"As I see this." Charlotte said, gazing around the living room. "I'm offering you a way out of this disastrous mess your husband has left you."
"You want me to become a mother to your sister's child?" Mammy finally was able to ask.
"And your husband's child and your own child's half-brother," Charlotte replied. She pulled herself up. In point of fact, my dear, you have more reason to be a surrogate mother to him than I have."
Mommy sat back.
"Why don't we plan on your visiting tomorrow? I'll send my car for you. Perhaps when you see where you would live and what you would enjoy, you'll lose any hesitation."
She rose and looked at me.
"Evan would so much enjoy having someone his own age around him. He's had minimal contact with other teenagers, and that's why he's so tied to his computer. You could do a great deal for him, my dear. You could help repair the terrible injury your father visited upon my family and my poor dead sister. Shall we say about ten A.M.?" she asked Mammy.
Mammy looked incapable of replying.
"My mother and I will discuss all this. Mrs. Curtis." I said. "It's all quite a shock."
"Yes, but imagine the shocks I've experienced." she retorted and started out. I rose to follow her to the door. After she opened it, she turned back to me.
"No one knows about this disgrace and no one needs to know. As far as the inquiring public goes, you and your mother will be hired to help me manage. Should you refuse. I would have to speak with my attorneys to determine what course of action would best benefit poor Evan."
"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.
"There is paternal responsibility."
"We have nothing. Mrs. Curtis. You know that already," I said sharply.
"Yes. I know. I suppose I would have to find some sort of institutionalized setting for Evan. Another burden of suffering piled on his poor soul, and all because your father turned his charms on my poor sister. Remember your Bible, my dear. The sins of the father are visited on the heads of his children."
She turned and stepped out.
"Someone will call you tonight to confirm the pickup tomorrow morning," she concluded and walked to her waiting car.
I watched her vehicle drive off, the sight of it lingering like a vivid new nightmare.
4 The Mansion
Mommy was still sitting exactly where we had left her, the same dumbfounded expression on her face. After a moment she turned to me.
"Do you believe all that?" She looked down at the letters in her hand and the check. "How could he have done this? How could he have kept such a dark secret? Did he treat this with the same nonchalance he treated everything else in our lives? Did he not expect that it would came back at him someday?"
I lowered myself to a chair and stared at the floor. Like a tickle that turned into a scratch, a horrible gnawing thought made its way to the top of my thoughts. Slowly, I raised my eyes to Mammy.
"Some people thi
nk Daddy might have deliberately killed himself, Mammy. Do you think this makes it more likely to be true?"
The idea dawned on her, too, but when it came to her, it was more like a slap in the face.
She shook her head, but she started to cry. I leaped from my chair to embrace her and the two of us sat there on the settee, rocking each other, tears streaking down both our faces. Finally, she took a deep breath and sat back.
"What does that woman really want?" she asked me.
"I don't know. Mommy." She thought a moment.
"She did look very rich." she said, and gazed with haunted eves at our small, dark, and tired living room. "Maybe we should see what it's really all about.-
"You mean, go there?"