Page 58 of April Flowers

“She was so much younger than the others. I was worried they wouldn’t take to her,” Lillian said, drying a plate. “I was surprised when Daniel first carried her. He looked at her like she was his entire world.”

A knot formed in Margot’s throat. She couldn’t turn around to look at her mother.

She knew this time of joy and friendship wouldn’t last for long. She knew her mother would have more difficult days going forward; she knew the medication wouldn’t stick.

Alzheimer’s was a disease that took and took.

At the mention of Daniel as a young boy, Sam began to cry. Everyone looked at her, understanding that she was thinking about Daniel holding their first child, Darcy, so many years ago. She sniffed and used her sleeve to wipe the tears from her cheeks.

“I’m sorry,” she said, smiling. “It’s just so nice to remember.”

Margot understood sometimes memory was like barbed wire. But other times, memories were soft and sunny reminders of the gorgeous journeys we’d been on along the way.

Later, after the dishes were finished and Lillian was in the front room, dozing in a recliner as the Colemans watched sports on television, Sam pulled up a chair alongside Margot and tapped a glass of wine in front of her. There was a camaraderie between them. It was hard to believe that only recently Sam hadpulled Margot out of the depths of lonely Boston. Everything had changed in an instant.

“Lillian seems to be having a really good day,” Sam offered.

Margot laughed. “She’s being nicer to me than she ever has been.”

Sam winced. “I wondered about that. Earlier, she told me that she always thought Daniel and I made a really cute couple.” Sam shook with laughter. “She didn’t say anything like that on our wedding day. She hardly looked at me! I was stealing her firstborn son away.”

“The doctor said Alzheimer’s is all about personality changes,” Margot said. “I guess I have to prepare myself for a lot more!”

Sam raised her eyebrows. Across the room, Noah and Avery were looking at something on Avery’s cell phone and laughing together. From here, the two of them looked alike—almost as though Noah was a much older brother and Avery was his little sister.

It reminded Margot of something.

“You remember when Mom went missing? And Vic Rondell dropped her off?”

Sam nodded. “How could I forget? What an awful day.”

Margot told her about Vic Rondell snooping through her mother’s diaries.

“Why would he do that?” Sam demanded.

“I have a hunch that he’s my father’s son,” Margot said. It was the first time she’d said it aloud. Her words rang through her ears.

She knew that the sooner she accepted this possibility, the sooner she could get over it.

“Wow.” Sam’s eyes stirred with questions.

Margot explained her reasoning. He was approximately five years older than she was, and he’d been reading the portions of her mother’s diary that spoke of her father’s affair.

“I thought he was after my mother’s money or her property or something,” Margot said. “But I think he’s after something much more personal.”

“What’s that?” Sam asked.

Margot raised her shoulders. “Closure. Understanding.”

She knew this because it was the same reason she’d been reading her mother’s diaries. She’d wanted to understand a woman who had mystified and terrified Margot for the majority of her life. She wanted to open her heart to the woman behind Alzheimer’s, behind the anger and blame Lillian had always lent Margot. She wanted to know if Lillian had always been so cruel or if it had been something she’d picked up over time.

“Do you know how I can track Vic down?” Margot asked.

“I don’t know him, but I know people who probably do,” Sam said. “Let me text a few people and get back to you.”

“I appreciate it,” Margot said. “He hasn’t been by the house, and Mom’s been upset, asking about him almost every day.”

Sam winced. “She’s attached to him.”

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