An Amish Christmas by Cynthia Keller Read Free Book Online Page B

He rubbed his eyes tiredly. “What do you think?”
    When had her husband become like this? Meg wondered. He had always been so strong emotionally. Now he seemed incapable of handling any part of the crisis he himself had brought upon them.
    She took a breath. “I think we have to tell them the truth. Unfortunately, today. They need to know they can’t spend any more money on anything. More important, they need to be told what’s coming down the road. What happens to their everyday lives? To their activities, to their friends?”
    “Simple enough,” James replied. He snapped his fingers. “Poof. All gone.” He abruptly leaned forward, grabbing thechair arms angrily. “You want me to be helpful, Meg? Fine! I will take the blame and tell them Daddy wrecked their lives. Will that be sufficient?”
    Meg was unmoved by his words. “You
have
wrecked their lives. And yes, that will be sufficient for now. You do all the talking, and I’ll be beside you like some philandering politician’s wife. We’ll present a united front. I’ll keep up my end. Just be sure you keep up yours and tell them the truth.”
    It was nearly five in the afternoon when, seated side by side on the sofa, they called the children to the family room. Sam responded first, plopping down cross-legged on the floor. Lizzie and Will required another few shouts to get them to appear, then they slouched in armchairs, both looking somewhat put upon.
    “Why the summit meeting?” Lizzie asked.
    “We have some important things to tell you,” Meg said. “So please, just listen to Dad until he’s done.”
    She struggled to keep her face neutral as she listened to James lay out the situation. He omitted altogether the part about pretending to go to work for the past four months. His explanation relied on a bad economy and unlucky investments in a way that absolved him from any real responsibility. The children clearly didn’t grasp the significance of what he was saying until he started explaining the immediate and painful consequences of not having any money at all. Tense, she watched her two older children’s expressions shift from barely attentive to stunned to horrified. Sam’s face remained impassive, but the growing intensity of his nail-biting said more than enough.
    “
Please
tell me you’re kidding, please, please, please!” Lizzie was perched on the edge of her chair, leaning forward, her hands gripping the chair arms. “You
have
to be!”
    “Yeah, this is a joke, right?” Will’s voice held anger and fear in equal measure.
    By this point, Meg’s stomach was clenched so tight, she was almost bent in half, her arms crossed over her abdomen. “No,” she practically whispered. “No, it’s not a joke.”
    Lizzie sounded frantic. “I don’t understand. We don’t have any money?
None
?”
    James spoke firmly. “That’s right. So there will not be one dime going out of this house from now on.”
    “But I need to pay Megan back for Ali’s birthday present, and—”
    “Lizzie, listen to me!” James said. “Not one dime. No paying back. No movies, no shopping, no nothing.”
    “We’ll still have our cell phones and laptops, right?”
    James shook his head. “Not after tomorrow.”
    Lizzie was wild-eyed. “You can’t do this to us!”
    “It’ll be all right, honey,” Meg soothed.
    Her daughter turned to her in fury. “It will not! This is the worst thing that ever happened!”
    “How are we going to live?” Will asked. “Will we be able to eat?”
    “Your mother and I are taking care of all the details. Don’t worry, you won’t starve. But we’ll be leaving the house in about two weeks, so you’ll need to start getting ready. We’ll only have my car, the Mustang. We can take just what we can fit into it and not one thing more.”
    “
Are you crazy?
” Lizzie shrieked. “That’s impossible! We can’t live like that!”
    “Leaving the house for how long?” Will’s face was white.
    James paused. “For good.