by K.N. Lee
Sarah must have known, at some point at least. It was so obvious looking back over these photographs. Eight years had passed since these were taken, and her mother had started to get grey hairs of her own by the time she died. How much longer could her father have kept his secret from his wife? She must have noticed that he never aged. No amount of grey hair dye or old fashioned clothing could hide his youthfulness forever.
Anais suddenly realised that her mother knew. She must have known. Looking at these pictures it was a wonder she’d not noticed before herself. He must have told Sarah his secret. She wondered when he had told her. When it became obvious? When they got married? Perhaps she always knew the truth. Anais wondered if that’s why they moved to America in the first place. Move to a place no one knows you and then you can shave a few years off your age. It made sense now that she thought about it. Her parents had told her that they had moved to America because Alistair was Sarah’s tutor at university and their relationship had been frowned upon. She’d believed it then, but now looking at these photos she wasn’t too sure. She felt angry at her parents for not telling her the truth. She looked again at the picture of her mother. Thirty-four. She did the calculation again in her head. Her mother was always vibrant and full of life and had a youthful spirit, but she was also a master of makeup. She had years of experience of making Hollywood stars appear youthful. It was almost mandatory to be young in an ageist society like Hollywood. Looking at the photo of her mother without makeup on the beach, she realised that her mother had also lied to her about her age. She looked a good decade older than she professed to be, at least in her forties.
It made sense. Perhaps her parents had got together when her mother was a student, but instead of them moving to America a couple of years later, they moved ten or more years later. Her mother would have been aging the whole time, whilst Alistair remained the same. Moving to another country would enable them to both reset the clock.
Anais was angry, but the more she thought about it, the more it seemed a reasonable conclusion.
Why didn’t they tell her? Surely, she would have to find out sooner or later. Fair enough, it would have been too much to come to terms with when she was a child, but she was seventeen when they died. Surely, that was an appropriate age to be told that her father was forever young, and that she had inherited half his genes.
She screamed out of sheer frustration and threw the photo album on the bed.
She was surprised when the tears threatened to start again. She felt more angry than sad.
“Stop!” she said out loud to herself and the empty room, but it was too late. A wave of emotion enveloped her, and the tears finally began to fall.
Everything that had happened over the last few weeks finally overcame her, and she collapsed sobbing onto the bed.
She let the tears fall until the emotion passed, and she stopped crying. She found a tissue and wiped her eyes. She really didn’t want Alex to see her upset, as he’d want to know what was wrong, and she wasn’t sure she’d be able to put it into words.
She could hear him moving the boxes downstairs and the tinkle of the little bell told her when he was coming into or going out of the front door of the shop.
She found a suitcase and threw in the clothes from the bed. There was nothing else here that she really wanted, so she zipped the suitcase.
All her memories had been packed up and put in storage when her parents had died. There was nothing here that held any sentiment for her.
Suddenly she realised what she wanted to do next. When her parents died and the lease ended on her house, she threw everything of theirs in boxes and put it all into a storage facility. This included all her father’s journals. He wrote in his journals habitually, never missing a day. He had hundreds of them, all of which were now packed willy-nilly in boxes and sat gathering dust in an industrial complex storage facility just outside York. She would ask Alex to take her to pick up the journals, so she could finally see the truth about her parents.
She picked up the suitcase, unzipped it, put in the little photo album and threw in her mobile phone and charger which she’d found on her bedside cabinet. She had one last look around her old bedroom and headed down the stairs.
Before she’d even got halfway down, Alex was running up to meet her.
“I’ll take that, you are not carrying anything in your condition” He took the suitcase from her before she could complain and ran down the stairs.
She took the opportunity to take one last look at the little shop, knowing that this would probably be the last time she would ever see it. It was empty now of books, Alex having packed all the boxes into the car. The only thing remaining was the old fashioned till, the empty bookshelves and the open sign which Anais turned to read ‘Closed’ as she left for the last time.
She caught sight of her tear streaked face in the car’s rearview mirror and quickly turned away from Alex. If he had noticed, he didn’t say anything as he pulled away from the shop. She surreptitiously wiped her eyes again with her sleeve to avoid a conversation she didn’t want to have.
To Anais’ surprise, Alex pulled up a few minutes later outside a restaurant that advertised ‘Lunch 2 for £10’
She didn’t feel like eating, but she knew Alex would report back to Winnie, so she stepped out of the car and began to follow Alex towards the restaurant.
It was a mock Tudor style pub with a large car park.
Once inside, Anais could see it was popular with families. Small children ran around between the tables, balloons advertising the pub in their hands. Colouring in sheets and crayons were available for the younger patrons.
“Wow, very lively,” said a flustered Anais, as a toddler ran past her stepping on her foot as he went.
“I’m sorry, is it too noisy? We can go somewhere else if you like.”
Anais shook her head and smiled. “No, it’s fine... really!” she added when he began to look worried.
A server came and seated them in their own booth which afforded them a little privacy. Anais could tell Alex was trying to make her happy.
