by Liz Turner
“When her mother told her that she’d found a new ‘Mr. Right’, Angela told me she wanted to cut her off from her life. I thought she was just speaking out of anger, but she kept saying it while she was level-headed too. To complicate matters, during this whole ordeal, her mother kept saying and doing things to push Angela away even further—like the Christmas cruise that Angela wasn’t invited to. She had no idea Angela was considering cutting her off, but her actions were sure to produce heavy consequences.
“And they did, because after a while, it seemed that Angela was no longer interested in adding the pieces back to her family tree, but rather replacing the family tree she already had. She distrusted her mother so much that she started believing her mother had been lying to her for her whole life. And then, while getting to know you, a lot of things she learned reinforced that idea. I don’t blame you for any of this, of course, but I think her decision to visit this weekend was founded primarily on her distrust of her mother.”
Dana sighed. “Well, this is certainly good to know. I’ll have to be more careful with what I say about Clementine while Angela’s here. Did she ever manage to cut her mother off, or do they still speak for the time being?”
“As of now,” Roger said, “her mother knows Angela’s considering cutting her off and has been treading carefully. She hasn’t attempted to resolve anything yet, but she hasn’t done more to damage their relationship either. The last time they talked was about two weeks ago.”
“And when did this man come into the picture?” Dana asked.
But before Roger could answer, the door to the porch creaked open, casting a line of light onto the darkened stairs. A shadow fell over the porch as Mrs. Cleveland peered through the doorway. “Would either of you like another slice of pie before I wrap up the leftovers?”
“I would,” Dana replied. “It was delightful.”
“Yes, it was wonderful,” Roger said, “but I don’t think I could fit another slice.”
“Nonsense!” Mrs. Cleveland chuckled. “The stomach is designed so you can always fit another slice! Would you like more of the apple, or would you like to try the strawberry this time? They were in season, so it is simply divine!”
“I think I’ll have some strawberry, but don’t worry yourself,” Dana said. “This is my home, so I won’t have my guests serving me! I’ve got two legs and a hand to cut pie with, so I’ll dish up my own.”
“All right,” Mrs. Cleveland said and then looked toward Roger. “And what about you, dear?”
“My stomach happens to be intolerant to berries, but I’ll have another slice of the apple pie, I suppose. Thank you.”
Dana chuckled from the look on Roger’s face, sensing that he feared offending Mrs. Cleveland so much that he’d eat more pie than he could take. She suspected his ‘intolerance’ to berries was simply because he didn’t like the taste of strawberries.
Before Dana could say anything to stop her, Mrs. Cleveland yanked the plate from Roger’s hand and scurried inside to place another large slice of apple pie on it.
“Don’t worry,” Dana said as she stood to follow Mrs. Cleveland inside. “I think I could fit two more slices of pie if you can hold the second plate for me for a while.”
“Would it have been impolite to decline?” Roger whispered.
“In general, no. But to her—probably. I’d say you made the right decision.” Dana winked.
“Thank goodness…” Roger said.
While Dana waited in the kitchen for Mrs. Cleveland to cut Roger’s slice, she noticed Angela still sitting calmly at the table with a large slice of strawberry pie in front of her. Dana hadn’t expected her to last this long alone with Mrs. Cleveland, but then again, Mrs. Cleveland was full of surprises. Perhaps she was better at maintaining conversations than Dana gave her credit for.
“How’s the strawberry, Angela?” Dana asked.
Angela smiled. “To die for! I’ve already told Mrs. Cleveland that I’ll pay her to bake pies for my wedding.”
“Ah, already planning a wedding, are we?”
“Well, no… But you know what I mean!” Angela laughed.
“I’m just teasing,” Dana said, laughing as well.
“Auntie, I’m too old to be teased!”
“Nonsense. I’d still tease you if you were an old lady like me.”
“Oh, I see how it is,” Angela said, playfully. “Sooo—what are you and Roger talking about?”
“Planning a wedding, same as you.”
