Page 125 of Destiny

“Ihaven’t established that,” Dad says.

Mom walks to Dad, cups both his cheeks, looks directly into his eyes. “I mean it, Sean. This is over now. Your uncle has been dead for over fifty years. Let it go. Let it fucking go.”

I nearly fall backward. My mother never curses. She means business.

Dad is as surprised as I am. He actually takes a step backward. “Lori?”

“It’s over. We will take care of this lien business. That’s what our attorneys are for. And yes, I agreeweshould pay them. Not the Steel family.”

“I agree with that as well,” I say. “I’ll talk to Donny.”

“You do that,” Dad says. “I expect that firm to cash the check I wrote. The citizens of this good city will take care of our own mess.”

I inch toward the door. “I have to get home. Can I leave here and trust that you two won’t be at each other’s throats?”

“If your father promises to let this go.”

“Someone should pay,” he says.

“Yes. Wendy Madigan should’ve paid sixty years ago when she did it. And everyone else who helped her should’ve paid. But they’re all dead now, Sean, so they’re paying in hell.”

Dad doesn’t look convinced, but he finally sighs. Then, “I love you, Lori.”

“I love you too.”

That’s my cue to leave. “And I love you both. Dad, I’ll be in touch after I talk to Donny.”

Dad simply nods, and I leave.

Chapter Forty

Ava

I stayed home until the county coroner came and pronounced my grandmother dead. We kept the body there until Mom’s lab tech confirmed the blood we took from the body indeed came from my father’s mother.

Dad talked to Lauren, Wendy’s actual next of kin on paper, and she wouldn’t sign off on an autopsy.

“She said she didn’t care if her mother was dead from natural or unnatural means,” Dad relayed to us. “I could have overridden her wishes, but I chose not to.”

We all understood. Later, the mortuary came, took the body, and Dad went with them, keeping his eye on the body the whole time, watching as they took her into the crematorium, and because he paid them extra, he was allowed to watch the body go up in flames.

No ceremony.

None of us wanted one.

Now we have to wait to see if Dad’s hunch is right—if Wendy’s daughter Lauren is his true sister.

Three more days until I open the bakery back up for business.

The noise of construction hasn’t bothered me much, but I’ve also spent several nights at my parents’ house.

Tonight, though, knowing Wendy Madigan is gone for good, I plan to sleep well. And I want to be in my own bed.

Before I do that, it’s time to draw a card.

Just one card, so I take my deck, replace the three cards that I still haven’t put away, shuffle it once, twice, three times, and hold it to my heart.

I infuse it with my warmth, my energy, my soul.

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