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"No, it's nothing like that. I just don't want to see the family inn falling apart. Nor do I want our mother working herself into an early grave. We already lost Dad. I don't want to lose her too."
"What did the doctor say?"
She listened quietly while Holly relayed everything the doctor had told her. Then, she sat and waited for Rina to respond. Randy hadn't been eager to come back home, but that was because of his own issues with Mom. Maybe Rina would be more agreeable since she didn't have that same decade long tension.
"Well, then she'll be fine. You're there to take care of her, so what more could she need? I'm not gonna drop everything in my life just because she needs to eat better."
"Jesus, Rina. This is our mother we're talking about," Holly said, at last, unable to hide just how annoyed she had gotten. "Is it really that big of a deal for you to come see her for at least a couple of days?"
"Oh, please, Holly. Stop trying to be the martyr! You're there already."
"What the hell is your problem? Our mother is lying in the hospital and the inn we all grew up taking care of is literally in tatters. So why are you acting like this?" Holly's anger bubbled to a boil now, and she didn't care much about antagonizing her sister anymore. If she was going to act like a brat, then Holly was going to treat her like a brat.
"If you really must know, Dennis died six months ago. So excuse me if I'm not going to go rushing back home when you know damn well everyone in the family hated him!" Rina snapped. Her voice had risen to the point she was shouting into the phone. "So there, that's why I'm not coming back, since you just had to push the issue. So please, do us both a favor and don't bother calling me ever again!"
The line went dead a few seconds later, and Holly stood there, mouth hanging open, trying to figure out how the call had managed to go that badly. She hadn't expected sunshine and rainbows, but she hadn't expected that, either!
Setting the phone down on the table, Holly just stared at it. She was still in shock over her sister's sudden outburst. Not that she was upset or angry, but the fact that her husband had died months ago, and she hadn't told anyone.
Not that Holly was much better, since she hadn't told anyone about her divorce and everything else. But at least Will was still alive! Jesus. And her two sons. Holly couldn't even imagine it. They'd been through so much. She could feel the lump in her throat threaten to choke her, and she felt a little nauseated at the thought.
Even though coping with a divorce was tough, how was Rina coping with the death of her husband? That was almost infinitely worse, and from the sound of it, she was going through all of it alone with her boys. Sure, she had friends helping her out, but wasn't that what family was supposed to do?
Once again, that familiar stab of guilt hit her, knocking the air from her lungs. She had messed things up again, this time with her sister. She should have reached out to Rina years ago, tried to patch things up between them. They were sisters, for crying out loud! Letting teenage rivalry get between them for so long was just insane.
And yet, she had been so absorbed in her new life that she hadn't considered how everyone else might be doing. Now, there she was, with another ruined relationship, and this one, she had no idea how she could ever repair.
Heck, it didn't sound like Rina would ever want to try.
Holly still needed to call Amy, Randy's twin sister, and tell her the news. But after how the last two calls had gone, she just didn't have the heart or energy to do it. Two catastrophic phone calls in a single night was all she could handle. Anything else would just be the breaking point.
She would have to call Amy. It wouldn't be right not to at least try to let her youngest sister know what was going on. But that could wait, she decided. It wouldn't do anyone any good for her to have a breakdown over the phone. If anything, it would just make everything worse.
Somehow, she had to hold it together. Nelly needed her in one piece, needed her to be the strong one now. And after everything her mother had done for the family over the years, this was the least she could do in return.
