Chapter 9
It wasn’t possible that Camellia could hate her and Violet that much already. They’d just met, and she knew nothing about either of them. But the animosity on Camellia’s face was unmistakable. Even though Lily understood what a shock this whole situation was to Camellia, it was just as much of a shock to her and Violet. All three of them had been betrayed; Camellia wasn’t the sole heir to that deception.
“I thought we’d already discussed this, Ray,” Camellia’s voice came out clenched and tight. “I don’t want you around those people anymore.”
“Yes, we have discussed this, honey. Many times. But the fact still remains that ‘those people’ are like family to me, and I’ll help them wherever I can.” Ray’s voice was patient, but Lily could hear an underlying sadness.
Ray turned his attention back to Violet and Lily and smiled. “Sorry, ladies. As you can see, Camellia and I still have some discussing to do about this matter, but we will be going to the dinner next Friday to discuss this event.” As he spoke the last sentence, he looked directly at Camellia.
Surprised, Lily glanced at Violet, who was looking back at her with her eyebrows raised. As forceful as Camellia seemed to come across, it was still clearly Ray who wore the pants in their family.
Camellia shot one last scowl at her husband and then looked back at her sisters. “They’re all rodeo people, so no need to dress up too much. Jeans and plaid shirts are the norm for most of the people attending.”
Ray smiled. “Well, I think we may swap out the plaid for a white shirt this time, but Camellia’s right. There will probably be a lot of Stetsons in the crowd. You won’t need to get too fancy.” Then he winked at the sisters, and it set Violet and Lily both at ease.
“We would love to come, and I’m sure we’ll find something appropriate to wear,” Violet answered for both of them. “But right now, I think we’d better head back home.” She turned back to Lily and said, “I know we were thinking you could spend a little time in Tahoe to think things through, but I’m kind of eager to go back and look through some of Dad’s papers. I’d like to find Mom and Dad’s marriage certificate. I also think it’s time to take a closer look at the jumble of paperwork he left behind that we just piled into boxes. You can stay with Lawrence and me until we find a place for you to live.”
Lily grimaced at the thought of her state of homelessness at the moment. It already seemed like ages ago that she’d been forced to leave her apartment, and even though she hadn’t held out high hopes for the Tahoe house, it was nice to think she might actually have somewhere to stay for a while. Now, she was back to needing a place as soon as possible.
“Thanks, Vi. I appreciate that, but I don’t plan on overstaying my welcome. Your condo is amazing for two people, but the three of us living there might be a bit much. I’ll start to look for a short-term rental or something as soon as we’re back.”
“Nonsense!” Violet said. “Until you find a new job, you’re going to need to save as much money as you can. The condo is plenty big enough. After all, what’s a guest bedroom for if not to accommodate guests?”
Ray had been following the conversation with interest and spoke up. “You lost both your job and your apartment right before Christmas? That’s a tough one. I’ve always suspected the people in San Francisco were a cold bunch, but that really takes the cake. Doesn’t anyone have a conscience anymore?”
Lily just shrugged and sighed. “I’m sure my boss and my landlord only did what they thought they had to do. I don’t believe it was done out of spite; it’s just the circumstances they found themselves in. But it is pretty inconvenient right now, especially on top of all of this. Thankfully, both of my children have other plans this year, so I won’t have to worry about finding a place for them to spend the holiday.”
Camellia was looking at her strangely. “Why didn’t you mention any of this before?” she asked bluntly.
Lily was confused by the question. She didn’t even know these people. “Why would I have? We certainly had enough to worry about with the news we’ve all just received. This is just a minor glitch in life, and I’ll get through it. There’s no reason for me to burden you with my issues.”
Camellia blanched as if she were hurt by not being included in what was going on in Lily’s life. “Aren’t you the one who’s been preaching all that junk about being family and sisters and all?” Camellia asked. “Isn’t that what sisters are for? To share your issues with?” Camellia sighed and looked at Ray, then back at Lily. “I know you probably both think I’m pretty heartless, but I’m really not. I’m starting to see why you rushed over to Tahoe. You must have thought it was a prayer answered to find out you had a house where you could stay for a while.”
Ray smiled. “What Cammy is trying to say, in her very awkward way, is, why don’t you stay at the Tahoe house until you get things squared away with the apartment? There’s no sense for it to sit there empty when you need a roof over your head.”
