“One last thing,” he said. “Congratulations, Ms. Bone.”
Cordelia sat with the phone to her ear long after Allen hung up.
“CAN’T SLEEP?”CORDELIAheard a voice ask.
The kitchen was dark, but she turned to see her sister’s silhouette at the table, a shaft of moonlight from the window catching in the silvery threads of her hair.
Cordelia had spent the day working up the nerve to tell her about the call from the paralegal. It was ultimately good news she was delivering, so why did she feel so burdened by it? Maybe because she knew this would seal Eustace’s decision to remain atBone Hill. Or maybe she was simply overcome by the tangle of secrets plaguing this adumbral estate. Nothing here was ever as it seemed, and even if this was the firstgoodsecret they’d uncovered, it only added to her insecurity, the feeling that she could never get her bearings here or know what was waiting around any given corner.
“Eustace,” she breathed. “You startled me.”
“Chamomile tea,” her sister said, raising a cup in the dark. She used her foot to push out another chair from the table, and Cordelia spotted the sleeping fox curled up underneath.
She switched on a small lamp and moved to sit in the chair. “I have to tell you something,” she said after a moment. “Something I should have told you sooner.”
Eustace looked dubious. “Oh?”
Cordelia filled her in on the paralegal’s call, his attorney’s advice about the trust, the deadline they were facing, and the truth about their aunt’s considerable assets.
“Howmuch?” Eustace asked again, unable to digest the figures Cordelia was providing.
“Multiple eight figures,” she repeated. “He actually congratulated us.”
Her sister barked out an unexpected laugh. “Holy shit…” Her eyes met Cordelia’s. “Holy shit, we’re loaded!”
Cordelia smiled. It gave her joy to see her sister so happy, but she didn’t share Eustace’s elation.
After a minute, Eustace noticed. “I don’t get it. Why aren’t you happy about this? You’re free, Cordy. You can get the mob off your back now. All our problems are solved!”
“Not exactly,” Cordelia reminded her.
Money, no matter how much of it they were talking about, could not explain what happened to their mother or what they were doing here. It couldn’t make the horrors she’d seen disappear. Or root out whoever had left that threatening symbol inblood spattered across their floor. And it couldn’t heal the condition that was trying to rip her head open, on a daily basis at this point. Money couldn’t save them. Not from themselves. And she feared money had more to do with creating their problems than solving them, that it would continue to. She told Eustace as much.
“You are such a buzzkill,” Eustace told her, wilting. “I have never known anybody who could render tens of millions of dollars completely worthless in a matter of sentences.”
She felt herself the half-empty glass, her sister the half-full. “Sorry.”
“You know what I don’t get, though,” Eustace continued. “Why wouldn’t Bennett tell us about this? He had us thinking it was some piddly amount. And he never even mentioned the deadline.”
Cordelia shrugged. “He did bring us the papers right away. We’re the ones who didn’t read them, who’ve been dragging our feet to sign.”
“How many days do we have left?”
Cordelia counted to herself. “Ten, I think.”
Her sister sighed. “I’ll call tomorrow, get him back out here to wrap this up. I’ve got an online shopping habit to establish.”
Cordelia nodded, glad that at least one of them would have some fun with this. She’d thought this whole time that if she could just get out from under John’s debts, she would feel better. But this house had stirred up too much within her. She would never be at peace now until she put the pieces together.
She noticed their mother’s urn sitting in the center of the table. “Do you think she would be upset that we brought her back here?”
“I don’t care if she is,” Eustace said. “I’m upset that she kept this from us.”
Cordelia looked down at her hands, folded in her lap, uselessas lace gloves. Their mother had cheated them out of so much, and here they all were anyway, pawns gathered at the center of the board. “Maybe she just wanted us to have a normal life.”
“I might believe that,” Eustace said bitterly, “if that’s what she’d given us. But it’s not.”
“There had to be a reason. She loved us. She must have believed she was doing the right thing.”
