Chapter 80
Small towns never ran out of gossip.
As Valeria walked in, someone called out, “Hey, are you looking for someone around here?”
She ignored them.
The bags in her hands were heavy, and she walked straight through the narrow alley.
Margaret’s house was tucked deep in the neighborhood, with an old red iron gate. Valeria used a key to open it. Inside the yard, Margaret was washing clothes by hand, with two tabby cats curled up near her feet.
When she looked up and saw Valeria, she froze in surprise, then wiped her hands on her apron and stood up.
“You little rascal, why didn’t you say you were coming? You just show up like this?”
Valeria walked over quickly, setting the bags down.
“I bought you a washing machine, didn’t I? It’s freezing out. Just use that.”
“It’s only a couple of shirts. It feels like a waste to use the machine.”
Valeria took Margaret’s hand. It was so rough that it made her chest tighten.
Time had passed too fast.
She could still remember being four years old. Her grandfather, Phillip Milton, was still alive. Thomas had already been married but was still decent back then. Jennifer even smiled sometimes. Ivy, just two months older, used to run around the yard with her.
They used to eat together out here-simple meals around a wooden table, the kind of ordinary, happy noise that filled a home.
Valeria stayed the night. She slept in the room she’d grown up in.
Margaret said, “Ivy’s engagement party was a big deal the other day. She’s really changed. I heard her fiancé’s family is well-off.”
Valeria hadn’t gone and didn’t want to know more. She just nodded.
Margaret picked up on it right away. She didn’t push. She was getting older and knew she wouldn’t be around forever.
When she looked at Valeria, she was reminded of her own daughter, Valeria’s mother.
Her daughter, Grace Crane, had been sharper. Valeria seemed softer on the outside, but deep
down, the same toughness ran through them both.
“Riri, how are things going with Shane? Is everything good between you two?”
Valeria had once told Margaret she was married just to give her peace of mind.
She had been, technically. But she hadn’t told Margaret the truth. It was actually a marriage of convenience, a quick divorce, and they had each gotten something out of it.
She’d helped Shane convince his dying father that he’d finally settled down. In return, he’d helped with Selena’s school enrollment and even accompanied her once to meet Margaret, playing the part of a supportive husband.
Valeria lowered her voice as she told Margaret that Shane had a work transfer and was now in Strico Valley in Amaran.
Margaret didn’t love the long-distance thing but figured a man needed to focus on his career. She didn’t question it too much—just kept asking about him on the phone.
Valeria didn’t want her to worry because Margaret had never had it easy.
Valeria had overheard things growing up. Grace and Thomas were twins. And Grace gave to Valeria at 21. When Valeria turned one, Grace left. She divorced Valeria’s father and walked away because she couldn’t let go of an old flame.
birth
Grace hated that her parents had forced her to marry someone else.
Meanwhile, Thomas had relied entirely on their parents’ savings just to get by after marriage.
When Valeria was one, it was Margaret who stepped in to raise her. Valeria remembered Jennifer screaming at Margaret, “Why don’t you just die already?”
And Thomas, standing at Phillip’s hospital bed as Phillip fought leukemia, saying, “Dad, maybe it’s time to let go. We can’t keep going like this. Jennifer and I are falling apart. You’re dragging us all down.”
Phillip hadn’t died from complications. He’d taken his own life with sleeping pills. Valeria stood by the closet, listening to Margaret talk, responding only with vague answers.
“He’s busy with work. We’re doing fine.”
She didn’t want Margaret to carry more stress. Margaret always asked who Selena’s father was -where he was. Valeria never had a real answer. She was ashamed to even try.
That relationship had ended before it ever became something real.
She reached into the closet and pulled out a quilt. Just then, something slipped out from between the folds. It was a photo.
She took a look at it and realized it was a family portrait. Phillip, Margaret, Grace, and Thomas
Chapter O
were in the picture, and it was taken when they were young.
Valeria had never seen a photo of Grace before. She only knew Grace’s name-Grace Crane.
She hadn’t expected to find a photo at all. In it, Grace looked thin and confident. She was pretty in a bold and unapologetic way.
3/3
Valeria stared at her face. Something about it was familiar. She set the quilt down, bent over, and picked the photo up carefully.