“What?!”
“Gotcha again!” Dana laughed. “No, we were just having a nice chat, same as any auntie to her niece’s boyfriend.”
Angela raised an eyebrow. “You weren’t threatening him, were you?”
“I told you,” Dana grinned, “same as any auntie to her niece’s boyfriend…”
“Don’t scare him too bad, now!” Mrs. Cleveland chimed in. “He’s gotta finish another slice of pie before he goes!”
They all laughed, and Dana took her slice, along with the one Roger wasn’t going to eat, back out to the porch with her. When she got outside, he was standing near the door as if he’d been unsure what to do while he waited.
“Seems Angela’s calmed down,” Dana said, passing the second plate to Roger. “She’s just in there eating pie and buddying up with Mrs. Cleveland.”
“Good! That’s a relief!”
“Now, you were about to tell me more about this man my sister’s been dating…”
Roger hesitated. “Yes, but… I wouldn’t wanna meddle in another family’s affairs. Every family has their problems, and I feel very strongly that it’s not my place to cause more contention between two estranged sisters.”
“Son, you couldn’t cause more contention between us than we’ve already caused between ourselves.”
“I suppose you’re right.” Roger sighed. “Plus, it surely wouldn’t feel right not to warn you… I’m convinced the situation with Angela’s mother and her boyfriend isn’t as pleasant as it seems.”
“Well, now you have to tell me…”
“It’s just… the man your sister’s dating doesn’t seem very… good…”
Dana’s eyes widened. “What do you mean? You sound like he doesn’t attend his Sunday meetings as regularly as he should!”
Roger shook his head. “I couldn’t necessarily tell you much about that, I’m afraid. It’s more to do with the way he presents himself. I don’t know how to describe it without sounding like I’m judging him on material things, but something about him just puts off an energy I don’t like. I feel like he’s hiding something serious, and it makes me feel he’s… just not good.”
“Oh dear…” Dana said. “I’ll tell you, Roger—I have a problem with curiosity when it comes to situations like this. I like to dig up answers. A mysterious stranger with my sister? Well, that’s one I’m gonna have to look deeper into.”
“I don’t blame you. He’s definitely a curious individual.”
“Is there anything specific you can tell? Where’s he from? What does he look like? Why do you feel concerned that you’ll sound like you’re judging him on material things if you describe him?”
“Okay…He’s an Italian man named Anton Renaldo. He claims to have been born and raised in Italy, but I occasionally catch a hint of what sounds like a New York accent beneath a fake Italian one. He’s never cared to ask anything about me, like where I’m from or where I’ve traveled to. Hence, he’s doesn’t realize he needs to hide his accent more carefully when I’m around. He obviously doesn’t know I’ve spent time in New York. Honestly, that’s the first thing that struck me as fishy about him—his accent. There’re other reasons I don’t trust him too though.
“As for the fear of judgement—it’s because a lot of what makes me dislike him involves his physical presence. It’s what he owns, how he spends his money… Even how he dresses. All of these things are material, but when it comes to him, it causes me a great deal of concern for some reason.”
; “I don’t care in the least bit if you sound judgmental. I just wanna figure out his intentions toward Clementine,” Dana said. “Tell me—how does he behave around my sister?”
“Generally, he’s flashy and comes off as arrogant. Egotistical even. He wears brand-name expensive jewelry and watches, takes Angela’s mom to expensive restaurants she doesn’t even like—and isn’t very kind to the wait staff either, drives a perfectly polished and unnecessarily ornate Cadillac, and is always trying to buy Angela’s mother all kinds of new, useless, expensive gifts she doesn’t need.”
Dana nodded. “I could see how these material things could become a problem in a relationship where money is a concern. But as of now, it just sounds like she’s found a wealthy man who cares a lot about her, but hasn’t yet communicated her likes and dislikes to him…”
“That’s just it, though,” Roger said. “Angela and I have both tried to get to know him before letting these outward appearances get to us. But he intentionally places a great deal of distance between us and Angela’s mother every chance he gets. I personally blame him for much of the continued stress in their relationship.