Lily looked at Camellia doubtfully. That was the last thing she had expected from the woman who had been so adamant last night about the house belonging to her. She didn’t want to push any boundaries or ruin a relationship before it even started. “Are you sure? I mean, yes, we did think I could stay there for a while, but the reason we rushed over was because Matthew said it was urgent.” She chewed her lower lip.
The offer was certainly appealing, but she didn’t want to overstay her welcome, either. Christmas was only a few weeks away, and Camellia had already told them about her tradition of spending the holidays at the house.
“I’m really not sure how long it will be before my apartment is finished. It probably won’t be before Christmas,” she admitted.
Camellia sighed, but for the first time, the anger seemed to have left her expression and her tone. “Yes, I am sure. I’m guessing that Christmas this year—and, for that matter, all of our holidays from now on—are going to be very different. We’ll just have to figure it out as we go.”
Despite her misgivings, Lily’s heart felt lighter. This was a side to her new sister she hadn’t yet seen, and she wondered if maybe, just like Violet, Camellia put on a show of being tougher than she actually was. Truthfully, the thought of spending some time on her own and not under Violet’s constant Violet was nice.
Lily looked back and forth between the other three at the table, and when she didn’t see any animosity, she believed it might work. “Okay, then. I’ll head back to Santa Rosa with Violet for now and gather some of my things. It’ll give us a chance to sort through some of our father’s papers, and then I can come back next week in time for dinner with your friends. If that works for you, of course?” She looked at Camellia.
Her new sister smiled and nodded. “I’ll send you the code as soon as I have it, and you can both get in any time you need to.” Camellia glanced over at Ray. “This will definitely be a bit strange for me. The house has always been mine and Mama’s special place, and the idea of sharing is going to take some getting used to.” She turned her attention back to Lily. “All I ask is that we let each other know when one of us plans to be there, and most importantly, none of us tells the snake Matt what the code is, no matter how much he begs and threatens.”
The sisters all smiled at this, and after saying their goodbyes, Lily and Violet headed to Violet’s car and back to her condo in Santa Rosa.
“You’re going to need a car if you plan on staying up here,” Violet said.
She hadn’t had the need for a vehicle in San Francisco. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. I’ll have to see if I can find a cheap one. I just hope I still remember how to drive. It’s been a while,” Lily joked.
After Scott had left her and the house had been sold, Lily hadn’t really needed—or been able to afford—a car or the parking space it required in the city. She’d been relying on public transportation and her legs for over a year.
“Maybe I’ll look into getting a rental when we get back. I’m guessing there isn’t any public transit system near the house, but who knows how long I’ll need the car. It might just be cheaper to rent or lease.” She mentally started tallying the costs of a rental car.
Violet looked over at her and grinned. “No need for a rental. You remember how you gave Lawrence your little Audi to sell for you after Scott left?”
Lily nodded ruefully. She’d loved that little car. It had been her first splurge after the kids had finally left home and she no longer needed a huge SUV to transport them and their friends around anymore. “Of course, I remember. He was able to get me quite a bit of money for it, as I recall. Enough to put up the security deposit and first month’s rent on that apartment, plus prop up my bank account some.”
Violet worried about sharing Lawrence’s secret, but since it had all worked out, she thought it would be okay. “Well, actually, Lawrence didn’t sell it. He decided it would be better if he kept it, so it’s been sitting in storage for a while. He does take it out for a drive once a month to make sure it’s running and in good condition. The car is ready and just waiting for you to drive it again!” Violet announced happily.
“He kept it?” Lily asked, surprised. “But what about the money he gave me? I can’t just take the car back.”
Violet looked like she was going to burst with pleasure. “Yes, you can. Lawrence suspected that a time would eventually come when you’d need a car again, and he knew how much you loved it. It’s been his little secret, and I know he’s going to be thrilled to hand you back the keys.”
Lily shook her head and just said, “Thank you.”
There really was nothing more she could say. They were, after all, sisters, and Lawrence had become like a big brother to her even before he and Violet had officially tied the knot. Before Violet had met Lawrence, the roles had been reversed, and with Scott’s money, she’d been in the position to help Violet when she’d needed it. Lily had never wanted Violet to feel indebted to her, and she knew Violet didn’t want her to feel that way, either, so she just reached over and squeezed her sister’s hand. It was all that had ever been needed between the two of them. That one gesture told her sister how incredibly grateful she was for the kind gesture.
