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“So… did she fall out with Stanford too?”
She pushed out another of those dry chuckles. “Not the way she fell out with me. But she and Stan had their understanding. She and I… did not. So that wasn't surprising to me. She liked him beyond what their understanding was, but she didn't say that to him.”
“But you knew?”
She nodded.
“Oh,auntie…that's dirty,” I said, shaking my head and to her credit, my aunt didnottry to claim otherwise.
“I never said I was proud of the way it went down. And if I wasn’t working with a twenty-something’s brain, it wouldnothave gone down the way it did. But…I can't deny what happened. She and Stan were messing around, and me and Stan were messing around, and then she found out and she… stopped fooling with either of us. That was how she ended up with your father. Her feelings were hurt after the thing with Stan and William was right there, ready to swoop in, just waiting to be her knight in shining armor. And nobody could tell her anything, ’cause she was mad.”
I nodded as little pieces of the story came together in my mind.
“But clearly you guys made up, because as long as I can remember… the two of you were best friends,” I said.
“Oh yeah, we made it past that, after I apologized alot, and we were able to move forward.”
“And what about her and Stanford?” I asked. “Because… Soren.”
She dropped her gaze again, shaking her head. “I’m not sure what to tell you, Nala. Stan moved away and me and Larena didn’t really talk about him, for a long time.”
“Until…?”
“Until your brother came out looking just like him. She tried to pretend he didn’t, that those features were William, but… she couldn’t pretend withme. I think William knew too, but was too embarrassed or maybe just too prideful to admit it. Or make any accusations.”
“Yeah, until now,” I said, sitting forward. “He was holding that in, all these years, and he’s clearly done with it now. Thinking about that kind of resentment… it’s scary. Especially knowing that he was so heavily involved with her care at the end of her life. Knowing that he was selling things from up under her bit by bit just to spite her one last time. I’m pretty sure he only kept the business this long so he could steal from it.”
“Ihavewondered,” Aunt Lucy admitted. “He wouldn’t really let me see or speak to her right at the end and I wondered if he was…”
“Wondered if he waswhat?” I prompted, when she didn’t finish that statement.
She shook her head. “Wondered if he wasn’t taking care of her like he should. I tried to insist on a nurse for her and he swore he had it under control. All her different medicines, all those instructions, and he just seemed… I don’t know how he seemed. But something about it wasn’t right. That wasn’t anything I could prove though, and I certainly wasn’t going to burden you kids with my suspicions.”
“I wish you had,” I murmured, letting my memories take me back to that time. “Because I always felt like something was off too. He insisted I wasn’t needed at home, wanted Soren to stay at school… he wasso madwhen I left my job to settle back in Blackwood. But I wanted to be close to mama, knowing what she was going through. And then she was just…gone.And it feltreallysudden.”
“Which is how breast cancer works sometimes,” Lucy said. “Especially the aggressive forms and with how weak she was after all those rounds of chemo. I’m not saying it didn’t make me feel uneasy, I just don’t want to jump to conclusions. I never liked William and don’t care to defend him, but… implying that he had something to do with your mother’s death? That’s serious, Nala.”
“It is,” I admitted. “But… without clear answers, I have to take everything into consideration. Which reminds me of the other thing I was going to ask. I know he at least let you come and get some of mama’s things after she passed. Did you happen to take any journals, her laptop, anything like that?”
“Just photo albums, mainly,” she said. “And the family heirloom jewelry we went through together.”
I nodded.
She’d brought my mother’s jewelry box to me after the funeral and it had been quite cathartic to sort through it all. And she’d been generous with me, letting me take whatever I wanted.
And I’d seen the albums a dozen times already.
“Okay,” I said. “I think I’m going to go over to the house, see if Daddy kept anything. If he hasn’t destroyed it.”
She sighed. “You don’t really think he’d do that, do you?”
“The way he spoke about her the last time I saw him… I honestly don’t put anything past him.”
TWENTY-FOUR
NALANI
One of theperks of being in charge was taking as long of a lunch break as I wanted.
