If anything I’d said had an impact, it was that. I could see the faint amusement drop away from her. “Are you accusing me of being a liar, Master Blake?”
I’d never heard anyone say something archly, but she pulled it off. She even said ‘Master Blake’ like it was nothing, as though she used titles as a matter of habit.
“I’m saying there isn’t anything I’d put past you.”
She sighed, a faint sound, and her cat reacted to the movement. “Close to the truth, I admit, but I consider myself honest, if nothing else.”
“Weren’t you a lawyer?”
“I am a lawyer, Master Blake, and I expect to be one until I pass on. I’m disappointed that you would make assumptions about a whole profession.”
I didn’t have a ready reply to that. I glanced at the nurse, who was shifting from foot to foot nervously. Was he uncomfortable with the friction?
“Well,” she said, “I take it you’re not going to apologize?”
“You first,” I told her. “It’s going to take you a while, so you should start early.”
She sipped her tea, winced at the heat, licking her thin lips with her tongue, and then leaned back against the arrangement of pillows.
“You remind me of my father,” she said. “He had passion, and an interest in justice.”
“He also fucked his cousin, if I remember right.”
She smiled a little. “You heard of that? Yes. That would be him.”
“What are you doing, Grandmother? You want to build a rapport? Form a connection, when you’ve ignored us from the beginning?”
“I only want to understand my grandchildren before I make my decision.”
“Too bad. You’re not going to figure us out in the next day or so. What you should do is sell the property. Let the town knock down the house, level the hill, drain the marshland and expand like they need to, make them happy. Split the money between your kids and grandkids, make us happy. You want to light a fire under everyone and get a reaction? That’s how you do it. Then, maybe just a bit, you’ll earn a measure of forgiveness.”
“Not an option,” she said. She stroked the cat, scratching him at the lowest part of his back, just in front of his tail. “The house stands. I’m picking the young lady who I feel can look after it.”
“Then pick Paige,” I said. “She’s smart, she’s hard working, she’s independent. If you’re looking for a clone of yourself to inherit the place, to look after it, I’m betting she’ll fit the bill pretty well. She’s not a bitch, but I imagine you’ll have to make some concessions. Besides, if anyone can squeeze a few dollars out of this stone, without breaking the rules you set, it’s her. Get bribes from people, maybe, or figure out a way to keep the house while still draining the marsh, so she can go to law school.”
“Paige is out of the running,” my grandmother said. “Who else?”
I stared at her. Brushing aside an argument, just like that.
“You’re enjoying this. Playing us,” I finally said.
“I wouldn’t recommend jumping to conclusions, Blake. Dangerous business.”
“Look me in the eye, then, if you’re so honest, and tell me you don’t. That you don’t get some measure of glee or satisfaction out of this.”
She looked me square in the eye.
Yet she didn’t say a word.
“Thought so,” I said. “Bye, grandmother. When you do die, I hope it sucks.”
I turned to leave.
“Blake,” she said.
I stopped, my hand on the doorknob. I regretted it the moment I paused.
“When you first spoke to me, you said, ‘All due respect’. Did you mean it?”
I didn’t look at her. “All due respect, you’re a festering old cunt? One hundred percent.”
That said, I opened the door, and I slammed it behind me with enough force that pictures rattled on the walls.
My family was there, staring.
“If anyone needs me,” I said, very deliberately looking at Paige and Molly, who were standing together at the edge of the group, Molly’s arm around Paige’s shoulders. “I’m going to be outside, by the entrance.”
I made my way out of the house, down the long driveway, and settled with my back to the wall beside my bike.
I couldn’t bring myself to nap. A good night’s sleep in my place with the doors and windows firmly locked was hard enough. But I dozed, my eyes half open, a bit of a burden lifted from my shoulders.
■
It was well after dark when someone stepped outside to talk to me. I closed out of the puzzle game I was playing on my phone. The brightness of the screen made for a dark patch that lingered in my vision as I looked up.
Eleven-fifty at night.
“She wants us all together,” Paige said.
“Do you want to give her what she wants?” I asked, not moving.
“I’d really like some backup,” she said. All of her confidence from before was gone. “If it’s Molly that’s picked, then I can’t get the support from her, you know?”
“I know,” I said. I stood, stretching. I was pretty sure that I’d feel stiffness in a spot or two tomorrow. “No explanation needed. I get it.”
“Thanks,” she said.
When I turned to look, the streets were empty. Odd, that I’d felt like we were being observed. No doubt the entire town was waiting to hear how this played out.
We made our way back up the driveway. I wished I had an idea of what to say, but nothing sprung to mind. Paige was too much of a stranger, in some ways. Three years was a long time.
This time, everyone had gathered in the bedroom.
Paige and I joined Molly. Paige and Molly held hands.
“I have to say, I’m painfully disappointed,” my grandmother said.
Nobody had words to reply.
“Don’t worry. The feeling is mutual,” I said, because someone had to.
My aunts and uncle, along with several of the older cousins, stared at me.
“Molly,” my grandmother said.
“No,” Molly responded.
“Until you’re twenty-five, the estate and all materials herein, my accounts, and all other pertinent materials enclosed in the documents,” my grandmother tapped the papers the lawyer held, “will be managed by Mr. Beasley and his firm. For that time period, you retain control over those assets, with free access to the full funds, modest as they are, and full access to all things relating to the property, excepting the ability to sell it. When you turn twenty-five, you may do with it as you wish.”
“I don’t want it,” Molly said, stepping forward.