Page 10 of Bitter House

“Does your mom still shop for the house?” I can’t help my curiosity over when I’ll see her again, even though I’m not sure I want to.

“Officially, not since Vera died, but she stocked the house before we got here.”

“We’re going to have to figure that out, then.”

“Shopping?” At that, he turns his full body toward me, clearly amused.

“Yeah. We’re going to run out of things eventually. We’ll have to shop for things. We need to find out how to take over paying the bills, and I mean, I guess we’ll be splitting everything. I have no idea how much it costs to heat and cool a place like this. Plus, there are repairs to think about.” Stress zips through me like lightning, and I feel a headache forming in my temples. I’m in way over my head here, but I can’t admit it. I refuse to.

“We’ll split everything down the middle, and we can shop for ourselves, like normal roommates.” He teases me with a sly grin. “Though we only have to label things if you really, really want to.”

“Oh, I’ll be triple labeling my things.”

The smile disappears, and he gives me a dramatic sigh. “Suit yourself.”

I twist the top off my bottle and move to stand next to the stove, watching him. “So, your mom really told you I’d be here, that this would be the arrangement, before you got here? And you still came? You thought this was a good idea?”

He stirs the soup thoughtfully. “Define good.”

I roll my eyes.

“I thought it was necessary,” he says after a moment. “It was what Vera wanted.”

“God knows we can’t have things going against her wishes.”

“She did what she thought was best.”

“Oh, always.”

Resting the spoon on the stovetop, he studies me, a wrinkle forming between his eyes. “Look, I don’t know what happened back then.”

I wait for him to say more.

“I woke up one morning, and you were just…gone.”

Despite his many flaws, I’ve never known Cole to be dishonest, so I’m inclined to trust him, but it doesn’t make it easier to swallow the truth. “I’m sure it made your life better.”

His dark brows draw together. “Who says you ever affected my life one way or the other?”

He’s right. I’m assuming he cared at all, when we both know he didn’t. Somehow, that stings worse. I sink against the counter. “Whatever. It doesn’t matter anymore. What are we going to do about the house?”

He crosses the room and pulls a beer from the fridge. “Wait for all the secrets to be revealed, obviously.”

“Cole.”

His head spins toward me, eyes locking on mine with something like shock in his expression. He swallows, looking away. “There’s nothing we can do yet. We have to wait for everything to get settled with the estate and?—”

A knock on the door interrupts whatever he was planning to say.

“Are you expecting anyone?” I ask.

He shakes his head, moving past me and down the hall. “It might be my mom.”

The idea of seeing Edna again fills me with conflicting emotions—a mixture of hope and fear. I don’t want to have to rehash all that happened again, and yet all I want is for her to hug me and promise it’s all going to work out. Sometimes, I hate the part of myself that is still very much that little girl who needed her. I hate that I ever needed anyone, when all they’ve ever done is hurt me, betray me, or let me down.

But when Cole opens the door, all my worry has been for nothing. It’s not Edna there waiting for us, but a tall, blonde woman with a round stomach and wide hips. Her breasts have been shoved into a blouse that looks two sizes too small. She pins me with a glare, and I recognize her instantly. Vera had the same glare.

“Aunt Jenn.”

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