“The biggest indication that something’s not right with him is that when any of us try talking to him about his employment, he gets confrontational. Angela told me she’s asked her mother about him several times, but she doesn’t know what he does for work either.”
“Ah, this could be a problem then.” Dana set down her forkful of pie. “There’s a mysterious stranger dating my sister, and every sign in his behavior points directly to the mafia.”
Chapter 3
Hopeless Romantics
“So—the man has money, but refuses to tell anyone how he makes it?” Dana mused.
“Exactly,” Roger said. “And Angela’s worried that her mother is falling into a trap. I can’t say I know enough about the mafia to rule it out, but to me, this man appears to be controlling your sister with promises of a lavish lifestyle that he may not truly have the money to afford. It seems like he’s using her.”
“But for what?” Dana pondered. “I just don’t understand. Clementine may lonely and vulnerable, but she’s not wealthy by any means. As you said yourself, she’s struggled for money! So if that’s what he’s looking for, he should know by now that he’s not going to get anything from her. And what’s more, she certainly isn’t the type to swoon over a man for expensive things. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have married Angela’s father in the first place. He was a wonderful man, but he was poor as mud!
“When she left home, she was a wild child who wanted nothing more than to escape this gossiping small town by marrying the man of her dreams, even though he failed to get our parents’ approval due to the state of his finances. She hit a lot of nerves on her way out of here, and she may have burned a lot of bridges too, but she didn’t do it out of impulse. She did it out of love. She loved that man to death, and she gave up her entire world to be with him because of it.
“And what’s more—when she became pregnant, she accepted a simple life of complete devotion to raising her daughter in a loving home. She’s a simple woman with simple goals. And having lost the meaning in her life due to her husband’s death and her daughter’s absence, she wants new meaning. But even if this man is that new meaning for her, I have a hard time believing she would give up a lifetime of sacrifice for her daughter just to let a rich man come between them.”
“I know. I had a hard time believing it too, until I saw it firsthand,” Roger said.
“Well now, here’s what I’m gonna do. As soon as you two return to school, I’m gonna hunt that woman down and give her a piece of my mind. If she’s been hiding from her responsibilities after all these years, maybe a blast from the past is just what she needs to jog her memory.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Roger asked. “If she’s in danger, it might cause Anton to retaliate in some way… She could even get killed…”
“Well, if she’s not already in danger, I’m fixing to put her there myself,” Dana said. “You’re in the South now, honey. There’s always someone waiting to give you a piece of their mind, and if you can’t handle it, your sister will sure be there to make you handle it.”
Roger stared at her, shocked. “You’re not actually…”
“Gonna put her in danger?” Dana waved her hand dismissively. “Heavens, no! The word ‘danger’ is just a figure of speech around here! But I’ll tell you what I am gonna do—I’m gonna find a way to talk to her about this, one way or another.”
“I suppose that’s better than the images I had in my head. For a moment, I was worried I’d have to calm you down as much as I’ve had to calm Angela over this whole ordeal.”
Dana chuckled. “No, sir. I’m much too old to get all mixed up over nothing. But do me a favor, son—don’t go telling Angela or her mother about our conversation here before I get a chance to talk to Clementine myself. I wouldn’t want her to know we’ve talked about her new man while you were here. And I sure wouldn’t wanna ruin Angela’s trip to Pippin by mixing up all her life drama in what’s meant to be a vacation from it.”
Roger nodded. “I wholeheartedly agree. But as it so happens—I’m exhausted! So I think I’m gonna retire for the evening.” He smiled politely. “It was nice chatting with you, Miss Potter.”
“Nice chatting with you, too. Good night, now.” Dana smiled back before fixing him with a stern gaze. “And remember, my bedroom’s right between the two of yours.”
“Yes, I know,” Roger said, chuckling. As he passed through the dining room and kitchen to get upstairs, Angela and Mrs. Cleveland grew quiet.