“So, what do you think of our new sister?” Violet asked.
Lily never wanted to speak poorly of anyone, even if it was just Violet she was talking to. “I’m not all that sure what to make of her yet,” Lily managed. “I have to admit, her offer to let me stay at the house really caught me by surprise.”
“I suppose the more she thought about it, the more she started to realize that it was better to stay on our good side. A fight over the estate won’t really benefit any of us.”
“No,” Lily agreed. “Especially with Matthew Fox lurking in the shadows, ready to swoop in and transfer the house over to that bogus non-profit of his.”
Nodding, Violet said, “There is definitely more going on there than he’s admitting. I’m hoping Lawrence will be able to have our lawyers look into this whole business. I don’t want to take the house away from Camellia, but there’s definitely something fishy about how we haven’t been able to actually see Dad’s will and how there just always seems to be more and more catches involved regarding who gets the house.”
Lawrence had money, and money bought influence; Lily had learned that lesson from her marriage to Scott and even more so from her divorce from him. He’d managed to walk away with most of their marital assets simply because he had the money to pay for a top-notch lawyer.
Lily did hope that Lawrence would be able to help them, but she wondered how much influence he had actually had in Tahoe. It seemed that Matthew Fox had that niche pretty well-covered.
“In the meantime, I hope we can find something in all of those papers Dad left behind,” Lily said. “There did seem to be an awful lot of documents and binders in the dozens of boxes he left at the house. Now, I kind of wish we’d looked through them sooner. Maybe then we wouldn’t have been caught so off guard.”
Violet nodded as she pulled into the parking garage of her condo. “Well, there’s no time like the present. I’ll order us some lunch, and we can start looking right now.”
*
A short time later, Lily sat back on her heels, rubbing her back and sighing. “Why on earth did Dad have to keep so much junk?”
Violet looked over, clearly just as frustrated as she was, and wiped a speck of smudge from her cheek. “Honestly, Lily, I think we need to face facts. Our father was a hoarder. He seems to have saved every single piece of mail he ever received in his entire life!”
Lily grinned as she looked over the piles surrounding them. “Well, I wouldn’t go that far, but he does seem to have saved a whole lot of useless junk. Like this, for instance,” she waved an ad for some tires in Violet’s direction. “These are for a truck! He never owned a truck in his life! Why would he save this?”
Lily watched as her sister’s expression clouded over, and the pain in her eyes was evident. “We don’t really even know that for sure anymore. Maybe he did own a truck back in Tahoe. He might have needed it with all the snow they get up there.” She sighed sadly and jotted something down on the pad of paper she had sitting next to her. “Just one more question we have to ask Camellia when we talk to her next weekend.”
Violet blinked in confusion and a bit of disbelief. “Are you really jotting down questions for her?”
“Yes, I am. How else are we going to remember all the things we want to know? I was so shocked and taken by surprise this weekend that I didn’t ask much at all about what her life with Dad was like. Now that I’ve had a little more time to process it all, I regret not asking her more.”
She stood up and poured herself another cup of coffee. Violet seemed to be able to drink an unending amount of coffee. Lily was sure if she drank that much, she wouldn’t sleep for a week.
“Aren’t you at all curious about how Dad was with her and her mother? I mean, did he even ever go and see them in Sacramento, where Camellia said her mother lived, or did they always go to the Tahoe house? Was he nice to her? Did he play with her?” Violet shook her head, unable to wrap her mind around her father’s double life. “I’m just finding it so hard to picture him spending time with another little girl the way he did us.” She smiled ruefully. “I was jealous enough when he used to give you attention. The thought of him spoiling another child is killing me.”
Lily stared at her sister in disbelief. “I never knew you were jealous,” Lily said quietly.
“Are you kidding? How could I not be? You were always the cute little baby, all dimples and smiles. Both Dad and Mom doted on you.”
“They doted on you, too, Vi!” Lily protested.
Violet shook her head as she remembered her childhood and the vast differences between the two girls. “Oh, sure, but not in the same way. I was always the serious, sullen child, remember? They needed me to be practical and help take care of you, so that was what I was. Mom counted on me to be her little helper when Dad was gone, and I was so afraid to let her down that I did my best not to make a mistake. It was okay for you not to be perfect and mess around. She’d even laugh when you threw your little tantrums, but it wasn’t like that for me.”
