No Longer Needed by Brenda Grate Read Free Book Online

every year, but when the next year came around, he’d refused again. No matter what arguments Jen had used, he’d remained firm. Finally, Emma took the kids to Disneyland herself.
    Was that the beginning of the end?
    Emma picked up the book and carried it into her bedroom. She placed it on her bedside table and kept glancing at it while she readied herself for sleep.  
    She imagined the little house her Papous …  
    Then she realized what was bothering her. Emma sucked in a breath and a thrill of fear shot through her. She looked at her bedside clock. It was much too late to call the law office. Lawyers were usually there at all hours, but they wouldn’t answer the phone so late unless she had the direct line to Alan’s lawyer, which she didn’t. Her stomach churned at the thought that it might be too late. Then she remembered she hadn’t signed the final divorce agreement, although she’d agreed to it verbally. As far as she knew, it wasn’t legal until she put her signature to it. And she wouldn’t, no matter how much pressure Alan exerted.
    The little house. It was hers as Papous intended. He’d loved his oldest granddaughter with a love that made her feel like she always had a safety net. He told her many stories of life in Greece. He loved to describe the salty air that filled his lungs to depths like no other air on Earth. As a young girl, Emma would imagine living in Greece and getting away from her responsibilities.
    Emma’s father had passed away when her youngest sister had only been a baby. Her mother had never recovered. So Emma, at only ten years old, had to become the mother of the household. She’d rushed home after school every day to make sure her three sisters were cared for and her mother comfortable. Emma’s mother didn’t have a specific ailment, just a general weakness that Emma figured would now be diagnosed as fibromyalgia. Even as a young child, though, Emma knew it to be overwhelming grief.
    Emma’s father had been a seriously handsome man. In their wedding picture, mom had never looked so happy or proud. She had loved her husband with every part of her being, as she’d said many times. Daddy had strong Greek features. An aquiline nose, dark hair, piercing black eyes that somehow sparkled despite their depth. He was of average height, but more than made up for it in personality. Emma had loved her father blindingly.
    He had been Papous’ only son. Emma’s grandmother, yiayia in Greek, had died giving birth to him. Papous had been so overwhelmed with grief that he left Greece to find a new life with his baby son. He had friends in Greece with family members in Toronto, so had traveled there with letters of introduction. The Canadian Greeks had immediately welcomed him as part of their community.
    Papous had been a fisherman in Greece just like his father and grandfather before him. Since there was no sea in Toronto, he’d found work in a factory and worked his way up to foreman. He’d gone to work every day, leaving his son with a neighbor woman who likely hoped to become the new Mrs. Stavros. But Papous had never re-married.
    Emma had always wondered what her yiayia had been like. She must have been beautiful because Daddy didn’t look anything like Papous. Papous wouldn’t talk about her, though, unlike Mom who talked constantly of her Nicholas.
    It had been a lonely childhood made a little softer by Papous’ attention. He’d often complained that Mom made a mule of Emma. He had never gotten along with Mom. She wasn’t Greek, Papous’ main complaint, but he would have accepted her if she’d been a little better as a wife. Papous felt a wife should cook daily and take care of her children. Mom hadn’t cooked even once a week. She and Daddy took them out to eat or he brought food home from a fast-food joint most of the week. If they were lucky, they got a home-cooked meal on Sundays, usually because Papous had been coming for dinner.
    Emma mused that eating a regular diet