“I don’t think that she wanted to die, Eita. No one wants that.”
She didn’t answer him. Holly more than likely planned the accident so she could get sympathy from her brothers. Well, had that happened, Eita and the other women of the family would have put an end to that too.
Eita and the other wives had been making sure that Holly and her bastard son stayed right where they were since Holly announced that she was going to have a baby. No amount of tears that she shed that day would have made Eita any less hard on the child. As she told Clayton, since Holly screwed up, that was her problem. And she wouldn’t take the rest of them down with her.
Pulling out her phone, she pulled up her party line numbers that they all used when they had juicy gossip. This news was going to pop all their buttons when they heard what she had to share. Smiling, she waited for them to answer. When talking to them, she never had to fake her concern or pretend to feel any different than she really did when talking about Holly and Marsden. None of them cared for the sister or her son.
“We’ve all heard about Holly. Can you believe that?” Eita, having her news already spread about, asked Tina who she’d heard it from. “Marsden called him a few minutes ago. He told us that she’d been in an accident, which we all knew, and that she’d not made it out of surgery. Also, he said that funeral arrangements would be ready in a couple of days.”
“He thinks he’s going to go down there and run up a high bill and that we’ll all pay for it. I have news for him, I’m going to make sure I do it so that there isn’t any way that he’ll put a huge bill out for one of us to pay. I was thinking just a quick graveside. I doubt very much either of them had any friends. Of course, there will be ours, but they won’t go to someone’s funeral that they don’t know. Do you think?” They all agreed with her, just as she liked it. “He’s also not working. I told him that I had this taken care of, and what did he do? He left work to come here like we didn’t already make arrangements to be here. I swear to you, he does stuff like that just to piss me off. He also threatened me. I slapped him when he was nasty to his uncle. I don’t think he has a lick of manners. Holly did him wrong by keeping him when he was born, and now we’re all going to pay for her stupidity.”
When she’d told them all she knew, Eita was surprised to see Clayton sitting out in the lobby. He never left her alone without asking her permission to do so. It just wasn’t done in their society. Well, just a little bit longer, she told herself, and he’d be back to his old self again. Going to the elevator, knowing that he’d come to her, she was in it with the doors closed before she could stop the doors from closing on her.
“Damn it. Why do I have to suffer? Damn it, Holly, why did you have to go and ruin all our lives when you decided to get yourself knocked up?” No one was in the elevator with her, she noticed, and was saddened by that. There was no one to ask her what had happened. Well, she’d do it later when she had to drag Clayton out of here. Didn’t he remember that they had dinner plans with the Staffords tonight?
Getting frustrated with him when she had to wait another twenty minutes on him, Eita decided that she’d just take the car and go home. Let him deal with getting home. She had things to do to get ready for tonight. She wouldn’t have to get all dressed up too much tonight, she realized. Thanks to Holly’s death, everyone would expect her to be sad and a little absentminded. Not that most of their friends knew how she felt about Holly. Eita planned on taking their sympathy to the next level. Something good may come out of this anyway. They would think that she and Clayton were real troopers for coming out on this day of all days. Eita wondered if she had a lovely black dress she could put on. Black wasn’t really her color, but she wanted to look washed out and in mourning. Although she was actually sort of glad to have Holly out of her life now. Out of all their lives.
No more embarrassing looks when she was with her friends, and they saw her on the street. She’d not have to answer any more questions as to where the sister was either when she and Clayton had parties. Then there was the added bonus of having a real excuse to play up why they weren’t there.
She was just getting ready to start the car and go home when she saw Clayton coming out of the hospital. He didn’t look her way but continued to speak to the man he was with. Whatever they were talking about, she’d find out later. It had to do with Holly and Marsden, she was sure. Eita had forgotten all about the hospital bill until this very moment. She supposed it would be up to her to make sure that got paid off as well. Would anyone ever appreciate everything she did behind the scenes for them? More than likely not, she thought.
Chapter 2
Mars didn’t know what to do with himself. Since he and his mom had lived in this same condo since he was born, he knew that every square inch of it was cleaned and polished. He’d been in his mom’s room for most of the afternoon. He thought that picking out a dress for a loved one to be buried in was the hardest thing that he’d ever had to do.
The knock at the door startled him from his thoughts about all the things he had left to take care of. Going to the door, he was engulfed in a big hug from North when he walked in the door. Then behind him were his other cousins, Wats, Booker, Shawn, and then Brandon. They each hugged him as they sobbed about how sorry they were.
“I will miss her as much as you will, Mars. I swear, she was more of a mother to all of us than our own mothers were.” Mars told North that he knew that as well. “Anything we can help you with? Mom is going to the funeral home tomorrow. I didn’t even bother telling her that you’d been there already. I’m glad that you called me to tell me directly. Mom didn’t have anything right when she told me.”