Meanwhile, Dana stayed on the porch, chowing down on Roger’s untouched slice of pie and listening through the window for snippets of conversation between Angela and Mrs. Cleveland.
Once Roger was upstairs, they continued.
“Don’t you think your mother is entitled to move on and choose the man who will fills that hole in her heart your dad left behind?” Dana heard Mrs. Cleveland ask.
“I do, but…” Angela paused. “I would be totally happy if my mom went out and had fun–even got a boyfriend who loves her! It’s just that this guy is something different from that. He’s not a boyfriend, he’s… just some guy who doesn’t wanna get to know me at all! Honestly, I think he’s gonna do something to hurt my mom.”
“Hmm… I wonder if your mother feels the same about Roger…?”
“Well… I don’t know, but—”
“No buts about it! Have you ever told your mother how you feel about her man?”
“Well, sorta…I told her it concerns me that he won’t tell us where he works. And one time when I was mad, I told her that he’s tearing us apart.”
“And when was that? The last time you spoke to her?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, the point I’m making is that there’s no way she could’ve done anything to change how you felt because she didn’t know you had a problem with him until you completely exploded! And you haven’t talked to each other since! So do you think maybe she could’ve had an issue with the man you’re dating too?” Mrs. Cleveland paused for a moment before continuing. “Now, hear me out on this one—maybe she was behaving the same as you this whole time. Like mother, like daughter. It’s like that sometimes. Maybe she didn’t wanna tell you that she didn’t like Roger, so she avoided the conversation. Then she got a boyfriend you didn’t like, and the tension rose even more without either of you entirely knowing why. She might have felt like exploding, but she’s got years more experience bottling things up than you, so you ended up exploding first.”
Angela sighed. “I don’t wanna believe you’re right, but I guess I’ve never talked to her about Roger long enough to find out how she feels about him. I don’t remember her ever saying anything about him, really. So in reality, I just don’t know. Which kinda makes me think—maybe, you could be right…”
“Could be,” Mrs. Cleveland said. “Now—enough of that
. I want some more of the Italian-man gossip! Tell me more about this man your mom’s dating! What does he do that makes you dislike him so much?”
“Well, Roger and I don’t like him because he’s too flashy. He’s always driving fancy cars, wearing nice jewelry… Yet, we don’t know what he does for a living!”
“Ahh… So he’s a drug-dealer…?” Mrs. Cleveland said, her voice rising with incredulity.
“No. At least, I don’t think so,” Angela said. “He doesn’t leave my mom’s side enough to make me think he’s doing anything at all, really—other than going into severe debt and annoying the living daylights outta me.”
“But the money has to be coming from somewhere. What does your mom think?”
“She doesn’t know either. But she doesn’t care. She thinks he’s ‘Mr. Right’ and that she’ll never have to be lonely again.”
“Wanna know what I think?” Mrs. Cleveland whispered.
“Shoot,” Angela said.
“To me, it sounds like your mother just got sick and tired of being lonely all the time. Then, here comes this fancy Italian man offering to give her an entirely new experience. And, oh, how she longed for that! I see that here all the time. It’s the same reason people cheat on their spouses. But in this case, you got a lonely widow whose daughter’s gone off to college, and she’s just thinking, ‘Well, hey—this guy’s gonna do whatever I want, so why not enjoy the last years of my life and have some fun?’ I really think she’s just trying to live her best life, and she’s not thinking about much else except how fun killing the pain is, at least for the time being.”
“Well, I can’t say I disagree. My mom is awfully selfish, and that sounds like the most selfish thing to do in this situation.”
Dana sighed, frustrated to hear Angela talking about her mother like that again. It seemed Mrs. Cleveland was distracted or caught off guard by the comment as well, for there was a stretch of silence. Finally, the sound of chairs shuffling echoed in the dining room, and Dana heard the familiar sound of her plates clinking as they landed in the kitchen sink.
