Chapter Forty
The Funeral (2 Weeks Later)
To me, the funeral went by in a blink. It reminded me when I was younger how fast my parents’ funeral went by and quickly, I was taken away. I didn’t have time to process anything. I didn’t even get to go back home. The second my parents went under, social services shoved me in a car and drove off with me.
I fixed the sunglasses over my nose and pushed the stroller as I made my way to the parked black cars. I was going to give Clay to my doula, Florence, to watch him for a bit. I was going to join everyone at the hall for repast, and I didn’t want to bring Clay along. It felt unorthodox to do that.
When I joined everyone for repast it seemed like everybody made a little group circle of three to four people and started talking. I dropped at the table that was nearly empty, just a little girl sitting at the edge. She was completely spaced out—not even moving.
From afar, she almost resembled Celeste. Yeah, but a younger version of her.
“Hey,”
I whispered. I didn’t expect her to immediately start talking to me, so I didn’t take it to heart when she didn’t respond or even looked my way.
I wrapped my black coat around me. It was big—I liked the fact that it swallowed me, it made me feel like I could curl up inside of it and hide from all of this.
Nobody cried at the funeral, not even her parents, not even Ardley who I did not blame because he’d been crying for months now. His face was puffy, his eyes were red, but he didn’t cry that day.
I looked for him across the room until I found him. He was sitting alone, spacing off.
“This is Juliette,”
I heard Callum’s voice boom from behind me.
I awkwardly turned around and noticed Callum with an older version of his dad. I smiled politely because I was introduced but he hasn’t been introduced to me yet.
Callum smiled as he pointed at the man next to him. “This is Frank, my uncle, my father’s older brother.”
I nodded as I stood up and offered Frank a handshake, “it’s nice to meet you.”
His eyes glazed over my shoulder, and he smiled. “Is that…Cindy?”
I turned around to look at the little girl that was sitting at the end of the table.
“Yeah,”
Callum replied.
Frank approached her at the table and ruffled her hair. “Hey, sweetie, how’ve you been?”
“That’s Celeste’s little sister,”
Callum whispered over my shoulder as we watched the two interact.
Christian was still in town. Although Callum was trying his best not to seem upset about it, he was. I’d explained to him the true relationship between Christian and I, and just spared him the details.
“Daniel!”
Callum said through clenched teeth, “I wonder what brings you here.”
Daniel tilted his head to the side. “Just wanted to express my condolences and speak to Ardley for a bit.”
Callum nodded and leaned over my shoulder. “Get Ardley out of here fast, now is not a good time to talk about his wife’s assets,”
he whispered.
I nodded and searched the room until I found Ardley again.
Part III: Destiny