“She kept telling me to stay at work, that she had it taken care of. Like I could have done that even if it hadn’t been serious.” Wats said his mom said the same thing, that he’d left his work for no reason. “There was a reason—my mom was in a car accident. Even if it had been nothing at all, as Aunt Eita said it was, I would never have left her alone to deal with it. But she died.”
No one said a word to him as he wiped away the tears. He and his cousins, all of them younger than him, had always been close. Mars knew that it had to do with his mom keeping them together. It certainly didn’t have anything to do with the others’ parents.
Mars thought that it had been Brandon that had come to his mom first. He’d been whipped by the butler while his mom stood there watching. Salma would never have dirtied her hands to whip her son, no she left that to others. It didn’t matter what the infraction, what she called it. There was no reason for someone to need stitches in their body after doing anything.
All of them, after she’d seen to his wounds, had started coming around more and more. Not just to get fixed up, which she did on a regular basis, but just to get a homecooked meal that didn’t come with rules, like not talking and laughing at the table.
Even as his cousins grew up and moved out of their family homes, they came to his mom for advice, friendship, as well as getting to hang out with him. Mars knew that rarely if ever did their parents know about them coming to stay with them. Rather than letting their parents know they were in town, mostly North would sleep in the condo on the floor, so he didn’t have to be around his family.
Mom being a nurse, had helped them all. When he’d been younger, she would have to patch him up as well. A few times, one of the aunts had hit him hard enough that he’d needed stitches. Mom never said a word to him about it, but he was sure that she’d spoken to someone about hitting her son. After a while, when he started to get taller than them, they would hire thugs to go after him. That didn’t last too long either when he’d knocked the shit out of them as well. He was actually never sure who had done the hiring, but now that he was older, he would bet that it was Eita. She was by far one of the meanest women he’d ever come across.
“The last time I was home, I didn’t even tell Mom and Dad. I stayed here with you guys
. It was the most fun I’ve had coming home, too. Your mom was special, Mars. Don’t ever let any of our moms tell you any different.” He told Wats that he’d never let anyone do that. “I don’t know why it is that my mom and the rest of them hate you guys so much. They never once tried to get to know you as we did. I will admit that at first, I only came around because they talked so badly about you two. I had to see for myself what terrible people you were. Turned out, you guys were the good guys and my family, all of our families, are the worst kind of people.”
“Wats, you know what Aunt Holly would say to you right now.” They all laughed when Wats said that she’d pop him in the forehead and tell him to behave. “You’re right. That was another thing that I dearly loved about your mom. She never stooped to their level. Never once did she ever ask us what they were saying about you two. Even when we would have gladly told her, she didn’t want to know anything.”
They spent the rest of the evening and well into the night talking about his mom. Mars loved having them there. This was just the balm that he needed. To be with his cousins and talk about how special—even though he already knew—how very special his mom had been.
When they all bunked out on the floor in the living room, pulling out the air mattresses that Mom had gotten for them, he went to his room and sat at his desk. Pulling up the pictures that he’d been asked to bring to the funeral home, he sat there and had a good cry at every one of them.
“Mars?” He turned and looked at North, who stood in the doorway to his room. The two of them had been the closest growing up. “They don’t know anything about you, do they? About the money and the lottery winnings. None of it, do they? Not even the other cousins.”
“Mom never wanted them to know anything that they didn’t ask for.” North came into the room and sat on his bed when Mars offered it to him. “Mom made good money, and so did I. From a very early age, she taught me to put most of it away so that I’d have enough if trouble befell me. When she won the lottery money, we studied investments for months before we turned in the ticket and got the cash. Millions of dollars were ours for the taking, and we used it wisely.”
“Almost a billion if I remember correctly. One of the biggest Powerball’s ever won by a single person, I think they said in the paper. And she was right here all along. I don’t think it changed her a single bit either. Neither of you.” Mars said she didn’t want it to change them. “I’m not kidding you, Mars, you had the very best of them with Aunt Holly being your mom. I did love her as much as you did. She was kind, generous, and stern when she needed to be. I have to tell you, buddy, I don’t know what I’m going to do without knowing that she’s right here for me.”
“Me either.” The two of them sobbed hard. Their hearts were broken, and Mars didn’t know that his would ever mend. “North, did she ever tell you how she came to be pregnant with me?”
“No. I mean, I’ve never asked her. Never really cared to tell you the truth. But I do think that I heard from my mom that your mom was easy. Now that I think on that, I can’t equate that with your mom. She never struck me as being easy about anything.” Mars said that she was terrified of men. It took North a moment or two to get what he was trying hard not to say out loud. When he got it, North looked at him wide eyed. “Oh my God, Mars. Was she raped?”