“What can I getcha?” their waitress plastered on a fake smile as she waited for their orders.
They both ordered steak and chips, although Alex ordered a beer with his, whilst Anais opted for a glass of orange juice.
The waitress wrote it all down in her little notepad and left them alone.
“I thought it would be nice to have a meal out before we went home” Alex looked shyly at her.
“Yes it is, actually about that...”
The waitress returned with their drinks cutting Anais off.
Anais took a big drink from her juice which tasted watered down.
The toddler who had stepped on her foot earlier ran past, dribbling melted ice cream behind him and getting a big blob of it on the bottom of Anais’ coat.
“Tyler!” The child’s mother screeched and ran to pick up her wayward son. She carried him over to Anais and Alex.
“Say sorry to the nice lady for getting ice cream on her coat.” She held on to Tyler with one hand, whilst dabbing the offending stain with a napkin that she had fished out of her pocket.
“No!” said the boy, struggling to get out of his mother’s arms. His ice cream was now in danger of falling out of its cone completely, dripping in a big vanilla puddle on the floor.
“I’m so sorry!” The poor woman looked distraught as she finally saw the sticky mess on the floor. She bent down to try to mop it up, giving her son the distraction he needed to escape her arms. He ran off dropping his now empty cone on the floor.
Anais dropped down with a handful of napkins to help the woman clean up.
“I’m awfully sorry about your coat. Here, have a wet wipe.” She grabbed a pack out of her other pocket, expertly pulled a wet wipe out and handed it to Anais.
Anais dabbed at the stain on her coat. “It’s ok, don’t worry. I’m sure it will come out in the wash. She smiled at the woman to show she was sincere. “H
e’s a cutie, Tyler. How old is he?”
The woman finally finished cleaning up the mess from the floor. She picked up the sticky cone that Tyler had discarded. “Two and a half. He’s a bit of a whirlwind. I’m sorry again.”
“We are going to have our own, so we’ll have to get used to it.” Alex gave a big grin to the woman.
“Oh you are pregnant! Congratulations” Her attention then turned to her two-year-old, who was now shrieking from further down the restaurant because he had no ice cream left and wanted another one. “Please excuse me.” And with that, she left.
Anais looked at Alex. “Why did you say that?”
“What? That you were pregnant?”
“Yes.”
“Well you are, aren’t you? What else was I supposed to say?”
“You didn’t really need to say anything.” She was irritated with him, but she wasn’t really sure why. He was just telling the truth, after all.
The waitress appeared with cutlery and condiments, which stopped her from saying anything further.
When the meals finally appeared, they ate in silence. Anais was mad at Alex for telling a stranger she was pregnant, and he was mad at her for being upset about it.
Eventually, Alex finished his steak and broke the silence. “I’m sorry. I won’t tell anyone else until you are ready.”
“We don’t even know if I am pregnant yet. Can we at least wait until we get a positive pregnancy test before we start shouting it from the hills?”
“Oh, so I’m allowed to shout it from the hills then?” He grinned at her.
His smile was infectious and she smiled back.
“Ok, let’s forget about it.” She decided now was the time to ask Alex about picking up her father’s journals. There was something else she wanted to do, too.
“Alex, I need to go somewhere before we go home.”
“Mama was expecting us home soon. We’ve already been out longer than she expected.”
“Can I borrow your phone?”
“Ok” he said uncertainly and passed it over to her.
She made a show of dialling the house phone. As it started to ring she pressed the hang up button discretely so that Alex couldn’t see.
“Hello. Oh, hi, Winnie,” She paused, feeling foolish talking to a dead line. “Yes, we are fine. Alex has just taken me out for dinner.” Another pause, “I have a few errands to do before coming home. We’ll be a few more hours. Is that ok? Yes. Ok, see you later then, bye.” She pretended to hang up.
“See, it’s fine.”
An astonished look appeared on Alex’s face as he held out his hand for his phone.
“Toilet,” she said, as she quickly exited the booth and ran to the pub’s ladies’ room, taking Alex’s phone with her.
She quickly typed a message to Winnie into the phone.
Hi. It’s Anais. Alex is taking me to get some stuff of my dad’s from storage. Back late. Sorry.
She looked under A for Astrid in the mobile’s phone book. When she didn’t find it there, she looked through the W’s for Winnie or Winifred. Finding neither she ran down the whole list, finally finding her under M for Mama. She pressed send and waited for the inevitable response. She didn’t have to wait long. Within seconds, the phone beeped alerting her to a new text message.
Anais, you need to rest!! Please come home now. You can get your father’s things at a later date. Love, Winnie.
She loved how Winnie signed off a text message like she would a letter, but she couldn’t leave the message for Alex to read. She pressed delete and turned the phone off for good measure.
When she got back to the table, she handed Alex the phone back.
“It must have run out of batteries,” she explained.
He looked confused, but to Anais’ relief accepted it and put it back in his pocket.
He’d already paid the bill, so they both headed back to the Range Rover.
“Ok,” said Alex, turning to her, “Where are we going?”