Lily kept shuffling through papers, but her mind went back to when they were children. She hadn’t really thought much about it before, but Violet had always seemed so serious and mature. She’d definitely taken it for granted that Violet would always be there to get her out of trouble, and she cringed when she thought back on the times she’d tried her best to rile her sister just to see her get into trouble.
Her heart was heavy at the thought of the burden her sister had carried as a child. “I’m sorry. I never realized. I assumed you were just serious by nature and that you liked bossing me around. I never gave it much thought that you were the one who had to watch me, and you were the one who got into trouble if anything happened.”
Violet grinned. “Well, I did kind of like bossing you around, and it was pretty fun messing with you and making you cry when we were younger. But I did still wish that sometimes Mom would remember I wasn’t that much older than you were, and I couldn’t always just be her perfect little helper.”
“Is that why you left home so early, Violet? Was it because of me?”
Violet stuck her tongue out at Lily, just like she had when she was younger. “No, of course not, you goose. I loved being around you, and it killed me that I wasn’t there for you when Mom died. Believe me, if I’d had any idea that she was sick, I would have come home right away.”
Violet sank down onto the couch and stared at her coffee mug. “I just needed to get away and find myself, Lily. It wasn’t your fault, or even Mom’s, although we did seem to fight a lot back then. I think I just needed to find out who I really was--other than the sullen, boring little helper everyone expected me to be.”
Lily grinned, thinking about all the havoc her sister had raised after leaving home. “Oh, well, you certainly did that,” Lily said with a chuckle. “Your exploits gave Mom quite a few extra gray hairs, that’s for sure.”
Violet grimaced. “I didn’t think she ever even noticed or cared. I was just trying to do anything I could to get her or Dad’s attention. Dad always seemed so busy, and Mom was so involved with you. I kind of felt like I was the outsider in the family.”
Lily jumped up to hug her sister. “No! That’s not true, Vi! I don’t know how I could have managed without you all those years. Dad was gone a lot and Mom had to work so hard, struggling to keep us fed. I counted on you to be there for me, Violet, and you always were. Then, after Mom died, I don’t know how I would have managed without you!”
“You found Scott, remember?” Violet said wryly. “I’ve always wondered if Mom hadn’t died, if you would have been so quick to marry him. I still think you were just replacing her with Scott.”
That wasn’t the first time Violet had said that, but it was the first time Lily actually thought about what her sister was saying. It was possible that she’d only married Scott because she was lost and lonely without her mother. Violet had always been so independent and self-assured, while she’d needed someone there for her to lean on. When they’d first met, she had believed she was madly in love with Scott, but maybe she’d only been madly in love with the idea of being married and the security that came with it.
Lily shook her head and continued digging through her father’s papers. She’d had too much to deal with already in the last few days to delve further into why she’d married Scott. He’d fathered her two children, and taken care of her for a great many years. If for nothing more than that, she owed him her gratitude. It wouldn’t do any good to look too deeply into the past.
As she shuffled through the endless reams of papers, Lily tried to concentrate on the task at hand, but her mind kept wandering back to her childhood and what her father had really been doing all those times he’d been gone. From the silence across the room, she suspected that Violet was lost in her own thoughts as well.
It hurt that Violet had been jealous of her. She’d always admired her sister and envied her strength. Had Lily truly been so spoiled that she hadn’t seen the pain within her sister? Was she now paying the price for having been so self-involved and oblivious to the needs of her family? She shuddered, fighting back a sudden feeling of nausea. Maybe it was her fault that Dad had found another family. Maybe she’d been so selfish, spoiled, and just not good enough for him.
“I found it!”
Violet’s shriek of triumph startled Lily out of her reverie, and she dropped the papers she was holding.
“What? What did you find?”
“We’ve been wasting our time looking through the most recent boxes,” Violet begun, sweeping her hands out over the boxes scattered in her living room. “Dad was already pretty old by the time he started filling these, so I thought I’d have more luck looking through these tattered ones.” She grinned and held up a piece of paper. “And I was right. Here it is—Dad and Mom’s marriage certificate.”
Violet’s eyes practically gleamed with triumph. “I knew it, Lily! Whatever certificate Camellia thinks she has proving Dad was married to her mother is a fake! And this proves it!”