They Never Loved Me. Now I Don't Remember Them. novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: The Dock

Lydia's POV

On Sunday afternoon Pearl and I walked out onto my grandmother's dock.

The boards were gray and slick with the night's frost, and the lake lay flat and pale on both sides of us.

We sat at the end with our feet over the water, as Grandma Ruth used to sit with me.

"I used to bring you here when you were three," Pearl said. "You held on to my finger and stared at the minnows."

"I don't remember that."

"I know. You were three."

She said it so dryly that I laughed.

Then I stopped, because it was the first time I had laughed on that dock since the funeral.

"They charged her this morning," Pearl said, watching the water. "Assault by poisoning, forgery, conspiracy with the doctor, fraud on the trust. The detective called me at seven. The judge has already refused bail."

"And Dad?"

"Giving a statement for the fourth hour. He asked me to tell you he'll stay at the Marblehead inn until you say otherwise."

"He can stay in the house."

"Not yet," Pearl said. "You'll want to say that, and mean it, and not yet."

I nodded.

Behind us, the screen door of the lake house opened and closed.

Britta came down the lawn in the yellow cardigan, with a folded paper in one hand.

She stopped at the head of the dock and did not step onto it.

"May I?"

Pearl looked at me.

"Not on the dock," I said. "Sit on the grass. I'll come to you."

I walked back along the boards and sat down on the lawn, a few feet from her.

She did not look at my face.

"I was cleaning out the coat closet this morning," she said. "I wanted to put my things in boxes. I didn't want to leave anything of mine in your house."

"It's not my house yet."

"It's yours." She unfolded the paper. "This was in the pocket of my winter coat."

The envelope was thin and yellowed.

On the front, in my grandmother's slanting hand, was my name.

I could not speak.

"Mom took it out of the desk the Wednesday she cleared the study, before you ever came," Britta said. "She gave it to me that night and told me to hide it. She said I would know where."

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