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“Sure.”
“Cool. See you tomorrow.” She said breezily. Then she kissed my cheek and skipped out of the room.
I opened a second bottle of wine, filled up my glass and went into the study, Ralph’s letter tucked under my armpit. Once in the privacy of my own space I placed my wine glass and the letter down on my desk and slumped in my chair.
Amelia was like a hurricane and I felt unbalanced like someone clutching a tree branch, holding on for dear life.
In one night my past had come hurtling back into my future, threatening my safety and my sanity.
I refused to think about Amelia herself, about how she looked. I shook my head as if I could shake the thoughts right out of my mind, but they kept repeating.
If she was at the club, you’d have wanted her.
She smelled beautiful.
She was full of life.
She lit up the apartment.
Then I reminded myself I was dead inside and she was my dead wife’s half-sister, and I reached for Ralph’s letter.
Son,
It’s been a while, I know. I wanted to get in touch and I picked up the phone many times but I couldn’t do it. I figured you had your reasons for cutting yourself off from everyone and I knew how you felt. I did the same when Connie left me. So why now? I hear you say. Well, Henry, I met a woman. Despite telling you I’d never love again. Belle just came into my life — my new accountant could you believe it? And, well, it hit me like a ton of bricks, son. I actually think I love Belle more than I ever loved Connie. Now, steady on. I don’t want ya spluttering that you’ll never meet anyone you’ll love more than you did my daughter. It might be that time has dulled my feelings and that my love for both was huge. All I’m saying is I found the capacity to love again. Yes, Connie wasn’t cruelly taken away from me like my daughter/your wife was, but still, I wanted to let you know, your heart still does have the capacity for love inside. I know it because it’s happened to me. Belle is younger than me and we’re having a baby. My new baby will never be Vee, but maybe she’ll go some way to fill the void left when my daughter departed the earth, the void of looking to the future and thinking of grandchildren and old age. Hell, I thought I’d be cuddling grandkids now, not about to start again myself at the age of 55!
I’ve kept tabs on you Henry. I know about your Club and I know there’s been no one serious in your life. So, I’m reaching out to you. Life is short. You don’t have to seek love, but why not give it a chance to come find you? Be more open to dating instead of spending all your time in that damn club with people who don’t give a damn. My address is enclosed, and any time you feel like popping over to see me, to meet my new wife (and my new daughter when she appears) - well, son, you are more than welcome.
Now I know this letter has been delivered to you by Amelia. If there’s any work related stuff — not the club jeez — you can get her involved in, her mom would be forever in your debt. Due to what happened with Vee, well, let’s just say, Amelia’s had a overprotected and sheltered existence and Connie’s scared she’s going to settle over there and go wild. That she’s going to lose her too.
I’m signing off now, my hand is hurting. People don’t tend to write letters these days, do they? Just think about things and live a little. You didn’t die that day, Henry. Vee did. Would she want you to have mourned for her for all this time?
Ralph.
With trembling hands, I placed the letter on the side and moved to my bedroom with my wine glass. I collected the bottle on the way past the kitchen and I drank myself into a stupor as the words from his letter circled the drain of my mind.
Chapter 3
Amelia
Holy fuck. What was I doing here? I sat back against the headboard of the guest room bed, wine in hand. I’d told Henry I’d come to his home to deliver Ralph’s letter and while that wasn’t an outright lie, it wasn’t the entire reason I was here either.
My imagination had led me here. Faded and scant memories of a man who had loved my sister. Someone I’d remembered as a Prince. He could tell me things about Vee that I didn’t know that I’d been too young to know. I could make the vision of the person in my mind a reality. I had been just nine years old when I’d lost my sister. Far too young to experience such grief and so I found it had hit me again later in life. Times like when I got my period, or had a crush on a guy at school. Times when it would be too embarrassing to talk to Mom, but an older sister who’d trod the path before could have been a great adviser. Instead, it was like I barely knew her at all. She’d been fourteen years older than me and by the time I was properly aware of my big sister she’d moved away from home. She’d gotten along with Ralph okay, but the moment she could she had left the family home. She had a brilliant mind Mon said and was a billionaire in property by the age of twenty-one. To me she was a hero, an enigma. I had family photos of us, photos with my big sister hugging me and smiling fondly at me. However, the real keeper of her secrets, of what she was like in personality, was held within the cold tomb of Henry Carter. That’s how my mom had desc
ribed him, anyway. She said he’d lost touch, had found it too difficult to remain around us. He’d thrown himself into his businesses — a club my parents thought I knew nothing about, and his property business. The business my sister had set up. She’d always said there would be a job for me when I was older and now I’d come to see if Henry would let me take that job. But if I was to get anywhere with him, I could see I was going to have to tread very carefully, go slowly. He was like a timid, but feral cat - wary and watching. As soon as I had sat across from him at the kitchen island, I could see I’d thrown his carefully ordered world upside down and that he was struggling to think straight. It was why I’d agreed I’d see him in the morning. Henry Carter needed to process things. He needed the time to consider his options. I had no idea what was in the letter my mom’s first husband, Ralph - Vee’s father - had sent him, but Ralph had asked me to make sure he was alright after reading it, so I would ask him about it in the morning.
I stared around the classic looking room with its high ceilings, high windows and muted tones of beiges and creams. It was beautiful and a much nicer room than anything I would be able to rent. When Henry had said I could stay the week I had breathed a huge sigh of relief. It had saved me asking him if I could stay.
Taking a drink of wine I rested my head back and closed my eyes. My thoughts taking me back in time.
“What’s it like being in love, Vee?” I asked my big sister. She was getting married soon. Her boyfriend, Henry, was like one of the princes in my fairy tale books. He had longish blond hair, all floppy over his face and when he smiled, it was like his face was sunshine. He gave my sister the sunshine look all the time. “Is it like sunshine?” I added.
Vee stroked my face.
“Sometimes. Well, a lot of the time, it’s like sunshine. It makes you feel all happy and warm inside, you know?” I nodded avidly.
“But it’s not like those fairy tales I keep catching you reading.” My face dulled. “Sometimes we argue, just like anyone. That could be the thunder and lightning I guess, and sometimes we can get upset with each other and I guess that’s the rain? But then the sun comes back out and everything is lovely again.”
“But is it mainly sunshine.”
