Page 20 of Lucas
“He didn’t mean to the Gant family,” Cora continues. “Out of all the women in the world, her? Couldn’t you find someone else?”
“I have my reasons. And I want a big, high-profile wedding. I want it reported everywhere, I want the announcement to appear in all the newspapers. And I want it soon, like a month from now.”
“What’s the rush?”
“I just want to get it over with.” The sooner we get married, the sooner I can get the board to trust me and end the marriage.
Cora narrows her eyes. “What are you trying to do? This isn’t a good idea. Dad will never agree to it.”
I run my tongue over my teeth. My mouth is dry. “Trust me, he’ll be pleased. Got any whiskey?”
“Are you angry that he’s forcing you to get married? Is that what this is about? Revenge? Because I have to point out, marrying a Gant to piss off Dad isn’t the best way to go about it.”
“I’m not trying to get revenge on anyone.” I shrug. “Why don’t you have a housekeeper or something? How does one get a whiskey around here?”
“By getting up and fetching it. You know, like a human being.” Cora shakes her head and approaches the liquor cart. “Ice?”
“Neat.”
She pours into a crystal glass, walks over to me, and extends her hand from a few feet away.
I have to get up to take the glass, and I know she’s doing it on purpose to annoy me.
“You know, we never talked about what happened at the family meeting, the bombshell you dropped.” She settles onto the couch across from me, leaning forward. “Why did you say Mom committed suicide? Do you blame Dad?”
“No, I don’t blame him. Not for her death, anyway. But I know it wasn’t a simple car accident. She put on a pretense that everything was fine, but when no one was looking, she let the façade slip, and she was miserable. She was sad all the time. Things weren’t good between her and Dad. Every time he tried to touch her, she’d flinch away from him.”
Cora shakes her head. “That can’t be. I was there. I didn’t see any of that.”
“You were like five or six at the time, you probably didn’t notice.”
“But Dad adored her.”
“At first, yes. Not in the last two years, though.” I lean back, swirling the whiskey in my glass. “There was this time when they were talking, not knowing I was anywhere around, and I heard him apologizing. He was asking for forgiveness, and Mom replied, ‘What’s done is done. You can’t turn back the clock.’”
Cora’s eyes widen. “What happened? What did he do?”
“I don’t know exactly. I didn’t hear that part. But from the conversation, I got the impression he cheated on her. I think he had an affair, and she found out.” I down the rest of my whiskey in one gulp.
“Impossible.” Cora’s voice is barely above a whisper. “He loved her. Still does. He hasn’t been with anyone else since she died, and it’s been years.”
“Because he feels guilty.” I set my empty glass on the table with a thud. “I think she was suffering from depression,and he missed the signs. He was the only person there for her, the one with a chance to save her if he’d paid attention in time. You know Mom had no family left, she was an only child and Grandma and Grandpa passed away long before. Dad was probably too busy with his infidelity to notice.”
Cora’s face hardens. “So you do blame him.”
“No, he blames himself. I think he’s a coward. He should have asked for a separation instead of cheating. She’s the one who chose to end her life, she chose to leave us, not him. She had four children. Were we not worth enough to live for?”
Cora takes a deep breath, leans over, and places a hand on my knee. “So you blame her. You’re angry with her.”
“Yes, I’m angry!” I stand. “She left us alone.”
Cora rises to her feet, facing me. “We’re not alone. We have Dad and each other. And if you’re right, if it wasn’t an accident, she must have been in a terrible place to make that choice. I don’t think infidelity alone would drive someone to suicide.”
“Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps it was the straw that broke the camel’s back, as they say.”
“We should ask Dad about it. Ask him to tell us.”
I shake my head. “No.”
