Anastasia and Cassian stayed at the Rhodes estate for three days before heading back to their own place. Anastasia wanted to check on her grandmother. Something felt off—she couldn't shake this nagging feeling that something was about to happen.
After leaving the estate, they drove straight to Elisabeth's neighborhood. Their car slowly made its way through the older part of town, pulling up to her grandmother's small apartment building. Anastasia hadn't called ahead—she wanted to surprise her. But instead of giving Elisabeth a nice surprise, she ended up getting the shock of her life.
Just as Anastasia reached the front door, she heard a loud crash from inside, followed by her grandmother’s painful groaning. Anastasia’s heart sank. She didn’t even bother knocking—she pushed the door open and ran inside.
“Grandma!” What she saw made her eyes immediately fill with tears. Elisabeth was lying on the living room floor with clean laundry scattered around her, and her right ankle was seriously swollen.
Cassian rushed forward and knelt down to check on her. “Her ankle’s definitely sprained, maybe fractured. We need to get her to a hospital now.”
“Cassian, Ana… what are you two doing here?” Elisabeth tried to smile through the pain, her lined face attempting to look reassuring. “I’m okay, sweetheart. Just had a little tumble…”
Anastasia dropped to her knees beside her grandmother, carefully taking the old woman’s hands. “Grandma, don’t try to move. We’re getting you to the hospital right now.”
She looked up to see Cassian already on his phone calling 911. Since Elisabeth was elderly, they didn’t want to risk moving her themselves. Better to wait for the paramedics.
The ambulance arrived quickly, and Elisabeth was rushed to the emergency room. After watching her grandmother disappear behind the ER doors, Anastasia couldn't sit still, pacing back and forth in the waiting area.
Cassian tried to calm her down. “Hey, your grandma’s tough as nails. She’s going to be fine.”
Anastasia nodded but couldn’t shake the guilt—like she should have been taking better care of Elisabeth.
Seeing her distress, Cassian suggested, "Once she's better, we should have her move in with us. That way we can keep an eye on her."
Anastasia sighed. "Grandma's stubborn as hell. I doubt she'll go for that." She'd suggested it countless times before, but Elisabeth always shot it down. Plus, her best friend lived next door, which made her even more determined to stay put.
"We'll work something out. If she won’t move in, I’ll hire a full-time caregiver for her,” Cassian said. Money wasn’t exactly a problem for him.
Anastasia nodded, feeling a lot better with Cassian handling everything. Just then, the ER light went off.
The doctor came out, pulling down his mask. “Your grandmother has a hairline fracture in her ankle. We’ll need to put it in a cast. Healing takes longer, so she’ll need to stay off that foot for several weeks."
“Thank you so much, doctor,” Anastasia said with relief.
Elisabeth was moved to a luxury private suite—the hospital’s top-tier accommodations. This way she could rest without any interruptions.
Soon after getting settled, Elisabeth woke up. “It’s really not that big a deal—I just twisted my ankle. I’ll be fine in a few days. You kids don’t need to babysit me. If you’ve got stuff to do, go do it.” She hated being a burden.
Anastasia rolled her eyes. “Grandma, you scared the crap out of me! You have to be more careful.”
"She's right, Grandma. You really freaked us out,” Cassian added.
“When you’re discharged, we want you to come stay with us so we can take care of you properly."
“Hell no. I like living by myself." What am I gonna do, be wheelchair-bound? Besides, she enjoyed her independence. She wasn’t struggling or anything.
"Grandma, let's just see how you feel when you get out," Anastasia said, knowing her grandmother would resist.
Elisabeth put on her stern face. "You two are still practically on your honeymoon! What’s an old lady like me gonna do, cramp your style? Besides, Mrs. Patterson next door is waiting for me to teach her tai chi!”
Cassian gently adjusted Elisabeth’s blanket. “Grandma, we both feel awful about what happened. What if I hire someone to stay with you? A professional caregiver?”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Elisabeth said evasively.
Anastasia threw her hands up. “Fine, we’ll figure it out later.” Elisabeth needed to rest, so Anastasia decided to go handle the paperwork.
As she left the room and headed toward the main lobby, she rounded a corner and was suddenly stopped by a voice.
“Sister, what are you doing here?”