Chapter 2 #2
He nodded. “No, and you won’t like the truth,” he began, “but it’s damn well time the truth came out.
I didn’t want it to come out like it did, but it’s not just you who needs to know.
… Grandma also needs to know that all her dirty laundry is now out in the open.
God knows that Grandpa wasn’t enough to keep her in line.
” He glanced at Crystal, wishing he could see her expression, but she had her mask on. “Has she always treated you that way?”
She sighed. “Yes, and it’s been getting worse. I don’t really understand why, but, somewhere along the line, she’s become verbally abusive like that,” she noted. “She used to be the sweetest grandmother ever.”
He nodded. “She was.”
“But she’s changed. And I don’t know how much of that is some mental condition—some element of dementia or whatnot. I don’t know what’s going on.”
“From what I saw at the bank, she’s still as wily and conniving as ever, no dementia at all.” He heard Crystal suck in her breath, and he added, “I know. That’s probably a shocking thing to say and not what you expected to hear.”
“No, didn’t expect that,” she confirmed. “And you seem very sure of yourself.” Then she hesitated and asked, “Do you really own everything?”
“Yes. I own it all. The property, the houses, Grandpa’s business, all of it.
Grandma was in the bank, trying to make a withdrawal without my permission.
She fully intended to go around my back, maybe even forge my signature,” he suggested in frustration, “and I had already forewarned the bank manager and the lawyers that she was up to no good. So, we’ll just have to see what she tried to do.
I couldn’t ask Roger in front of her, but I need to have a private phone call with him and find out exactly what she wanted to happen. ”
When no response came from Crystal, he turned to her. A stunned expression covered her face.
She asked him, “Do you want me to leave?”
Her tone was formal, and his eyebrows shot up. “Why?”
She just stared at him.
He glanced over to catch sight of her face again and saw the confusion on it. He frowned. “I have owned it for a very long time. I didn’t kick you out before, and I’m not planning on kicking you out now.”
“So, Grandma knows—”
“Oh, she knows all right,” he muttered, with a chuckle, “but she was attempting to access more money.”
Crystal frowned.
Ashton sighed. “She didn’t used to be full-on malicious,” he shared, “but her behavior just now, the way she spoke to you, makes me wonder if she always was this selfish, and I just wasn’t aware of it.”
“I don’t know about malicious. She’s certainly gotten worse. And, since Grandpa went missing, I’ve seen almost a panicked side to her that I hadn’t noticed before,” she told him. “I’m glad to see she’s upset that he’s missing, but—”
“But?”
“This isn’t the kind of behavior that would necessarily be … normal for a supposedly happily married couple, who have a good understanding of what’s been going on for a long time,” she noted cautiously.
He didn’t say anything and just watched as Grandma headed down the driveway, and he followed intently behind.
“What about Jenny?” she asked.
“What about Jenny?”
“Does she know?” Crystal asked.
“I don’t know how much Jenny knows. She’s certainly been here a long time. Why?”
“Because Grandma tried to kick her out recently, and Jenny just stared at her and declared how she wasn’t going anywhere.”
He barked out a laugh. “Well, good for Jenny. I mean, that’s hardly what I would consider normal Grandma behavior either,” he noted.
“No, and I was really surprised. But, as I said, Grandma’s been pretty vicious with me recently. So, I didn’t know if maybe I just wasn’t seeing something.”
He didn’t comment on that part. “I’m worried about Grandpa’s going missing and the fact that nobody even has a clue where he is.”
“I tried phoning the deputy earlier, but he hasn’t got back to me yet.”
“What’s the latest information?
“Grandma said that Grandpa went out for a walk and just never came back. We’ve all gone out riding, looking for him. The deputies organized a search party for him, but, so far, there’s been no sign of him.”
He frowned at that. “What was the weather like that day he first went missing?”
“Normal, and that was three, four days ago,” she replied. “Grandma told everybody three days ago.” He swore at that, and she nodded. “And when I said four days, correcting her, she just glared at me and basically told me to toe the line or else.”
“Ah,” he snorted, shaking his head.
Crystal asked, “You think she’s got something going on?”
“She absolutely has something going on. I just don’t know what it all entails. And what she doesn’t know is how loyal anybody will be once they too find out whatever she’s got going on.”
“But she didn’t …” Crystal sighed. “Look. I get it. As far as you’re concerned, what she was trying to do there at the bank was criminal. I just don’t know what she thinks is the point of this.”
