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“You mean for you and Geri?”
He cleared his throat. “Yes, for all three of us. And I need the equity from the Sydney house to make it happen. The market in Melbourne has really gotten out of control. You wouldn’t believe how expensive houses are in certain suburbs.”
Her cheeks burned. “I don’t need a lesson in real estate, Preston. You can’t sell this house because it belongs to both of us.”
“Actually, it’s in my name. The entire trust we used to purchase the house and our other real estate is in my name. Don’t you remember? When we closed, you were busy with obstetrician appointments and baby Lamaze classes and all that stuff, so you told me to do all the paperwork myself.”
“I didn’t mean you should cut me out of decisions about the house completely! This is our house. We’ve lived here together for almost twenty years.” She was livid. A flame of rage lit in her gut, and she followed Fudge out into the backyard to pace.
He coughed. “The fact is, I’m the executor of the trust, so I’ve got a real estate agent swinging by later. I’d appreciate it if you’d let them in to look around. They’ll want to take photographs tomorrow and get the listing up by the weekend. You’re still named as an equal beneficiary of the trust, so you’ll get half the proceeds.”
“How long do I have?”
“In this market, the agent thinks it will sell fast.”
“So, what do you suggest I do for a place to live?”
He sighed. “That’s really up to you, Bea. I can’t take care of everything for you forever. You know that, right? I’ve done it for twenty-five years. Now it’s time for you to stand on your own two feet.”
He hung up before she could respond. She gaped at the phone, her face blazing. Did he really just tell her that she’d lived off him and let him do everything in their life for the entirety of their marriage? Him! The man who hadn’t washed his own underwear once in over two decades and wouldn’t be able to identify the toilet cleaning solution in a lineup if his life depended upon it?
Her head began to spin, and she lowered herself onto the porch swing with a squeak. She was about to be homeless. She had no idea how much money she had or how the trust worked. There were various friends over the years who’d warned her she shouldn’t let Preston manage all the money without knowing what was going on with their affairs, but she’d waved them off with a laugh. He was her partner in life. They loved one another, and she trusted him completely. She had no need to keep her finger on the pulse of their finances.
Now she knew the truth. They’d been right all along.
The idea came to her one day when she was in the middle of grocery shopping. She’d filled her shopping cart with at least a dozen items before she realised that everything in the cart was for Preston. He liked the white saltines—she preferred wholemeal. But of course, she got the white for him because Preston got what Preston wanted. He liked steak—she preferred fish. Preston loved sponge cake—she hated it and would much rather have a nice packet of chocolate biscuits.
She put back all the groceries and started again with the things she liked to eat. The entire process had her eyes glistening with tears, but she refused to cry in the canned foods aisle.
Where would she live?
Preston was going to Melbourne as soon as the house sold. Harry was in the city at his dorm. And Dani was about to move out of her dorm and live on Coral Island in the small beach cottage where Bea had lived during her younger years. She missed that cottage and wondered how much it’d changed. It’d been years since she’d seen it. Her last visit had been with her mother before she died.
The wallpaper had been peeling off the walls, the floors had holes in them, and the roof leaked. It was as though nature was reclaiming the patch of sand beyond the dunes where it sat. How could Dani go and live there in that remote and secluded location alone? She was certainly far more adventurous than Bea had ever been at that age.
All Bea had wanted was to get away from the island. It was beautiful and picturesque and full of people who knew everything about her and her family. It held so many painful memories of the mother she’d lost and the brother she no longer spoke to. The father she rarely saw. And yet now, with her heart aching over the loss of her husband and their family home, something inside her drew her back. She was homesick for the first time in over two decades.
That’s when the realisation dawned — she should go to Coral Island with Danita. It was perfect. The cottage required far too much work for Dani to do alone. What experience did she have with housekeeping, let alone renovations? It was Bea who’d done all the work repairing, rebuilding and decorating their family home. She’d participated in every single aspect of the renovations on their house. Dani didn’t know how to clean a toilet, let alone select and install one.
Besides that, Bea had nowhere to go. In a few weeks, she’d be homeless when Preston got his way. Instead of waiting for him to toss her out to live on the streets or to sleep in her car, or more likely the local motel, she could be proactive and head home to the island. The thought brought an enormous amount of peace to her soul.
Home. That’s where she should go. And the idea of living with Dani again, however briefly, was more than appealing. She missed having her daughter around all the time. Of course, there was the small problem of Dani wanting this time alone as a kind of meditation that would allow her to choose a life path. But surely she wouldn’t mind if Bea tagged along. She would make herself scarce. Dani would hardly know she was there. And she could offer up baked goods as a bribe if all else failed. Dani had always had a sweet tooth.
The only question was, what would Dad say?
The house sold within the first month of being listed. Preston was right yet again. But Bea no longer minded. She had a plan. She spent every waking moment preparing for the move. Preston had already come to pick out the pieces of furniture and other things around the house he wanted to keep. Then she packed up the rest and had removalists take what she didn’t need to a storage facility. Anything that wasn’t valuable or sentimental enough to keep, she sold on GumTree or gave away to the local thrift shop.
She still hadn’t told anyone in her family what she was doing, and as far as she knew, Preston hadn’t informed either child that they were getting a divorce and selling the house. It was as though both of them were engaged in a game of chicken, and so far, neither of them had called the other’s bluff. The longer they went without saying anything, the more determined Bea was not to be the one to do it, although she knew it was immature and that in the end, the children deserved to know the truth.
So the weekend before her move, she contacted Harry and invited him to the house for dinner. Since everything was packed up, she ordered takeaway Chinese food and set it up in the den on the top of cardboard boxes.
Fudge trotted into and out of every room repeatedly. Ever since the movers came, the dog had been on edge. He’d run around looking for the couch, then make for his bed and leap into it with a look of distrust on his face as though he was certain she was about to snatch it out from under him.
When Harry came in, he gaped in astonishment.
“Hi, Mum. What’s going on in here?” His brown curls hung to his collar, and his brown eyes were warm and full of surprise.
“Hey, honey.” She kissed his cheek. “You look thin, and your hair is in dire need of a cut.”