“Several times over the course of a few days. By different men too. She told me about it when I was fifteen. I knew that it had to be something like that by then, but not any details. Her family knew about it, I think. At least Mom said that her father did. Mom was aware that they said that she was sleeping around. They said those things about her because she told me that they felt guilty or something. I didn’t believe that part, but she really didn’t know. I don’t think they have that kind of feelings in their body. But they didn’t look for her when she came up missing. Not once. Then when she escaped and ended up spending two weeks in the hospital for her injuries, they told people that she had been in a car accident. Drinking and driving.” North asked what Grandfather had said about her being gone. “Mom told me that he came to the hospital to see her. She said that she’d been so happy to see him that she begged him to take her home with him. That was when he told her that he wanted nothing to do with her, as she was spoiled for other men. He wrote her out of the will, as you know, and disowned her. The story about her being thrown to the curb when she found out about me is untrue. Mom was already on her own by then.”
“Christ.” Mars hadn’t ever told anyone that story before. His mom had only told him because he’d asked her about it. “My level of respect for your mom has just hit an all-time high, Mars. And that for my family is the lowest that I could ever have imagined. Mother fuck, I hate my parents all the more because of that.”
“I didn’t tell you that to make you hate them, North.” North told him that he knew that. “I just needed to talk to someone. I didn’t mean to make any trouble between the rest of you.”
“You need to tell the other cousins, Mars. They deserve to know the lies that they’ve been told all our life. My mother would tell such stories about Aunt Holly. Christ, when I think of them now, I wonder how those lies just spilled over her lips.” He stood up to pace, and Mars told him he was sorry again. “Don’t be. Please don’t be. But I would like your permission to be able to say something to them when they start in on it again. All of it.”
“Mom is the only one that didn’t want them to know. I could care less. I never said anything because she told me it would have caused you guys trouble. She never wanted you to hate your parents, North. You know that, don’t you?” North said that he did. “North, what are you going to do?”
“If you don’t want to tell the others, I will. In fact, I would love to. There is absolutely no reason for the things that they did and said. Not to mention, my parents talking about how you were never going to amount to shit. Nor your mom. Did you—? Well, it doesn’t matter anymore. But I’m not going to put up with it. I’m a grown man, and I’m going to take a stand about everything now.”
“Don’t.” North said that he should have been an adult a long time ago. “Maybe. But you don’t want to dump your parents over something that happened decades ago. I’m not okay with it either, but I’m going to be more subtle about it. Me keeping my tongue behind my teeth, as Mom was so fond of saying, is over. I’m going to be the man that she’d be proud of.”
“As am I.” They both looked up to see Booker in the doorway. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop on your conversation, but I didn’t know about your mom, Mars. None of us did. I’m so profoundly sorry for that.”
“There is no need for you to be sorry, Booker. Any of you. Mom always told me that she would never have gotten me had it not been for that week. As for the family thing? I knew that it hurt her in more ways than I can fathom. But now that she’s gone, I’m not going to be their bad boy. Unless, of course, they drive me to that.” Booker smiled. It wasn’t a friendly one, but at glancing at North, he had the same smile. “Why do I feel like I’ve just opened a can of worms that is never going to be closed again?”
“Because, our dear cousin, you have. And I, for one, am thrilled to death to have a clear and true story about what really happened.” Mars asked North how he knew he wasn’t lying to him. “Because you never have in the past. It doesn’t seem like something that you’d just start now. And just so that I have facts, I’m going to start looking into things too. That’s what I’m the best at as an attorney.”
The rest of them got up, and over breakfast, at the local restaurant, they were all informed of what had really happened to his mom. Not only that, of course. They spoke about all kinds of different things. Mostly, unlike before, they spoke about their lives. What they were up to. Who was dating and who wasn’t.
Mars did wonder if any of the others would marry and have a family of their own. He didn’t ask. They were all pretty raw about finding out about his mom, and he thought that the
ir answers would be colored by that. He did, however, ask them to be pallbearers for his mom, and they all agreed.
After they were finished up, he hugged them all tightly and told him what he had to get finished before the funeral that was going to be the day after tomorrow. He was glad now that he’d gotten his mom’s favorite dress out last night so that he could drop that off at the funeral home on his way to the hospital. He wanted to get Mom’s things back, as well as find out from her attorney what he needed to do for her will. Smiling to himself, he wondered if Mom had mentioned any of her brothers or their wives in her will. It would be like his mom to get back at them from the grave.
~*~
“I don’t understand what is going on here.” Benson Farley, the funeral director, asked Penelope what she meant. “I came here to see to the funeral arrangements of my sister-in-law. Now you’re telling me that it’s all been taken care of. Which one of my sisters came here ahead of me? It would be just like them to mess up the list that we were all supposed to do today. Which one of them did it so I can tell her off?”
“I don’t know any of your sisters, Mrs. Wilkerson. I did help Mars figure out what he wanted in the way of services. Other than that, I’m afraid that I can’t tell you anything more. It has his name on the paperwork, not yours.” Penelope asked him who had come with Marsden to make the arrangement, knowing full well it could not have been Marsden. He was an idiot. “It says right here on the paperwork that Mr. Mars Wilkerson came in to make the arrangements and—”
Marsden (Wilkerson Dynasty Book 1) Page 2
