Sweet Liar (Candy #2)(41)
I sat perfectly still in my chair, not wanting to move or talk or even breathe and possibly miss something. “What did Tom say?”
“He refused, and at first we didn’t know whether we should tell your father about the clinical trial or not. But in the end, Tom thought Sebastian should make that decision for himself. He said if I were sick and he could do something to help me, he’d want that choice. So he told your father, and we all know what Sebastian chose to do.”
My heart filled with sympathy. My father had been put in an impossible position. “Did my mother know about any of this?”
“No. She only knew that he’d found her a new doctor. She started going to an office in Claymore for her treatments. She didn’t know that office had been set up especially for her by the doctors running the trial, or that your father was passing secrets to them each time he took her there. The treatment couldn’t save her life the way we hoped, but it did extend it. We had her with us a little longer because of it, and I’m fairly sure your father thinks it was worth it.”
Tears were running down my cheeks again, and I used my napkin to wipe them away. “He does,” I said firmly because I knew it was true. “But he’s paying for it now, and so am I.”
Alison’s eyes filled with compassion. “I’m sorry, Candy. I wish there was something we could do.”
“Is there something? Isn’t there some way to help him?”
She eyed me regretfully. “We can’t help your father. All we would do is expose ourselves. He made his choice. He knew there could be consequences.”
I shook my head, not wanting to accept that.
“You can’t tell anyone,” Drew said, leaning over the table in my direction. “Everything you heard tonight has to stay in this room.”
“Candy,” Alison said gently, “did the people who took your father talk to you? Are they asking you questions?”
I eyed her steadily while my stomach dipped. “Yes, but I pretended not to know anything.” The truth was, I didn’t know anything when I first spoke to Victor and Jonah, but that wasn’t the case anymore.
“If they talk to you again, you still don’t know anything. All right?” she asked. “Knowing your father, I’m sure he’s told them nothing himself.”
My gut twisted because my only hope of helping my father was gone. The Hoyts couldn’t or wouldn’t do anything. “Do you know what happened to the clinical trial? Is it still going on?”
“When we went to the same benefit this year, I heard the drug finally got approved in China. With the connections they had, that’s not surprising. It’s still not widely available, though.”
Biting my lip, I didn’t know if that was good news or not. “Can anyone go there and get treated?”
She eyed me curiously. “I suppose.”
I cleared my throat. “Because since I saw my mother’s files, I’ve been thinking about a friend of mine. He has cancer. He’s had it for a while, and the doctors aren’t very hopeful.”
“I’m sorry,” Alison said.
I nodded. “Do you know how I could find out about getting the same treatment for him?”
She shifted in her chair, and her gaze bounced away from mine. “I could try to find the information for you. If you can get the treatment, it’s sure to be expensive. Can your friend afford to travel to China and pay for a costly drug therapy?”
“I don’t know.” I bit my lip at the thought because I didn’t really think so. “But whatever you could find out would be helpful. If there’s another option, I’d like him to know about it.”
She nodded sympathetically, and then she stood and urged me to stand too so she could hug me. I let her, putting my arms loosely around her while her floral perfume tickled my nose and my hopes for my father sank to the floor.
After releasing me and giving me an encouraging smile, she began clearing the table. When I tried to help, she put her hand on my shoulder. “You’re going to be okay, Candy. You have us and your aunt and cousins. I know it’s hard now. I know you miss your father, but it will get easier. I promise.” With a kind smile, she walked into the kitchen carrying a pile of dishes.
“You know,” Drew said as he stood up. “If it were me, I’d stay far away from anything related to your father, especially drugs made in China.”
I said nothing in response, but I noted his lack of empathy. For some reason, it didn’t surprise me.
When Alison came back in and told us we should go into the living room and catch up, Drew grinned, happy to be free from dinner cleanup as he held his hand out to me.
I stared at it for a moment because we weren’t close like that. We didn’t hold hands, or maybe we did because I took it and let him lead me over to the sofa in the living room. My thoughts were elsewhere, though, tangled up in all I’d learned tonight.
As I sat there half listening to Drew ask me if I wanted to watch a movie, reality slowly sank in. Victor wanted to know exactly what information my father had passed to the Chinese. After what I’d just learned, that the Hoyts had left my father on his own and walked away, I knew the Hoyts didn’t know. It wouldn’t surprise me if the only person who did know was my father, which meant I couldn’t give Victor what he wanted. Despite Jonah’s claim that he would smooth things over with his father, I wasn’t so sure.