Chapter 18 - One More Morning
The ambulance came.
Mother refused to go.
When she woke ten minutes later, she made the decision herself.
"No more hospitals."
The doctor argued.
Mother won.
Of course she did.
We moved her bed closer to the windows so she could see the gardens.
The greenhouse roof had one broken pane covered with a temporary tarp.
"Ugly," she whispered.
"I'll fix it tomorrow."
She looked at me.
"There you go again."
I understood.
Not everything needed fixing tonight.
So I sat.
Clara sat on the other side.
For hours we talked about stupid things.
The time I broke Father's watch at nine and blamed the dog.
The summer Mother drove into a fountain because she refused to admit she needed glasses.
Clara told us Rose once chased a burglar out of her apartment with a frying pan.
Mother laughed until she coughed.
"I would have liked her," she said.
Clara smiled sadly. "Eventually."
"Eventually."
Near midnight, Dana called.
Derek Voss had agreed to cooperate fully.
He would testify Marcus ordered the sabotage that killed Father and the intimidation that followed. The financial records from the chapel matched offshore transfers already under investigation.
Marcus would not talk his way out this time.
I told Mother.
She closed her eyes.
"Good."
"It's done."
"No," she whispered. "Now you decide what to do with what's left."
I knew what she meant.
The company.
The trust.
Clara's inheritance.
Our name.
"Tomorrow," I said.
"Maybe."
That word scared me.
At four fourteen in the morning, I woke in the chair beside her bed.
Mother was watching the sky lighten.
Clara was asleep with her head resting near Mother's hand.
Mother looked at me.
"She stayed," she whispered.
"Yes."
"So did you."
I swallowed.
"Yes."
Her fingers found mine.
"That's all I wanted."
The first sunlight touched the window.
Mother smiled.
May you like
Then she looked at Clara.
"Wake your sister. I want one more morning with both my children."
