Page 88 of Karma
The house sits mostly empty, and it brings back a familiar memory that causes an ache in VP’s chest. He’s done this before. Moving out after his wife died was one of the hardest things he’s ever done.
Zane had memories around every corner, and that’s exactly the reason they had to move, too. It was too hard to be happy with Emma with the ghost of Margaret haunting him.
“It’s not?” VP’s genuinely surprised.
“It’s needed. Lane wanted me to move on, and I have to take this step to do that. It sucks to leave the home Maggie had so many firsts in, but it’s time.”
“Maggie, huh?” he asks with a smile. “That’s what I called your mom.”
No one else is home, and as much as he’d like to see his granddaughter, the space has been good for him. He wasn’t ready to raise another child, and there were moments of head-butting between them.
Moving outside, Zane sits on the front porch. Seeing the signal, VP follows suit. “Anne started calling her that. She likes it.”
“She’s taking to your girlfriend pretty good?”
“There are moments I can tell it’s difficult, but yeah. No matter what happens, she’ll always miss her mom, but she’s much better adjusted than I was.”
“You lost your mom. You were allowed to have a difficult time.”
He looks at the sidewalk. “And so did she. The difference is that she wasn’t allowed to take her pain and anger out on everyone around her like I was.”
“I came to ask what you want to do about your mom,” VP says, deciding it’s best not to entertain the direction of the conversation any longer.
“What about her?”
“Well, what do you want to do about what Phillip said about the poison? Do you want to see if there’s an option to prove she was poisoned?”
Zane shakes his head. “No.”
“No?”
It wasn’t the answer he expected. It’s killing VP not to know for sure what killed his wife. Was it the cancer? Was it poison? Was it both?
“Let her rest in peace, Dad. Mom’s been dead for over thirty years, and there’s no reason to dig her up. It won’t bring her back.”
“I’m surprised,” he admits. “I figured you’d be chomping at the bit to know the truth. She used to mean so much to you.”
Snapping his head up, Zane glares at VP with a look so deadly that it honestly frightens him. “Fuck you.”
“Excuse me?”
“Shedoesmean so much to me, but digging her up to learn whether my brother killed my mother or not won’t change a damn thing. At the end of the day, we lost her, and it’s not worth disturbing her.”
VP scoffs. “Zane—”
“What’s it going to prove in the end? That she’s still fucking dead? Pretty sure the body in the ground already tells us that.”
“It could tell us if Nero killed her.”
“Who cares at this point? He’s dead, too. Knowing for sure whether cancer or my brother killed Mom isn’t going to do anything for me.”
“Stop calling him that.”
He smirks and laughs. “That’s what he is.”
“No, he’s not.”
“I don’t need to know if he lied or not.”
