctor stepped out of the room and gave her a grim pat on her arm while the nurses brought Mr. Hayes’s body out of the room.

She turned away from the doctor as her tears fell.
 

Shortly after, calls started coming through her cell phone asking her about funeral arrangements.
 

Mr. Hayes had listed her as his emergency contact, but she was in no way qualified to make such decisions. She needed to find Tyler Hayes immediately.

She went into the study and searched for the black leather notebook that Mr. Hayes wrote all the important information in. Flipping all the way to the last page of the notebook, Tyler’s name and contact number were written right at the top of the page.
 

Though there had been no contact between them, Mr. Hayes had been keeping track on Tyler, making sure that he wasn’t lacking in anything.
 

With a heavy sigh, she dialed the number and was surprised when the number actually worked.

The line connected, and for a moment, Kate lost her voice; she didn’t know what she was supposed to say.

“Hayes.”

“Tyler Hayes?”

“Who’s this?”

There was no good way to go about delivering the news, so she took in a deep breath and gathered her courage. “I’m Kate, Kate Mitchell. I’m calling about your grandfather, Mr. Hayes.” There was no response on the other end of the phone and she had an inkling that Tyler would hang up the phone at any moment, so she hurried to continue. “He…he passed away.”

Again, Tyler Hayes was silent.
 

She waited, thinking he was probably dealing with shock, or whatever feeling that was coursing through his system, but the silence dragged out and she felt compelled to say something.

“The funeral home, they’re asking about the arrangements. Should I get them to call you?”

“Who are you?” Tyler’s voice was soft.

“Kate Mitchell, I’m…a friend of your grandfather.”

A grunt came from the other side of the line. “Do what you deem fit.”

“Wait, Tyler. I can’t possibly make the decisions.”

“Then don’t do anything, leave him wherever he is.”

Kate pursed her lips; that wasn’t an answer she’d expected. She drew in a long, deep breath and continued. “All right, I’ll settle the funeral arrangements. I know he wanted to be buried with your grandmother and your parents.”
 

Even in the continued silence, Kate could feel Tyler’s increased tension on the other end of the phone. Softening her voice, she said, “Come home. Come back home for the funeral.”

There was a click and the line went dead.
 

Kate sighed and shook her head, hoping that Tyler would at least consider attending the funeral.
 

She returned to the guest room, which had been set aside for her, and sat by the desk. Casting a glance over at the queen size bed in her room, she wanted nothing more than to hide under the covers and cry, but there were things waiting for her to do.

Shoving all her feelings aside, Kate opened her laptop and began making all the necessary arrangements.

Tyler clutched the phone in his hand and waited for the grief to come, but it never came. Perhaps he’d already done his grieving twenty years ago, perhaps his childish hopes that his grandfather would still turn up at his door someday finally died.

Whatever it was, he couldn’t find an ounce of sadness or any feeling of loss.

“What is it, Ty?” Joanne asked. “Is it work?”

Tyler couldn’t deal with her right now.
 

He stood and strode away, hoping to put some distance between them before Joanne started her motions of coaxing, then whining, and eventually throwing a fuss to get her way.

“Ty.” Joanne sighed and hurried after him. “What’s wrong?”

Tyler rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Just —”

“You know you can tell me anything. I’m your fiancée.” Joanne cajoled while Tyler cringed.

He didn’t know how Joanne got into her mind that they were engaged; they weren’t even a couple. She was simply the spoilt, younger sister of his friend.
 

But he wasn’t interested in dealing with that right now.
 

Going into his room, he slammed the door behind him, right in Joanne’s face.

“Ty!”
 

He closed his eyes while Joanne continued shouting for him from behind the door. He wasn’t in the mood to entertain her, he never was.

He sat on the ledge by his window and gazed out of his house. He’d wanted to go back to the mansion for the longest time, not to visit his grandfather, but just to look at the house he grew up in.
 

He hadn’t been back there since his parents’ funeral.

He remembered everything about that day. He remembered crying his eyes out when they lowered the coffins. He remembered Marianne embracing him while his grandfather turned his back to him and walked away. He remembered how he’d called after his grandfather, only to see him getting into the black sedan.
 

His grandfather didn’t bother to turn back, to offer him a hug or even some kind words.
 

Instead, almost as soon as the funeral was over, his grandfather got someone to pack up his things and ship him off to another house.
 

Every day, he waited for his grandfather to come for him, or at least to visit him, but he never came.

Each time the phone rang, he’d race to it, only to hear another unfamiliar voice.
 

Not once did his grandfather call to make sure he was doing well.
 

Once he was out of sight, he was out of his grandfather’s mind.

Why should he go for his grandfather’s funeral when he had never bothered to look him up for the past twenty years?

He never understood why his grandfather was so cruel to him. He was just an eight year old who didn’t know any better.
 

Marianne had told him that his parents’ death was an accident, that it wasn’t his fault.
 

Then why did his grandfather punish him by abandoning him, especially when he needed his grandfather the most?

Tyler crooked his jaws and clenched his phone. Just when he’d made up his mind on not attending the funeral, his phone rang with another call from another unfamiliar number.
 

He sighed and picked up the call. “Hayes.”

“Tyler Hayes?”
 

“Yes.”

“Good evening, Mr. Hayes. I’m your grandfather’s lawyer, Joel Sawyer. Your grandfather had insisted that I read the will in front of Miss Marianne West, Miss Kate Mitchell, and you after the funeral. You will need to be present before I can reveal the contents of the will.”

Tyler rolled his eyes.
 

He didn’t need any more money. The company that his parents was running officially became his when he turned 21. There was only one thing he wanted—the mansion.

The mansion that he grew up in and was ripped from after having his parents taken away from him.

“Let me know what the contents are over the phone. You can call me after the funeral.”

“There’s a clause stating that if you do not turn up, no one else on the will gets anything.”

Tyler drew in a long, frustrated breath.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Hayes. I’m merely following your grandfather’s instructions. ”

 
Though he wasn’t willing to attend the funeral, he couldn’t allow the bad blood between his grandfather and him rob Marianne of what she rightfully deserved.
 

For the past twenty years, she was all he had—his only family. She was there for him when no one else was. He couldn’t allow his anger to blind him to that fact.
 

“I’ll be there.”

Chapter 2

A solemn atmosphere hung in the Hayes mansion as Kate listened to all the condolences. Though she’d been at the mansion so many more times than any of the guests, she couldn’t help feeling out of place.

Tyler should be the one speaking to the late Mr. Hayes’s friends, the one listening to their condolences. Not her.

She scanned the room of unfamiliar faces and saw Tyler.

Recognizing him was much easier than she had expected.

He hadn’t changed much from the younger version she’d seen in the photo albums that the late Mr. Hayes used to show her.

His dark brown hair was shorter than it was in the pictures, and his bangs that nearly reached his eyes were pushed to the side.

She leaned against the wall and watched him move around the living room in the black suit.

It wasn’t the time to notice how well the suit fitted him or the time to admire the broad shoulders that made him the perfect rack for any style of clothes.

Her foot inched forward, but stopped suddenly when she saw him brushing his fingers across the surfaces of the furniture.

She took her eyes off him and glanced around the living room.
 

The late Mr. Hayes kept the design of the house pretty much exactly as it was before the tragedy occurred.

The coffee brown leather couch, the chocolate brown coffee table that sat above the furry beige rug, and the bookshelf against the white wall had all been around even before Tyler was born.

Even the renaissance wall finishes were exactly same.