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He smiled. “You’ll find that Lucille is like me in that regard. When there’s something to do, she goes at it body and soul until it is done and done well. She’s a woman of action and will be quite an asset to the Heaven-stone management. She basically ran her husband’s four car dealerships and after he died worked a very lucrative deal for herself in their sale. She’s not just the daughter of a bank president; she is as capable as a bank president. You’ll learn a great deal from her. And I mean about everything in life.”
He leaned forward.
“I won’t say I was any real help to you during your own difficult period, Semantha. You needed the wisdom of a mature woman, and with your mother gone and no one close enough to us to trust, you had to sink or swim on your own. Oh, I got you all the medical and psychological attention I could and sent you to the best private high school I could find, but it would have been much better for you if there had been someone here who could have understood things from a female viewpoint. Well, now there is.” He slapped his palms down on his knees and stood. “I don’t know about you, but I’m very tired, and tomorrow’s another big day. We’re going through some major changes in the Lexington store.”
He crossed to me and reached for my hand. I stood up, and he hugged me and kissed my cheek.
“Welcome home, Semantha. I hope your life is much, much better in the days, weeks, months, and years to come.”
With that, he turned and walked out of the den. I stood there a moment and then sat.
“Did you ever hear such a crock of crap about any woman?” Cassie muttered. I shook my head. I could feel her standing beside me, looking toward the doorway. “That man has changed. He would never sugarcoat anything. He wasn’t afraid of the truth and would certainly never invent lies to make himself happy. Our ancestors must be squirming in their graves, their bones rattling. I know mine are. That woman must be a witch to have put such a spell on him so quickly. And what about that business with how organized she is? If she ordered the wedding invitations already, she shouldn’t have been surprised by the engagement ring. The whole thing was an act.”
Yes, I thought, Daddy had changed, and the engagement ring and the announcement did feel like an act put on for my benefit.
“Of course it was. You certainly can’t trust or like Lucille Bennet. She gave me a bad feeling, a cold feeling, the moment she appeared. I could see it in her eyes when she looked at you. She knows you’re the only thing between her and Daddy, the only person who could in any way get him to deny her something.
“I bet if you investigated, you’d find out she somehow was responsible for her husband’s heart attack. She’s bad for you, Semantha, and she’ll be very bad for Daddy. It’s up to you to stop her. Stop her!”
How was I supposed to do that? I’m not you, Cassie, I thought. I’m not going to put sleeping powder into her drink. I rose and started out.
“You heard him. Mother did it to herself. I was just being cooperative. You heard him!”
Yeah, right, I thought. Now who’s sugarcoating?
I walked away quickly and hurried up the stairs, chased by Cassie’s laughter. Finally, I was exhausted. It had been my high school graduation day, but I had suffered some very serious disappointments. Ethan was obviously gone from my life, and my father was becoming someone else’s husband.
Welcome home, I thought. Welcome back to the demons.
I wasn’t in my bed two minutes before I fell into a deep sleep. I tossed and turned with a mixture of images and memories, sometimes seeing Cassie on that stairway and sometimes seeing Lucille Bennet. I’m sure I groaned and moaned in my sleep, but I didn’t wake until I heard a knock on my door. I rubbed my eyes to drive away the distorted visions and sat up. There was a second, louder knock.
“Yes?”
Lucille opened the door and stepped in, smiling. She was in a beautiful emerald-green silk robe and had her hair swept back. What, did she sleep with her makeup on? She continued across the room and pulled the curtains apart on the window to my left to let in the bright sunshine.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Plenty,” she said with a short laugh. “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood. You don’t want to miss a minute of it.”
She opened the curtains on the second window and turned back to me.
“I told your father you would sleep late this morning. He was hoping we’d all have breakfast together, but he’s gone off to work. He couldn’t wait any longer. I promised him I would look in on you after another hour or so. How are you feeling after having such a big day?”
Confused and disappointed, I wanted to say, but I said, “I don’t know. Exhausted, I suppose.”
“Of course you are. I’ve asked Mrs. Dobson to prepare your breakfast and bring it up to you. She said she knew exactly what to make you, what was your favorite breakfast. We should spoil you for a little while. You deserve it. You had some very nice grades and must have worked hard, harder than most of those girls from what I saw of them, I’m sure.”
“I didn’t do anything special. I didn’t win any awards.”
“Nowadays, from what I can see of young people, graduating with decent grades or graduating at all is truly an accomplishment.”
I shrugged. I wasn’t eager to accept her compliments. Compliments from someone put you in debt to them. That was something Cassie had taught me, and it had stuck. I didn’t want to be in debt to Lucille, not in any way, but she wasn’t easy to refuse. She gazed at me a moment with that studied look, narrowing her eyes and then relaxing her lips, almost smiling.
“From what I understand, you didn’t really have much of a social life at school, at least until the final weeks. You didn’t belong to any club or team?”
“No.”
“Didn’t you do any sort of extracurricular activity at all? That’s the best way to make friends.”
