Chương 6
“She didn't spend her last months waiting for a grandchild.”
Chloe's eyes filled.
“She spent them waiting for him.”
The baby began to fuss.
Chloe stood and bounced him gently.
“Sorry.”
Elena looked at her.
“For him or you?”
Chloe swallowed.
“Both.”
Upstairs, a floorboard creaked.
Then another.
Julian came down carrying a small wooden box.
Eleanor's ashes were inside.
He held it with both hands.
His face looked wrecked, but he had wiped away the tears.
He entered the kitchen.
Chloe saw the box and went pale.
Julian placed it on the table.
“Elena.”
She waited.
“There was a letter.”
“Yes.”
“You knew?”
“She asked me to put it there.”
“You read it?”
“No.”
He looked suspicious.
Elena felt something weary and almost funny move through her.
“Even now?”
“What?”
“You still think everyone's arranging evidence against you.”
“I didn't say that.”
“You didn't have to.”
He took the sealed envelope from his pocket.
His name was written across the front in Eleanor's slanted handwriting.
JULIAN.
The sight of it changed his face again.
Chloe watched him.
“Open it.”
He shook his head.
“Not here.”
Elena looked at him.
“Why?”
He gave her a sharp look.
“Because maybe I don't want an audience.”
The old Julian.
A small flash.
Protective.
Proud.
Elena nodded.
“Fine.”
She reached into her cream handbag, which she had placed on the counter, and removed the divorce papers.
His eyes went to them.
“Not today.”
“Yes.”
“My mother just died.”
“One hundred days ago.”
He flinched.
Elena hated herself for using it that way.
Still, she did not retreat.
“You came here today,” she said. “You brought your partner and your child. You handed me cash in an airport and told me she gave you the family I couldn't.”
Chloe closed her eyes.
Julian's mouth tightened.
“I was angry.”
“At what?”
“You showing up.”
“You told me when your flight landed.”
“My attorney told yours.”
“Yes.”
“So you ambushed me.”
Elena stared at him.
He heard the absurdity a second after saying it.
His shoulders dropped slightly.
Chloe said, “Julian.”
He held up a hand.
“Please don't.”
“Don't what?”
“Join in.”
“I'm not joining anything.”
“Yes, you are.”
“I asked you whether your mother knew about our son.”
“She did.”
“No, she didn't.”
“You don't know that.”
“Elena just said—”
“Elena says a lot.”
The baby startled at the shift in his voice.
Julian stopped immediately.
His face softened.
“Sorry.”
Chloe looked at him.
“Don't apologize to me.”
He rubbed the bridge of his nose.
Elena placed the clear sleeve on the table.
“You don't have to sign this second.”
Julian laughed once.
“Generous.”
“But you are going to read it.”
“I have counsel.”
“So do I.”
“I'll have them review it.”
“Good.”
“I won't be pressured in my mother's house.”
Elena looked around the kitchen.
Something changed in her expression.
Julian noticed.
“What?”
“It isn't your mother's house anymore.”
He went still.
Chloe looked between them.
Julian's voice dropped.
“What does that mean?”
“Elena.”
“What does that mean?”
“The estate is in probate.”
“I know how probate works.”
“Then why are you asking?”
“Who gets the house?”
Elena almost said something cruel.
Instead she answered carefully.
“Your mother left instructions.”
“To who?”
“She divided her estate.”
His jaw flexed.
“Elena.”
“You're a beneficiary.”
He exhaled.
Not relief exactly.
But something near it.
The fact did not make him noble.
It made him human.
He was grieving and still thinking about property.
Elena understood that better than she wanted to.
“How much?”
Chloe stared at him.
Julian caught her expression.
“Oh, come on. I'm asking because this is my family estate.”
Elena said, “Your mother's lawyer will explain everything.”
“Do you get the house?”
There it was.
The fear beneath the question.
Not money.
Displacement.
His wife living where his mother had lived.
His old room holding the ashes.
A world proceeding without his permission.
“I don't know yet.”
That was true.
Eleanor had left Elena a right to remain in the house for one year while the estate was settled and several personal items by name. The rest was more complicated, involving charitable gifts and family distributions Elena had not wanted explained in detail.
She had asked the lawyer only one question.
“Did she leave me anything because she was angry with Julian?”
The lawyer had looked at her.
“She made changes before her final decline.”
“That wasn't my question.”
“No,” he said. “I don't believe she was trying to punish him through you.”
That had mattered.
Elena did not want to become the weapon of a dead woman.
Julian stared at the floor.
“You stayed here.”
“Yes.”
“After the funeral.”
“Yes.”
“In my mother's house.”
“She asked me to.”
“You could have gone home.”
“My home was with you.”
The words slipped out before Elena could stop them.
Silence followed.
Julian looked up.
For one dangerous second, she saw the man who had sat beside her on the bathroom floor.
Then he looked away.
“That's not fair.”
Elena almost laughed.
“No.”
He looked at her again.
“No?”
“No. It's not fair. None of this is.”
He closed his eyes.
The baby began chewing the edge of his knitted sleeve.
Chloe gently pulled the fabric from his mouth.
Julian said, “I didn't plan for any of this.”
Elena looked at him.
“Neither did I.”
“I mean Chloe.”
Chloe's head lifted.
Julian continued, “I mean the baby. The timing. Everything happened quickly.”
Chloe stared at him.
“That's how you're explaining me?”
“No.”
“You literally just said—”
“That's not what I meant.”
Elena stepped back from the table.
This part was no longer hers.
Chloe looked at Julian with a hurt that seemed to embarrass her.
“You told me you chose us.”
“I did.”
“You just called us timing.”
“I said the timing happened quickly.”
“That's not better.”
“Can we not do this in front of Elena?”
May you like
Chloe gave him a strange look.
“Why? Is she the only person here whose opinion still matters to you?”
