Chapter 17 #3
Sterling walked down to the gate, where all the squatters’ personal belongings were stacked. Sterling found his aunt standing there in a fury, staring at her belongings.
“What did you do with my stuff?” she yelled.
“I removed the squatters’ possessions,” he replied and pointed. “Your stuff is right there.”
“Where’s all my furniture?”
“You mean, my mother’s furniture?” he asked her point-blank. “And the coffee tables that my grandfather built for her?”
She stared at him, her jaw dropping, and then she saw her father there. “You old goat. What the hell are you doing, being a part of this mess?”
“You mean, the mess that you created when you took over Pamela’s home and possessions, while you sent her son away into foster care?”
“He was a no-good lazy asshole anyway,” she snapped. “Look at him. He’s a cripple for God’s sake. No way he can even look after this place.”
“A cripple?” Sterling asked in fury. “That’s how you talk about men who went to war to protect you?”
“They didn’t fucking go to war to protect me. They went to get out of whatever hell their life was here at home. They’re all losers, just like you.”
At that, every one of the men stepped out onto the deck and stared at her.
She swallowed hard, then yelled at them from a distance, “You’re all fucking losers, that’s what you are.” She was spitting mad, and she turned back to her father. “I can’t believe you would let him do this to me.”
Her father snorted. “Aren’t you the one who forcibly dumped me off in an old folks’ home?”
She flushed at that and asked, “So, that’s what this is all about? Fine. You can come live with me again,” Penny offered, “if that’s what it takes to have you treat me with decency.”
“Decency?” her father repeated, his eyebrows shooting up. “How much decency did you show me or your nephew?”
“I didn’t have time to mollycoddle a child,” she snapped, “and it’s not like you took him in.”
“I was recovering from the accident myself, remember? And you told me that Sterling was dead too. Don’t you remember?”
“Yeah. So what?” she snapped.
“But then again, I probably wasn’t supposed to survive that accident either, was I?” her father asked her.
She shrugged. “Not likely.” She sneered at him, then froze, as she noted Sterling and others were listening in intently. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, you do,” her father declared. “Sterling’s asked me about it a couple times and I didn’t have an answer.
Partly because I’ve been struggling to remember the accident.
Sterling may not realize I was in the car at the time—the very same accident that killed his mother also put me in the hospital. ”
Sterling stepped up and placed a hand on his grandfather’s shoulder. “I didn’t know that, Grandpa. I’m sorry.”
“It’s also why I believed Penny when she told me that you were dead too.
What reason did she have for lying? Not to mention I wasn’t in the best shape mentally after losing your mother already.
After hearing about your death I spiraled,” he admitted.
“What I didn’t know then, and I’m not even sure about now, is if Penny deliberately damaged the brake lines. ”
Penny stared at him, her eyes widening in fear, and Sterling realized the truth.
“You really did it, didn’t you?” Sterling asked, turning on her. “You tried to take out all three of us, just so you could have it all.”
“Yes, I did want it all,” she snapped, her back straightening, her whole body stiffening in defiance. “And I’ve had it all, so there.”
“Yeah, you have, but you won’t get anything now. Or maybe you might get something, but I don’t think it’ll be anything you really want.”
“And what’s that?” Penny asked.
Just then a vehicle drove up to the gate near Penny.
She turned, and there was Richard in a black-and-white cruiser. “Oh, now what?” she cried out. “For God’s sake, I just got away from them.”
“Yeah, you did.”
Richard stepped out, frowned, looked at the possessions on the roadside, then asked Sterling, “It’s just hers, right?”
“Hers and whatever Charlie left behind, but you also need to realize—”
“Wait, wait, son,” his grandpa interrupted, as he stepped up.
He looked at Richard, glanced at his daughter, and announced, “Penny just admitted to cutting the brake lines, causing the accident that killed my daughter, that put me and Sterling in hospital as well,” he shared, his voice breaking.
“Penny murdered her own sister and tried to murder the two of us, so she could take everything. She wanted to inherit my estate and that of her sister. When Sterling survived, Penny sent him to foster care with a stipulation that he be placed out of state with a no-contact provision and a private placement, thinking Sterling would be gone for good. She told Sterling that I was dead. Then she told me that Sterling was killed in a car accident on the way to school. Penny … she is responsible for killing Pamela.”
“I didn’t say that,” she snapped.
“Yes, you did,” Chelsea called out from behind Sterling.