“Just drive back into York centre. I’ll direct you from there.”
He followed her directions, and after ten minutes he pulled up outside a stationery shop.
“Please wait for me here,” said Anais as she hopped out of the car. She didn’t go into the stationery shop. Instead, she pressed the button of an intercom next to a door to the right of the shop. She was buzzed in, and Alex saw her walking up some stairs before the door closed behind her.
Written on the door was the name Orme, Wood, and Galey, Solicitors.
Chapter 17
Anais waited in the drab reception for Mr Galey, her father’s solicitor. The pink-haired receptionist called through to let him know she was here and then went back to typing. The reception area was painted in grey, with a grey carpet making it feel very dreary. Someone had brought in an acid green sofa to counteract the boring walls. Probably the receptionist, thought Anais.
“Anais!” Mr Galey came out and held out his hand. He greeted her as if he’d known her for years, although she’d only met him the one time, a few weeks after her parents had died. She’d been drunk at the time. She scrabbled around her brain for his name. Finally it came to her.
“Peter,” she smiled and shook his hand. He took her through to his equally grey office. In his late thirties, he was much younger than the other partners, which Anais was glad about. His bright ginger hair stood out against the grey walls, and Anais wondered if having a bright hair colour was written in the contract to work here. Unlike the receptionist’s, Peter’s hair was naturally this bright. His suit favoured the wall colour, rather than the hair end of the spectrum. It, too, was grey and dull. His face, however, was bright, and he was doing a passable impression of being pleased to see her.
“Well, now, Anais, You are looking a lot better these days. Life treating you well?”
“Yes, thank you. I came about my parents will.”
“Mmm. I have a copy right here. Let me see.”
He gazed down at his copy of the document.
“Ah, yes. It says that you are entitled to everything, as you were the only surviving heir and family member. As far as I’m aware, there have been no claims by any other parties to refute this. Is there a problem?”
“Yes. Well, no, not as such, but if you read further, you’ll see that all my parents money, including the profits from our house in Los Angeles, was put in trust for me. If they had bought a house in this country, then it would now belong to me, but they died before they had time. We were only renting when they died.”
“I see. Oh dear, that must have been hard for you. Are you still in the rented house?” He seemed genuinely concerned.
“No. I couldn’t afford to keep it. All the money went straight into the trust, but I’ve not been able to get it.”
“Ah, oh dear.”
“Don’t worry,” she said quickly, she didn’t want this to turn into a sob story. “I’ve now got a place to live and I’m doing ok. I was just wondering when I can get my parents’ money, my money?”
Peter once again looked down at his papers.
“It looks like you’ve already been given a small portion of it.”
“Yes, but it only covers the fees for keeping our furniture in storage. We had a lot of it shipped over from the US.”
“Couldn’t you move the furniture to your new place?”
She hadn’t thought of that. There was certainly space at the manor for all her stuff. That, however, was not the point.
“Possibly, but I want the rest.”
“Unfortunately, the will states it is in trust until you turn twenty years old.”
She was nineteen now. Her birthday wasn’t until the beginning of November.
“Is there any way I could get it now. I’ll be twenty soon.”
“I’m sorry. I can only go by your parents’ wishes when they wrote the will out.”
“My father didn’t expect to die!” she shouted.
“Well none of us do at such a young age do we
? I’m very sorry. A lump sum will be deposited into your account the day you turn twenty. Until then, I’m afraid there is nothing I can do.”
She thanked him and made her way back down to Alex. She couldn’t put her finger on why she wanted her money so badly. She’d not given it much thought before today. It was partly Alex telling that woman about her being pregnant. “We are going to have a baby,” he’d said. He made it sound like they were any other couple starting a family, but they weren’t. She had started to feel trapped at the manor, even before Alex had said anything. The cameras and the constant checking up on her were beginning to get to her. She’d been thinking about moving out for a couple of weeks, probably since Aethelu had left. Alex’s statement earlier had only made her mind up for her. Unfortunately, she needed money to move out and it looked like that was now being denied her for the next nine months, at least. Nine months until she turned twenty. She patted her stomach and wondered what kind of birthday it was going to be.
When she left the solicitor’s, she was surprised to find Alex had gone. She waited for a few minutes, wondering what to do when the familiar Range Rover came round the corner and pulled up.
“Sorry about that,” said Alex as Anais stepped in and fastened her seatbelt. “I was illegally parked and I spotted a traffic warden heading my way. I’ve been circling the block for the last ten minutes. Did you get what you needed?”
“Not really.” She didn’t elaborate and Alex was good enough not to push it, even though he must have been curious.
“Home, then?” he enquired.
“Not yet. Just one more stop. I promise.”
He didn’t look happy about it, but he pulled away from the curb.
Anais managed to get them lost on the way to the storage facility. It was months ago since she’d dumped all her parents’ belongings there, and she’d had no reason to go back there since. Eventually, they had to pull over to ask for directions. She knew that she could easily look it up on Alex’s phone, but as she’d told him the battery was flat, that option was not viable.
