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“Nothing much to say.”
I raise my eyes. “Wasn’t today when that girl starts as your assistant? I must say I would have loved to be a fly on the wall after your conversation the other day.”
He laughs softly, “It was interesting.”
“Be nice, Troy.”
I shake my head. “I don’t know why you’re such a bastard outside this house.”
“You know why.” He shrugs. “Being nice gets you nowhere and loses you money. There is no room for nice in business.”
Our food arrives, which is a welcome distraction, and as we try to eat, luckily the conversation dies as we attempt to distract our attention from the distinct possibility that mom may not make it home at all.
It must be three hours later when a knock on the door has me running to answer it. Troy gets there first and I exhale with relief when I see mom standing there with Max, the private investigator Troy uses.
“Mom.” I reach for her and pull her into my arms and whisper, “Where were you?”
“I was visiting your father and lost track of the time.”
I note the pity in Max’s eyes as he says softly, “I found her on his grave at the cemetery.”
Troy runs his fingers through his hair and exhales sharply as mom sobs on my shoulder.
“I miss him so much, Melissa. Why did he do it?”
My heart is actually breaking right now because I share her grief. Apollo’s words come back just when I need them to make me strong and a wall of ice forms around my heart as I say roughly, “He left us, mom. He did what was right for him.”
Troy glances my way with a sharp glare and I shrug, gripping mom tightly as I say roughly, “We must face the facts. All of us. He left us to carry on, knowing the mess he would leave behind him. We have every right to be angry, so save your tears mom, I’m done crying.”
Max coughs and steps back toward the door.
“I’ll leave you to it.”
Troy nods and escorts him outside and mom says fearfully, “I don’t know how to get past this, Melissa? How are you so strong?”
I take her arm and smile gently. “Mom, we must face up to what happened and the time for crying about it has passed. We must accept it and move on and remember him as a loving husband and father who did his best for the family but couldn’t live with what was to come.”
“Please don’t think badly of him, darling. He was sick.”
Her lip quivers and I push aside my resentment and smile. “It’s okay, mom. I know.”
I guide her into the dining room and pass a concerned Mrs. Carlton on the way. She nods as she heads to the kitchen to fix mom some food and I resign myself to another night picking through the mental fragility of my mother’s mind.
By the time Troy returns, mom is more like her usual self and waves off what happened as if it was nothing out of the ordinary.
I help her to get ready for bed and as soon as she’s sleeping, I head down to find my brother and say firmly, “We can’t fail her anymore, Troy. She needs our help, and we must be strong for her sake as well as ours.”
He nods, the pain in his eyes hard to witness, and I say gently, “I’ll stay with her tomorrow. I’ll see what I can arrange and when you get home, we’ll talk it through. Leave it with me, Troy, I’ll try to do what’s best for mom.”
When I head to my room, somehow, I feel stronger. Something snapped inside me today when mom came through that door. Apollo has made me see things differently, almost as if I’m a stranger staring through the smeared window of my own life.
I see the mistakes, the disarray and the mess I need to clean up, and I accept that one year since my father’s death must count for something. But it’s time to move on and I’m taking the rest of my family with me.
Grief has no place here. It’s the future that counts now and the most important thing of all is making sure my mom is right in there with us.
CHAPTER 11
APOLLO
