Forget Me (Adore You Pt. 2)

Chapter 66 (Maria)

Chapter 66 (Maria)

I woke up feeling as if I had too much to drink. Crying for hours could do that to you.

"Here's some water," Chris said, holding out a glass full of water and a lemon rind.

"The lemon is really extra," I said, taking it.

"Well, my mom is on a lemon water kick, so this what we get whenever we ask a maid for water. She says it helps with detox."

"If Robbie were here, he would tell say that's what your kidneys are for."

He let out a soft laugh.

"Am I dreaming, Chris?"

"No."

"I feel like everything just gets worse and worse."

"Well, eventually, things have to get better. It could only get so bad."

"Please don't give the universe any ideas," I groaned.

"Have you talked to Robbie?"

"No. I haven't. I'm kind of upset with him, Mar."

"Why?"

"He was kind of a dick to Lia."

"He was? What happened."

"Ask him," Chris said, and I groaned. I could tell my brother was going into one of his moods. I already went through this once with my dad's death. I could not deal with this again. I remember feeling as if I aged 40 years the first time.

I put my face in my hands and felt Chris sit on the bed and rub my back. He kissed my shoulder and murmured platitudes into my ear.

I wiped my face with my sleeve and shook my shoulders as if I were a cat shaking off water, "Okay," I said, sitting up.

"Okay?" Chris said, looking confused.

"Time to get to work," I said and nodded with determination.

"Maria..."

"Maria, what? What do you want me to do, Chris? Throw myself on a bed and cry? We have shit we need to do. My grandfather has a pending expiration date, and it could possibly extend to my brother. We were supposed to meet Noah today."

"Noah said he could meet us another day."

"No. Call him back tell him I'm fine."

"Maria," he said, his tone was fatherly.

"Call. Him. Back," I said slowly.

Chris gave me a worried look but then picked up the phone. He took the call into the bathroom, and I sipped on the lemon water and looked through the notebook I had been keeping with our notes.

Frustrated, I reached across to Chris' nightstand and grabbed my phone, dialing Robbie's number. He didn't pick up.

Noah got to Chris' house thirty minutes later.

We sat for two hours, comparing notes. We found out that he and Lia found the name of the P.I my grandmother or uncle hired. I had never heard of him before. I wondered if Carl, our usual P.I knew him. Was there a P.I union where they all gathered?

"Robbie said we need to find the original will. Has Lia mentioned anything about that?" I asked Noah.

"I mean, we've read a lot about a will. I don't know if he means the original one. I didn't know there was more than one. Lia thinks it's locked in a safe. She says the password is the code we keep seeing on the notebooks. We're trying to figure out how to break it, but it takes a long time. We're trying different things as the key. It takes her a long time to work it out each time. Actually, I was hoping you guys could make a list of possible words for us. You knew him best, Maria."