“Yeah, and that is something else I need to figure out and fast,” he grumbled. He watched as his grandmother pulled up to the front of the house, got out, slammed the car door shut, and stalked inside.
He smiled at her antics. “She really has a temper.”
“What do you expect?” Crystal said, with a shrug.
“You embarrassed her in front of Roger and threatened to call the sheriff on her. Everybody in the whole bank probably heard everything, as you did get loud for a bit.” She glanced at him sideways.
“Would you have gone through with it? Calling the sheriff, I mean.”
“Absolutely. And I still might have to,” he stated.
“Believe me that you don’t even know the half of it.
” He snorted. “And I already am worried as to why Grandpa’s gone missing.
Frankly he may not have gone missing on his own.
If that’s the case,” he vowed, shaking his head, “then we’ve got a much bigger problem.
” He got out and slammed the truck door.
Crystal exited his truck and asked, “I don’t suppose you would care to fill me in on those details.”
“Maybe, but not right now because I need to get set up for a whole lot more. Are you living in the house?”
“I live in one of the dower cottages,” she said and stopped to point.
He nodded. “Good, I’m going to ask you not to come inside right now. And, if you see, my, … my lovely cousins, maybe keep them out too.”
“If that’s possible,” she muttered, rolling her eyes.
“Well, if they get aggressive, let them in.”
She stared at him with a hint of surprise. “I’ve never seen Glenn or John aggressive.”
He smiled at that, but it wasn’t a pretty smile. “I’ve seen both of them go bat-shit crazy, so just keep that in mind.”
She let out her breath in a harsh gust.
“I know. This is a lot, and I’m sorry you have to know, but this affects the whole family. You will be a party to probably a whole lot more family secrets than you ever considered before.”
“I thought I was the family secret, until it was made very clear to me not all that long ago that I’m not,” she shared, her tone casual. “So, right about now, nothing surprises me, except maybe the speed at which you just seem to have come in and destroyed whatever Grandma was trying to do.”
“Good. Hopefully I did. Believe me that a big family meeting is still to come and not just with her. I guess I need to talk to Jenny too.”
Crystal frowned at him.
He nodded. “Jenny knows some things. She just doesn’t know it all. And there have been a lot of problems between Grandma and Jenny for a very long time.”
“I see that,” Crystal agreed. “And you’re right. I suddenly feel as if I don’t know anybody here.”
“Look. Let me go in and confront Grandma. Then I’ll talk to Jenny. Afterward I will come to your cottage and explain things a little bit better.”
She nodded, and he could tell that she was a little frazzled and upset.
“It will be fine, Crys,” he whispered, as she flinched at the use of her nickname.
“I’m not kicking you out. Just remember that.
I didn’t have any reason to do it years ago, and hopefully there isn’t any reason to even think about something like that now—unless all the money is truly gone,” he added.
“In the meantime, a hell of a fight will soon start inside.”
And, with that, he walked into the house alone to find his grandmother waiting for him. He nodded and smiled sweetly. “You’re still up to your old tricks, aren’t you?”
“No,” she snapped, glaring at him. “And you had no business interfering today.”
“Well, that depends on exactly what you thought you were doing. And how much of any of this has to do with Grandpa being missing?” Her bottom lip trembled, and he nodded. “How much trouble did you get into? And how much of it was Grandpa trying to bail you out of this time?”
She closed her eyes and collapsed onto the kitchen chair.
He saw the tears forming, but he already knew what her crocodile tears were like and how often she used them to get what she wanted out of Grandpa.
“I don’t know.”
“I don’t believe you,” he stated.
She opened her eyes and glared at him.
He nodded. “Yeah, I know you thought that, whatever this was, you would do it all on your own, and there would be no fuss about it. And I don’t know whether you were trying to get the money and book out of town or what,” he admitted, “but that’s obviously not happening.
I also don’t know if you know something about Grandpa’s disappearance, but I would like to think that you were trying to help the poor man. ”
She kept glaring at him.
“Yet I know all too well that you were more likely trying to just help yourself.”
She stared at him for a moment longer, and her face flushed. “I forgot what a bastard you are.”
“Yeah,” he chuckled, “and I forgot what a conniving witch you are. But it’s all coming back to me now.”
She stared at him. “I’m not a bad person,” she muttered.