Page 20 of Raymond's Forever

“I have to pack, and I don’t want to.” She looked at him with a wrinkled nose.

Raymond took care of his plate, then joined her. “What is your system? To me, it looks like you have half packed boxes, and piles of things that need to go inside them. Is there a method to your madness?”

“The piles need to be donated to the local Goodwill, the half-full boxes are what I need to take to Broken Two.”

“Would you like some help?”

“I couldn’t ask that of you.”

“You didn’t ask, I volunteered. Remember, I did this exact same thing two months ago.”

“Can I ask what your daughter meant about the stuff belonging to those two women you mentioned?”

Raymond scrubbed his face, shook his head, and looked at her directly. “I’m not saying I won’t tell you, but I am saying I need more wine if I’m going to.”

CHAPTER 8

“Is it that bad?”Amelia asked as she poured them both more wine, but the glasses were only half full as she handed him his. They settled back at the island, and he stared into his glass before he began his tale.

“As you know, Opal is my daughter. She was young when her mother died.”

Raymond scrubbed his face, shook his head, and looked at her directly. “I’m not saying I won’t tell you, but I am saying is that it’s intense, and some of what I’m about to tell you I haven’t revisited in my mind for years, decades even.”

“Do you want to settle on the couch?”

Raymond looked at her with a smirk, and a shake of his head. “No offense, but I would probably start packing your boxes if I went into that room. One of the ways I think through things is to keep busy. Packing up your things would be perfect, but I won’t because I want to get this story out.” He looked at her sternly then. “I won’t be repeating it again.”

Amelia threw her head back and laughed. “I would probably let you too pack for me.”

“Maybe later, or I can get a hotel room later, and come here in the morning to help you pack.”

“I have a spare room you can use.”

Neither said anything, and Raymond heaved a heavy sigh, sipped his wine, then turned on his stool to face her. “I’m not crying in my wine about what I’m about to tell you. It’s all true, and I can even give you case numbers if you want to look it up online since it’s all public information now.”

“Wow, it sounds intense.”

“It is. Don’t tell Opal this, but I blame myself for everything, well, most of it. Especially, the second half of this story. I should have paid better attention to what was right in front of my face. But I digress.” He shook his head, sipped his wine, drew in another deep breath, and let it out slowly. “In order for you to understand everything, I’m going to have to start at the beginning.”

“I’m all ears.”

“Okay, I met Opal’s mother on our first day of college. We were enrolled in the same program, pre-law. I actually bumped into her, and had to catch her from falling.” He grinned as he remembered. “I was looking at the map, trying to figure out where I had to be for orientation, she was doing the same thing. From that day forward, we were inseparable. Because we were in the same program, we were also enrolled in the same classes, had the same schedule, everything. We even joined the same study group. I wouldn’t say it was love at first sight, but it was instant attraction. We later, after our first year, realized we liked each other on a deeper level. When we returned for our sophomore year, we started dating, and we were exclusive after that. We went through pre-law, and law school. I knew from day one that I would be returning home to Charlotte, North Carolina to work in my family’s law firm.” He shook his head and had a small smile on his face as he remembered something.

“The year before we graduated law school, I brought her home to meet the family. Before that, it was phone calls, andFacetime videos. This time was in person. I didn’t learn until after we graduated that during that holiday, both Dad and Grandpa had taken Ciara aside and basically interviewed her for a position at the law firm. She didn’t tell me until after we returned to school. Fast forward to graduation, and we both took the summer off before hitting the real world. We got married that summer. Nothing big or flashy, but her sister and brother-in-law were there, that’s the only family she had. My parents, and grandparents were there. When we started working for my family’s law firm, neither one of us were treated with privilege. We went in with the knowledge that we would be starting at the bottom and working our way up.” He shook his head with a smirk.

“What?” Amelia asked quietly, when he stared off into space. She sucked in her breath as he looked at her and grinned.

“What I didn’t tell you was that I was set to eventually inherit the law firm. After grandpa retired, Dad would take over, once Dad retired, I would take over. I had to wait years before that happened. Or so we all thought.”

“What happened?”

“It was five years into our careers, and while both Ciara and I worked sixty hours a week, or more, we were happy, and we were able to purchase a house. Six months after the house, we found out we were pregnant. She didn’t quit work, but she cut her hours down to forty a week, while I still worked the sixty. Everything was perfect, she had what doctors referred to as a textbook perfect pregnancy. Opal was born healthy, and after her maternity leave, Ciara came back to work part-time. We had discussed it, and though she wanted to work, she also wanted to be home with Opal. We didn’t need the two incomes, so I let her work what she wanted to.” He sipped his wine, stared off into space, and shook his head.

“Sometime later, I believe Opal was about a year and a half old by then, she was thriving, hitting all her milestones, and Ciara came to me to discuss her quitting work altogether. I supported her. About three months into her being a stay-at-home mom, I noticed that she seemed tired more than when she was doing it all. I encouraged her to get her annual physical.” He paused again, and reached up to scrub his face with both hands. When he looked at Amelia, she jerked at the anguish she saw in his face.

“Breast cancer, stage three. I knew she was tired, and I should have encouraged her to stop working altogether, but every time I brought it up, she said she was fine. I believed her.”

“I’m so sorry, did the chemo treatments help?”