Page 50 of My Dearest Mackenzie

“You grew up there,” I countered.

“So did you. More recently than me.”

“You have history there. So why is it Milly left me the house, and the business mostly became mine, and you got a lump sum and were left out of the family legacy? That’s what I need to know, Susie. I’m missing something here. Milly wanted you out of Silky…she’d told my dad as much.”

I downed some more coffee, no longer needing the caffeine jolt but my throat was dry with anticipation. My aunt stood there, cup in hand, looking at me with wide eyes.

“Do tell,” I encouraged her. “I’m not leaving until you answer.”

“Do you want to sit?” She motioned to the couch behind me.

“No. Talk, Susie. I’d ask my dad but he’s not here. And let’s face it, he lived in some alternate reality. He was never reliable…for anything.”

She nodded. “We all felt bad about that. Your mom, she ruined him. Milly took on the burden but it wasn’t her fault.”

“You don’t think I know that? If you hadn’t noticed, I’m a grown-ass man. I know exactly what my mom did. All too well. I certainly don’t need to be babied or talked down to. Tell me what I’m missing.”

“Milly wanted it this way,” was all she said. She kept her tone even and her facial expressions schooled.

“Why would she want her only daughter out of her family legacy?”

“I meant she wanted me to keep quiet and treat you with care. You were her baby, the light of her life, and the one she wanted to have happiness. She was different with you. Don’t you get that?”

Clearing growing emotion from my throat, I asked, “What are you getting at? I was a burden. Yeah, Milly loved me, but she’d raised her kids and spent my lifetime annoyed with my mother for not taking care of me.”

Susie shook her head. “You were her second chance, the one she was going to launch into the world for all things good and golden. Silky was ripe for expansion, and the world was a different place when it came to love and living.”

I stared at my aunt—in a flash it became clear she knew about Jimmy Burns. I waited patiently for her to cop to it and explain how she fit into the story.

She turned away from me for a quick second. When she swiveled back, she spoke softly. “I knew something I shouldn’t, and Milly never wanted me to discuss it. But I still did something I shouldn’t have…and Milly made sure I would never do it again. She took the house away from me, drew up the terms for my shares of Silky and passed them on to your dad for future use, and made it impossible for me to ever touch your greatness. If I did, she promised to dissolve any future college accounts for imaginary children I’d have at that point.”

“What?” I growled the question, needing to know why I didn’t know any of this, and how it potentially affected Frances.

Fuck, Frances, this would blow back on her. Another way I could hurt her. Susie didn’t know who Frances was or that she was even in my life. But with my falling harder for Frances, I could inadvertently serve her up into Susie’s warped world.

“You knew what? And did what? Look, Susie, I’m missing work and I need you to get on with it. I don’t need your niceties, only your explanation.” I growled her name, and lasered my eyes on her.

She looked away again before staring me back dead-on. With her elbow on the piano, she started to speak. “It was around the time I got pregnant. I’d gone out to see Milly. You were just a kid, playing with some fancy building set in the playroom. Milly wanted to see me and make sure I was taking care of myself. You know Milly. She’d made some homemade vegetable soup and watched me eat a bowl. Truthfully, I had a ball to attend and wanted to borrow one of Milly’s Chanel bags…so I made the trek out to see her.”

I nodded. Now I knew where this started. And I feared where it ended. “You found the letter?” I blurted out the question, already knowing the answer.

It must have been the first one, not the second one detailing Milly’s illness, because that would have been added much later. I didn’t need to hear any more pointless details from Susie but remained a captive audience.

“I did read it, but I didn’t tell Milly. I put it back where it was and took a different bag so she would think nothing of it.”

“Then what?” I started to pace Susie’s cream-colored area rug.

“I decided to find Jimmy Burns. We all knew there was a sadness to Milly, and with Dad gone for so long already, I was going to be the one to fix it. In my mind, it would win me points with Milly. So, I hired someone to locate potential Jimmy Burnses, and when I discovered the right one, I went to see him. Took a car service out to Long Island, and I told him your grandma still loved him and wrote imaginary letters to him, and he needed to reach out to her. He was a nice man. Definitely had a twinkle in his eye when he heard Milly’s name. ‘My Rosie’—he murmured it, but I caught it. Anyway, he showed me pictures of his family and said it wasn’t possible. He was loyal to the woman he married despite his heart still carrying feelings for Rosie. He wished me well, said to tell Rosie he sent his best, and led me out.”

“So he wouldn’t see Milly? Or call? Or anything?” I couldn’t help but think how this would crush Frances. “How did she know you went to see him?”

“He called. Reached out to Milly. It was only once, but it was enough as far as Milly was concerned. He said he was sorry about my dad, your grandfather, passing and that I’d gone to see him and how great it was to meet me. He emphasized that I was a lovely young woman, but he couldn’t be a part of Milly’s life. She was irate with me, inviting Jimmy back into her world when her own parents had banished him. I’d never once seen Milly cry except for when she quickly turned away from me. A tear had started to form in her eye when she spoke about her parents. After composing herself, she explained to me she wasn’t allowed to date Jimmy. She’d been ripped away from him and sent to her cousins for a short while before being married off to Harold.”

Filing away every fact, I shook my head, not wanting to let on how much I already knew.

“Did you know any of this?” Susie stared at me. “You and your happiness were the whole reason Milly went crazy on me. This story was supposed to die with her. And here you are, knowing about the letter. I assume you found it? Is that all? Was there more?”

Clearing my throat, I lied. “I don’t know much. I found the letter. And there was a second one written, closer to the time Milly passed. I assume you don’t know about that one?”

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