The Phoenix's Rebirth for Revenge novel · Chapter 12 of 32

Chapter 12: Witnesses

I already knew what came next.

In the other life, a will had turned up two weeks after the funeral.

It was dated in March, signed in Gran's hand, and it left everything to Sabine.

Nobody had ever asked how it got made.

"They're not going to hide it," I said. "They're going to replace it."

Gran looked at me across the pennies.

"With what?"

"With one you didn't write."

She was quiet for a long moment.

Then she reached for her phone again.

"Then I'll sign the real one," she said, "in front of so many people nobody can ever say I didn't."

Gran threw the party on Tuesday night.

Ambrose's dining room seated twelve, so he had another table carried up from the garden and put end to end with the first.

Twenty guests came.

Gran's four poker friends, all over seventy and all in sequins.

Three of the outside shareholders of Haverhill Marine and their wives.

The commodore of the yacht club, who had known Gran for fifty years and was afraid of her.

A retired judge from her church.

Gran's lawyer sat at her right hand with a fresh original in a leather folder.

Ambrose cooked.

He made roast chicken, too much of it, and refused all help, and Gran's poker friends watched him carve.

"Is he single?" one of them asked me.

"He's engaged."

"To whom?"

"Me."

She looked me up and down. "Well done."

Over dessert, Gran tapped her glass with a spoon.

"I've invited you here for two reasons," she said. "The first is that this young man can cook, and I wanted witnesses."

People laughed.

"The second is that somebody stole my will out of my lawyer's safe on Saturday night."

The laughter stopped.

"So I'm going to sign it again," Gran said. "Right here. And I'd like every one of you to sign the back page after me, so if anybody ever waves a different will around with my name on it, there are twenty-one people in Boston who can say what I really wrote."

The commodore cleared his throat. "Winifred, is this legal?"

"Ask the judge."

"It's unusual," said the judge, "but it's very legal."

The lawyer opened the folder.

The doorbell rang.

Ambrose looked at me.

I knew who it was before he got to the hall.

My mother came in first, in cream silk, carrying a huge bunch of white peonies.

My father came behind her with a bottle of wine.

Sabine came last, in a soft blue dress with her hair down, looking like an apology.

"Winifred," my mother said warmly, "we heard you were having a little dinner. We didn't want to be the family that stayed away."

Twenty heads turned toward Gran.

Gran didn't get up.

"Lenora," she said. "Good. You're just in time."

My mother's smile held.

"For what?"

"For the signing."

Gran uncapped the fountain pen.

My mother saw the leather folder.

Something moved behind her eyes, and then it was gone.

Sabine took a step forward. "Gran, wait. You're tired, you've had wine, you shouldn't be signing anything tonight."

"I've had water," said Gran. "Ambrose poured it. He's very strict."

She signed.

Then she handed the pen to the commodore, and he signed the back page, and passed it on.

It went around both tables, hand to hand, twenty signatures.

My parents stood in the doorway holding peonies and wine and watched every one.

When the folder came back to the lawyer, Gran turned and looked at my mother.

"There," she said. "Now if another will turns up, I'll know somebody forged it. And so will everybody here."

Sabine had gone white to the lips.

My father put the wine down on the sideboard very carefully.

My mother laid the peonies next to it.

"Happy to see you so well, Winifred," she said.

They left without sitting down.

At midnight, when the last of the poker ladies had been poured into a taxi, I found Ambrose in his bathroom with the shower running, scrubbing chicken grease off his forearms.

"You fed twenty people," I said from the doorway.

"Twenty-three. Your parents didn't eat, so I'm counting them as a win."

He turned and looked at me in the steam.

I was still in my dress.

He was still in his shirt, sleeves rolled, the front of it soaked.

"Get in," he said.

"Get in."

I stepped past him into the water with my dress still on.

← Chapter 11 · All chapters · Chapter 13 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend