25

Beth had called at nine on Saturday morning to ask Kelli to go on another shopping expedition. “I just can’t decide what to do about the nursery. Please help me,” she’d said. Six hours later, after a fun afternoon of lunch and shopping, Beth insisted they ride together over to her mother’s house. “Just so you will know where it is for next time—in case you ever want to take music lessons.”

“Beth, I really don’t think—”

“You didn’t sing a single word at church last week. Mom can take someone who is shy about singing in public and turn her into a soloist, you mark my words. I’ve seen her do it with a couple of people. At least she’ll give you enough confidence to sing along in a group.”

“It’s not so much that my confidence is lacking,” Kelli mumbled. This was not quite true—that mostly was the problem—but the other part was equally true. “It’s just that I didn’t know any of the songs.”

“Really? None of them? What kind of songs do you sing in your church back home?”

Kelli thought about how honest she should be here, but she decided that any kind of bluffing could easily come back to haunt her in further conversations. Better to come clean. “I don’t usually go to church. Not very often, anyway.”

“Really? Well then, Mom can be sure to teach you some of the more common songs during your lesson.” She nodded resolutely. “If you don’t mind my asking, what is it that caused you to visit our church? Is there something in particular you’re looking for, or are you just curious, or what? I mean, don’t get me wrong, whatever the reason, I’m thrilled and happy that you’re there. Just curious, that’s all.”

Kelli was pretty certain that if she pretended the reason was spiritual curiosity, it would someday come back to bite her in the form of pressure. Better to remain as truthful as possible without inviting an outpouring of well-meaning but misplaced evangelism. “None of the above, really. I mean, I believe in God and everything. My parents never really saw much reason to go to church because Dad always said organized religion was more a social network than anything and the important thing was to be as good a person as you can be.” Something her father had not done as well as Kelli had once believed. “So I guess I mostly showed up at your church for the social aspect—to meet some people, get the feel of the area.”

Beth turned her attention from the road to Kelli for just a split second, and there was no mistaking the look of alarm on her face. To her credit, she quickly regained her composure and went on like nothing had happened. “Hmm. Interesting.” She said nothing else, and the silence in the car had grown rather awkward by the time they pulled up in front of a small brick house.

“This is your mother’s home?” Kelli could not keep the shock out of her voice. The house was tiny—at least compared to the original place. Older and made of red brick, but the lawn was well tended, and baskets of ferns and flowers hung every few feet all along the front.

“Yes.” Beth looked at her then, her eyes narrowed with concentration. “Were you expecting something different?”

“Oh, I . . .” Kelli’s mouth went dry. “I don’t know, I just sort of pictured her in a large old home full of antiques or something. Isn’t that strange how you can get something like that in your mind about someone that you’ve only just met?”

“I’d say you’ve got a good sense of reading people, because that’s the kind of house she used to live in. When I was a kid, we lived in a large house that was older than my grandmother. It was drafty and squeaky, but I loved that place. I know my mother did, too. It was a shame when we had to move.”

“You had to move?”

“After my father died, Mom’s salary as a teacher didn’t come near to covering the expenses of the place, and my grandmother was sick and needing full-time care, which also cost a lot of money. It came down to a choice between selling and moving somewhere much smaller or declaring bankruptcy. It broke her heart to do it, though, for our sakes.” She shook her head. “She always said that losing your father and sister is a traumatizing enough event for a kid, it was a shame we had to lose our home in the process. She tried working extra jobs and such, but the two of us were young, and she did a lot for Nana, too. To be honest, she’s still paying off some of the debt from all that. My mother is truly the bravest and best woman I’ve ever known.”

Those words struck Kelli hard. Surely her father would not have left his wife and children behind in such financial straits. “Did your father not have, you know, life insurance?”

“Yes, he did, but it took several years to collect. We had to have them declared legally dead in court, which was awful for Mom.” They started walking up the driveway. “She resisted for a long time. I think it was because she really expected them to turn up on an island somewhere.”

Kelli thought she might be sick. “I’m so sorry.” These poor people had been left behind to lose everything while her father moved on with a new life and a new wife, never taking any responsibility for the mess he’d left them in. How was it possible that this was the same man she’d always known? It didn’t seem like it could be. “But she finally got the insurance money, right?”

“Yes and no. She got the payout, but she didn’t keep any of it.”

“What’d she do with it?”

“Used it to keep my grandmother in a decent care facility. Nana’s money had run out. And the only alternative was to put her in a nursing home where my mother did not believe the care was adequate.”

“What was wrong with her?”

“She had a form of dementia. I’m not sure who I felt the most sorry for, my grandmother or my mother, who ran herself ragged trying to do anything she could to make her more comfortable and happy.”

“So she used every bit of the life insurance money to take care of her mother?”

“Not her mother. She was my father’s mother.”

My father’s mother? He left Alison to take care of everything, including his own sick mother? The thought was too horrible to comprehend. There had to be some sort of misunderstanding. “Your dad’s mother was the grandmother you were talking about who was in a home? Who had been in a home for a while before the accident?”

“Yes. Nana was Daddy’s mother. Why do you sound so surprised by that?”

He’d left all of them to fend for themselves while he took off for a new life with a sexy waitress who made him feel young again. The tiny brick house in front of Kelli seemed to sway back and forth, and then her world went black.