Penny stared at her daughter in shock.
“Don’t you dare talk to me like that. I am your mother.”
“You are my birth mother, and, God help me, I am horribly ashamed of that fact. You tried to kill your father and your nephew, an innocent child, and you did kill your own sister. All because Aunt Pamela had done so much better than you.”
“She didn’t do better than me,” Penny snapped in a fury.
“I never had a decent chance. Everybody helped her. She was the favorite, for God’s sake.
If anybody had given me even one little bit of the assistance that she’d been given, I would have done incredibly well,” Penny said, her voice rising higher.
“But, no, Pamela was the favorite, the chosen one.”
“So, you just couldn’t stand it, could you?” Sterling asked. “You had to take her out so you could take everything she had.”
“And I did get everything,” she snapped, “and she’s still lying in a cold grave, right where she fucking belongs.” Then she stiffened and added, “But it wasn’t me.”
“Too late,” Richard said. “Did you know that Pamela’s case was recently reopened?”
“What do you mean, reopened?” Penny squawked. “It was ruled an accident, and you guys were right in the middle of it. It’s closed.”
“Yeah, we did, until a few inquiries were made, and we took another look. It was reopened.”
“Well then, the nice thing now is,” Sterling began, “you’ll get to close it real fast because your murderer is standing right there in front of you.”
Richard nodded as he popped the cuffs on Penny. “Absolutely no issue on the family farm property now,” he announced. “And I’m sorry for you,” he told Sterling and his grandfather. “It’s all that much worse when your family is at fault.”
“It really is,” Sterling’s grandfather confirmed, as he stared at Penny as if he’d never seen her before. “I’ve known that a lot of bad was in her, and that knowledge has grown over time. However, I had no idea she was as bad as this.”
Penny sneered. “There’s no bad in me. If you hadn’t played favorites all the time, things would have been easy, and I wouldn’t be this way.”
“That’s bullshit,” he told her, staring at her. “You’ve been lazy since the beginning. Nobody could tell you anything, and you always had to have it your own way. And you were never willing to put in the work.”
“Whatever,” Penny muttered. “I’ll get back out. Believe me that I’ll come back after you again, old man.” She turned to Sterling next. “You died once, and you can die again too.” With that, she laughed and was pushed toward the police vehicle.
Richard looked back at them and added, “Those threats were recorded. Considering the calculated nature of her actions, and her very clear confessions, I really can’t imagine she’ll get out anytime soon.
Matter of fact, I’ll recommend that she doesn’t get out at all.
She’s had an awful lot of years to enjoy the spoils of her actions,” he shared, “but that’s all over now. ”
And, with that, he quickly loaded her up into the back of the black-and-white.
Chelsea walked up to her mom, who just scowled at her through the car window and turned her back on her. Tears were in Chelsea’s eyes as she turned to Lindsey and Sterling, who walked over to join her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders, and both whispering, “I’m really sorry.”
“No, no,” Chelsea whispered. “It’s not for you to be sorry. Dear God, just the thought of everything she did is enough to break my heart. I’ve known she was mean and difficult, but I had no idea she would do such horrific things.”
“I don’t think any of us did,” Grandpa added. “The thing is, now we all get a chance to find a way to heal. Chelsea, I’m so sorry, honey. It’s been a rough go for all of us.”
“You’re not kidding,” she muttered, “and I’m sorry she put you in that home.”
He shrugged. “I didn’t stand up to her. I didn’t fight her hard enough. Once I realized my daughter and my grandson were gone, I gave up for a long time.”
“And that’s okay,” Sterling noted. “The nice thing now is, we’re on the other side of that, and we have a home—together.” He looked back to see the whole group of men standing there on the front porch, big grins on their faces. “And I think I have some hungry men to feed.”
At that, Chelsea laughed. “I’m certain you can’t scrape up any food around here that you would want to feed anyone, but I do know a pizza joint is down the road that’s really good.”
Sterling pulled out a couple one-hundred-dollar bills from his pocket and asked, “Would you mind?”
“No, I’ll do the delivery run.” Chelsea chuckled. “It’ll give me something to do and will get my mind off my mother at least.”
Sterling added, “You may have mixed feelings about this, and there’s no pressure. However, if you want to stay here while you finish your schooling, you would be very welcome.” She looked at him hopefully, and he nodded. “I’m not planning on kicking you out.”