If someone else had killed my mother, my father certainly wouldn’t have covered it up with a lie.
“Fuck!” I cursed as I wrapped my arms around Lauren. “At least she’s not missing anymore. All of the craziness and all of the searches can stop. She can be put to rest with the respect and dignity she always deserved. Asher’s obsession can finally end, and he can find some peace.”
I knew my brother.
Finding our mother had become an obsession for him a long time ago.
Yeah, he’d rationalized that there was a chance he’d never find her, but I knew he’d never completely accepted that.
Asher had always felt that obligation to find her, and it had rested heavily on his soul.
Putting my mother to rest would finally end that obsession for him and give him a more normal life.
I was also hoping it would stop him from being so damn haunted by the past.
“What about you?” Lauren questioned quietly.
The tension flowed out of my body. “I’m glad we found her. Maybe I don’t remember her and our past with her like Asher does, but she’s my mom. I know she loved us. The not knowing never sat right with me.”
Even though I remembered very little about my mother, my connection with her had always been there.
I’d needed that resolution, too, but I’d never wanted to hope too much that it was ever going to happen.
“My father is forever going to be branded a murderer after this,” I said matter-of-factly.
“Is that going to bother you?” she asked. “At least it will be a Remington who’s actually guilty of killing someone.”
I shook my head. “I don’t give a shit. I just want to do right by the parent who actually gave a damn about me and Asher.”
We stayed like that for a long time: Lauren trying to comfort me, and me taking all of that affection with the knowledge that maybe, just maybe, Asher would finally find the peace he deserved.
Lauren
The weather cooperated the following Saturday when the services and burial were being held for Lorraine.
It wasn’t a hot summer day, but it was nice enough that I didn’t need a coat or jacket over the navy-blue dress I’d chosen to wear to the cemetery.
There wasn’t going to be a drawn-out funeral service.
All Cole and Asher wanted was the right words spoken and their mother put to rest the way she deserved beneath the beautiful stone marker they’d gotten crafted for their mom.
It had only been a week since Lorraine’s body had been found, but the gossip was all over town about how Cole’s father had killed their mother.
Cole ignored it.
He’d told me that he didn’t really care if people gossiped about his father, and I believed him.
Cole had zero issues with going into town these days.
He was extremely cordial and friendly toward the people he liked and who liked him back.
He’d gotten extremely good at ignoring the folks who weren’t quite as pleasant.
I had no doubt Cole was perfectly capable of letting the rumors about his father roll off his back without a second thought.
Asher and Cole had asked the local pastor to do a short service and blessing before their mother was buried because Lorraine had been a devout Christian.
I saw Millie and Asher having a conversation near what I assumed was Asher’s vehicle when Cole pulled into the cemetery.
