The Mill River Redemption by Darcie Chan Read Free Book Online

to … because I don’t agree with it.”
    Rose cackled. “Surely, you’re not serious! Oh, that’s rich, Sheldon, truly.” She waited for his reaction, but he sat very still in the driver’s seat, moving only to steer the car through the curves of thehighway. Rose felt a realization creeping into her alcohol-numbed mind, the kind of realization with life-changing implications.
    “Sheldon,” Rose said, sitting further up in her seat, “what do you mean, you ‘don’t agree with it’?”
    “If we’re going to be completely honest here, we do need that inheritance. We need it very badly.”
    “What?” Rose felt her mouth open, but she was too shocked to figure out how to close it or what else to say.
    “It’s been almost three years since the bank went under. We’re well into our savings. My unemployment ran out a long time ago. The occasional consulting gig isn’t enough to pay for everything. Our mortgage is killing us, and we can’t unload the condo because it’s underwater. Our investments have come back some, but not enough to make up the losses, and a huge percentage of what we had disappeared with the company. I’ve cashed out some of what I can because the bills keep coming—the nanny, the housekeeper, the credit cards, school fees.” Sheldon rattled off these things as if they had been circling through his mind. “There are ten, twenty guys like me out there for every open position, and no one will touch me once they learn where I worked and how high up the ladder I was. We’re just about out of options.”
    “Why didn’t you tell me before now? Didn’t you think it’s something I should know?”
    “You’ve never taken much of an interest in our finances, and I wasn’t sure you wanted to hear it. And,” Sheldon added, more quietly, “I kept thinking that things would get better soon.”
    Rose struggled to process this information. “What’s left of the savings?”
    “Enough to cover things for another few months, maybe six if we cut out all the extras. Long enough for you to go up to Mill River for the summer and do whatever you need to do to get your share of your mom’s estate.”
    “It can’t be that bad, Sheldon.”
    “It is.”
    Rose clenched her teeth. She was starting to feel a little nauseous, imagining herself living in a tiny old house surrounded by good ol’ New England country folk. Escaping that dump of a town was the main reason she had moved to New York City. “And if I go? What will you and Alex be doing?”
    “I’ll keep looking for work and taking consulting gigs as they come. Alex will have to go to Vermont with you. We can’t afford to send him to camp or keep Clara on for the summer. If I’m working, even sporadically, you’ll need to take care of him. Which means,” Sheldon continued after dropping his voice to a stern whisper, “that you’re going to have to lay off the booze.”
    “It’s all right, Mom,” Alex said. “I won’t be any trouble. I’m almost ten. I can practically take care of myself.”
    Hearing her son’s voice softened Rose. She turned around and looked at Alex. He smiled hopefully. She couldn’t help but smile a little in return before the scowl crept back onto her face. Rose faced the front again and sighed. Leaning back against her seat, she tried to ignore her throbbing headache and the inevitably ugly summer ahead of her.
    T HE LONG JOURNEY BACK TO C ALIFORNIA FROM V ERMONT REMINDED Emily just how much she hated being stuck in one place. She was trapped in the middle seat on the six-hour flight from Boston to San Francisco. To her left, a man slept with his head against the window. The poor fellow’s snoring would grow louder and louder until he snorted and grunted himself awake to start the cycle over again.
    To her right, a tiny woman with braided gray hair and half-moon spectacles knitted at a feverish pace. The clicking of herneedles combined with the snoring was almost enough to drive Emily mad.
    While she