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Chapter 2
Mark sat beside Pam, shocked.
He wasn’t typically home this time of day. He had a greenhouse on the outside of town where he spent a good bit of time this time of year. Also, on a day like today where it was warm enough to be working outside, he would normally be knee-deep in a project.
But he’d been on the phone with his sister and had been concerned enough about what they’d talked about that he hadn’t even thought about heading to a job once he was done. There were only another couple of hours of daylight left, and his first instinct had been to come talk to Pam. She would be home from school, and sometimes just talking to her helped him see an area that he normally couldn’t.
But he hadn’t been expecting her news. It made his news fall right out of his head.
“It’s gonna take a lot of money to get that inn operational.”
“I know.”
“There had to have been something going through your head.”
“There was. Just...really bad somethings.”
“You’re not thinking about your mother, are you?” Her mother was wealthy and liked to lord it over Pam. She’d tried to get Pam to do something other than pursue a teaching career. She felt like Pam could have been something a little bit more prestigious and esteemed.
Pam hadn’t even wanted to go to college, but her mother had insisted. There was no way that she was going to allow any daughter of hers to go through life without a college diploma.
She was that kind of woman.
So, Pam said she had chosen the career that suited her the best.
Mark knew, through the years, that Pam’s mother and her money had enabled Pam and her girls to go on vacations, had enabled her daughters to both go to Europe for summer trips while they were still in high school, and had helped pay for their college education.
Her mother was generous but also controlling.
Pam had handled her with kid gloves through the years, and Mark had spent more than one night listening to Pam and offering advice.
Both of Pam’s girls had moved to Detroit to be closer to her mom. And her mom’s money. Pam knew it, but she hoped that eventually they’d come back.
There was a big, messy situation about an aunt’s inheritance that Pam was supposed to get, but that her mother was holding hostage, and which angered Mark every time he thought of it, but Pam hadn’t wanted to do anything, like go to a lawyer, because she wanted to continue to have a relationship with her mother.
“I have to admit I’m surprised.”
“I know, right? This is so out of character for me.” She had been holding her head in her hands, and now her arms dropped, with her elbows still on her knees.
She shifted again, hugging her legs to her stomach and rocking carefully, as though trying to comfort herself.
