Page 6 of The Lie That Stole Christmas
“Camille?”Grandpa’s voice boomed through the vestibule, freezing everyone in place.“What the hell are you doing here?”
Mom straightened, meeting her ex-father-in-law's deathly glare.“I’m family, and I thought…” She tugged at the end of her Hermes scarf.“That maybe I’d be included.”
“Included…?”Grandpa waved his hand for her to continue, but she snapped her overfilled lips shut.“Included in the will?
“I just thought—”
“The only thing you’ll ever get is a reserved seat beside me in hell.”
Mom gasped.
“You cheated on my son, and you destroyed this family.”
Mom squared her shoulders and smoothed the front of her coat, but Ashley caught the brief flash of hurt in her eyes before it disappeared with a practiced smile.“I think you did that all on your own, but if you need a scapegoat, I’m happy to play the role.”
A fiery red spread through Grandpa’s face, his jaw clenched so tightly the veins in his neck bulged.His hand shot toward the door.“Get out of my house, Camille, before I have you forcibly removed.Again.”
Mom lifted her chin and let out a sharp, brittle laugh.“Don’t worry, Bill.I won’t stay where I’m not wanted.”Mom’s eyes drifted to Dad, who found the floor particularly interesting.With a toss of her hair, she swept past everyone, her perfume lingering long after the door slammed.
Grandpa exhaled a shaky breath.“Good riddance.”
“Should I go check on her?”Gabe asked.
Ashley sighed.“Not if you don’t want to listen to her unload on you for the next twenty minutes.”
Gabe groaned.“You’re right.I’ll text her later when she’s had time to calm down.”
“I’m sure she’ll be texting you soon.”
Gabe was always the first person Mom vented to.After the affair became public, Ashley worried about him more than anyone.He’d been caught between two parents who expected his loyalty while trying to hold the family together.
“Now that the trash has taken itself out,” Grandpa said, and Gabe went to defend Mom, but even he knew there was no point, so he closed his mouth.
“What is this?”Uncle Rick demanded, his finger pointing menacingly at the ground.
“If you’d let me speak, I will explain.”
“This ought to be good,” Aunt Marilyn said before taking another sip from the whiskey bottle.Cole sighed and snatched it out of her grasp.He corked it closed and slammed it on the bar cart.
“Years ago, a dark cloud formed over Winterridge,” Grandpa began, his words bringing a slew of unwanted memories to the surface.
A knot twisted Ashley’s stomach.She swallowed as a flash of the funeral, black coats, frozen breaths, the silent fury that had emanated from the walls, slammed into her.
“I thought staying away from each other, giving us all space, that we might heal, allow tempers to cool.”His voice trembled slightly, but he continued.“Instead… it tore us all further apart.”He swept his cane in the air, and it felt as if it pointed at each of them.“Your mother… your grandmother would be rolling in her grave if she knew how we’ve carried on since she left.”
A hush fell over the room; even Aunt Marilyn kept her mouth shut.It was a truth that none of them could deny.Grandma Lily would be heartbroken at the disaster that was the Wetherbys.
“I decided the only way to fix this family was to force you all back to Winterridge.Weddings, births, birthdays… you’d find an excuse, skip them without a thought.But death?”His eyes glinted.“I knew that would get your asses in that door.”
“You pretended to die,” Taylor muttered, the shock evident in her tone.“That was cruel.”
“I did what I had to do, and I’d do it again,” Grandpa stated with unwavering affirmation.“Look around.You’re all here, aren’t you?”
“You could have just sent a group text,” Nate muttered.
“And missed the looks on your faces when I rose from the dead?”He held his hands up in dramatic fashion.
Aunt Marilyn let out a loud laugh.“You always were a son of a bitch.”
