Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 81922 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81922 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
I tried to imagine him, lying in there as if sleeping. Finally peaceful.
They closed the doors and I turned away and walked towards the convoy of stationary black cars. My car was at the head of the long line. As I was about to get into it I felt a hand on
the sleeve of my coat. I turned around, startled.
Rosalind smiled at me. Her dry-eyed crying had not smudged her make-up at all. Everything was perfectly in place.
‘Would you mind terribly if I rode in the car with you? Seeing that you are alone and ours is overcrowded with my obnoxious brother.’
I didn’t want her in the car with me, but there were people all around us avidly watching the stepmother and daughter’s interaction, and I could hardly turn her down. Mercifully, the
ride to the cemetery was a short one.
‘Of course,’ I said.
With a triumphant smile she stepped in front of me and slid into the car. She did not close the door as if she expected me to close it for her and go on over to the other side. I stood
bemused, the color rising into my cheeks.
Fortunately, Barry hurried around and closed the door. Looking at me kindly he said, ‘Come around to the other side, Mam.’
I cleared my throat and, keenly aware of many eyes watching, followed him around the back of the car to the passenger door on the opposite side. Barry opened the door and I murmured my
thanks and sat stiffly on the seat, leaving as much space between her and me.
As soon as Barry turned out of the church’s driveway and into the main street, Rosalind ordered Barry to put the partition glass up.
I turned to her, my face devoid of expression.
Her face was equally drained of any emotion. ‘Can you tell me why we are all being summoned to Barrington for the reading of the will as if all of this was a particularly bad Hollywood
production?’
I frowned at her. ‘How else would the solicitor tell us what is in the will?’
She sighed elaborately. ‘I realize that you are a bit of a redneck, but it is actually customary for all beneficiaries to simply receive written notification from the solicitor.’
‘Right,’ I said slowly. She said redneck like it was a bad thing. Still, it was in Hollywood movies that I learned of the custom of reading a will to a gathering of people.
‘I’ll take it then that you have no idea,’ she said coldly.
I put on my sweet face. ‘No. Ivan made all the arrangements.’
She narrowed her eyes skeptically and let them slide to my pendant. An ugly look crossed her thin, proud face. ‘Do you know the contents of my father’s will?’
Suck it up buttercup. He didn’t leave it to you. ‘Not really. I guess we’ll know after the funeral.’
‘But most of it’s going to you, isn’t it?’
I took a deep breath. This needed to be said. ‘You want his money, but you never once came to see him in the last six months.’
Her eyes widened with fury. ‘How dare you lecture me on my relationship with my father?’
‘You hurt him when you never brought your children to see him once in the last two years. He wanted to get to know them.’
‘Are you mad? Do you think I would expose my children to that pedophile?’
I gasped in shock. ‘How could you say that about your father?’
She looked at my horrified expression with revulsion. ‘Why are you pretending to be so shocked? I can say that because it’s the truth.’
‘It is not,’ I said, holding on tightly to my temper.
‘How old were you when you came to him?’
‘I was seventeen,’ I said indignantly. How could she even think that about Robert?
‘I rest my case.’
‘He … we … didn’t do anything, then,’ I stammered. I wanted to say so much more, but I couldn’t. I had to protect my secret. Otherwise it would have been all for nothing.
‘God, you disgust me. Both of you.’
She turned away from me and rapped smartly on the glass. When Barry put it down she ordered him to stop the car. As soon as the car came to a halt she got out. Before closing the door,
she had one last parting shot for her stepmother.
‘Just in case no one told you. It’s not the done thing for the grieving widow to deck herself in her best jewelry to attend her husband’s funeral.’
Slamming the car door, she walked to the next car in the procession, the car that she should have been in. I turned my head and watched her enter it and shut the door.
I turned back to face the front. ‘Carry on, Barry,’ I whispered painfully.
My hands were trembling. I touched my pendant and closed my eyes. Oh, Robert. How could she even think that about you? I hoped wherever he was he had not heard our nasty conversation.