Chapter31
Jane
Betsy showedme to her mother’s room. Caro had been on the main floor since I’d started coming here, and I wanted to tell Betsy I more than knew the way, but I figured that would sound pissy. But that was kind of how I felt.
I couldn’t help myself, but I hoped that Stick would be in the room with Caro. He wasn’t. I should have been tipped off because his car wasn’t parked out front in the large circular drive, but I figured maybe he’d begun parking over by the garage. Maybe now that Betsy and Joey were back he was acting more like…the help.
“Jane,” Caro said when I entered her room behind Betsy. “Thank you for coming.”
“Of course,” I said, moving to the plush upholstered chair at her side.
She didn’t look good. It had only been about ten days since I’d seen her, when we filmed the interview, but she’d declined quite a bit in that short time. She was propped up in bed, a thick robe wrapped around her frail body, a white nightgown peeking out at her neck. Her hair had been recently washed and was still a little damp. An IV was hooked up to one of her arms, and multiple pill bottles and paraphernalia were on the large bedside table.
There were fresh flowers in vases all over the room, and the window was cracked slightly, allowing a light spring breeze into the room. But even with all that, the room still had a…sterilesmell to it. The smell of sickness. The smell of death.
“Can I get you anything, Mom?” Betsy asked, moving to the other side of the bed from where I sat down.
“No, thank you, honey.”
“Okay, then I’ll just leave you two alone.”
Caro looked like she wanted to say something more to Betsy, but she didn’t. Her eyes followed her daughter as Betsy left the room, closing the door behind her.
Thinking I was probably reading her mind, I said, “You can’t force her to accept me, you know.”
A sad smile flitted across her face. “Am I that obvious?”
I didn’t answer that. “It’ll either happen or it won’t. You just need to let her make that choice.”
She nodded. “But, are you…open to her if she wants a relationship with her sister?”
I took a deep breath. If my breakup with Stick wasn’t enough, seeing this woman’s life slipping away from her made me realize that you should never take any relationship for granted. “Yes,” I said.
That seemed to satisfy her, and she leaned back against the headboard of the huge bed and closed her eyes.
I knew this would be the last time I saw Caroline Stratton. The last time to ask her some questions that I’d always wanted answered. “Why did you try to be a part of my life when I was younger?”
She didn’t even open her eyes when she answered, “Because I loved your father, and you were his daughter.”
“Even though he cheated on you? You still loved him?”
“Yes.”
“And youstilllove him.” It wasn’t a question.
Only a nod from her.
“Was it…awful being around me when I was a kid? When you’d bring Betsy and Joey to be with me? When my mother would be in the other room?”
She opened her eyes, leaned away from the headboard. “No, not awful. Well, the situation was awful. Getting Joey and Betsy to go—and be civil—was awful. But it was important that they did, and I wouldn’t have them do it without me there.” She reached a hand out for me, and I inched to the edge of my chair to take it. “Butyouweren’t awful, Jane. You were such an interesting person, even then. So smart, taking in the situation. Hating it, and yet…”
“Wishing I was part of your family,” I finished.
She squeezed my hand, then let it go, leaning back.
“I’m in kind of a similar situation. I mean, the situation you were in back then. It has a lot of parallels.”
She sat back up, with more energy than I thought she had. “Stick cheated on you? That surprises me.”
