Chapter 4
Beth had been gone for three weeks to Ohio, and all she had to show for it was bills upon bills when she got home again.
There wasn’t even a sympathy card for her.
She thought that people should cut her some slack because she’d just lost her sister, but no one seemed to care.
They still sent her bills she was supposed to pay.
Even her landlord wasn’t thrilled about her putting him off.
Again. She went to the kitchen to pour herself some wine and sat in the room to drink it.
Her life sucked right now. It took her a minute to remember why things were so bad.
Helen had done her wrong. So had Serenity. But since she could do nothing about her sister Helen, she was going to make Serenity pay. And that meant that she was going to hand over the house money when she got it.
“No paying out percentages nor taxes either. I fucking need it all.” She looked at the bills again and put them into stacks of ones that were past due enough to tell her that it was her last chance to pay them, and the ones that were only past due.
They all wanted their money, but she didn’t have it right now.
“And that’s Serenity’s fault, too. She should have given me more than a third of the money from when mom and dad died, too. ”
All that money did was catch her up with her bills.
Of course, there was enough money for her to have a good time too.
She’d gone on a cruise as well as had bought herself some new clothing.
She’d even had herself a nice birthday party at an exclusive restaurant with her ten closest friends that cost her more than she’d made in a year.
There were other things that the money from the insurance had gone to, but it was all gone now.
She’d gotten herself nothing that she could hold in her hands that she could say that she’d spent her money on that was a good thing.
She had only to wait two more weeks, and she’d be able to pay all of the bills off and have a bit left over for herself. She did wonder if Helen knew that she had been broke. The way that she’d spoken to her before she’d left the hospital. Telling her that money couldn’t buy happiness.
“Well, it sure did buy me a lot of fun.” She laughed a little and sat there at her kitchen table, and wondered what she’d do when she got the money from the sale.
She wouldn’t save any of it but spend it like she did before.
On any shiny object that came within her sight.
Why did people have to have bills anyway?
She didn’t understand it any more than she did why she had to pay taxes at her job.
Her cell phone was ringing when she got up to pour herself more wine.
“Hello, Beth. Are you home now?” She said that she’d only just gotten in the door when she’d been home for about three days now. “Good. You have to work tonight. I’ve given you all the time off I can afford. If you don’t come in tonight, don’t bother coming in at all tomorrow night.”
“Fine with me. I’m about to hit the jackpot with my sister’s death.” He asked if she was coming in tonight. “No. I’ve decided that I’m going to live out my life of happy dreams and then spend all my money on anything I desire.”
“It’s your funeral.” She was hurt just a little by his comment, but didn’t tell her boss that. She was going to live from now until the end of her life on dreams and the money she got from the sale. “I hope you have the life that you deserve. You’re nothing but white trash.”
“Thank you. I’ll remember you fondly when I’m blowing the money away on things that I want to do.
” She did wonder how much money there would be from the sale of the house, but didn’t care.
She would get it all from Serenity, or she’d beat the shit out of her again.
Of course, she’d never been trained how to fight back then, but that was going to be something she’d have to think about.
She’d just have to get someone else to fight her for her.
Hanging up the phone, she decided to order some dinner.
She had no idea what she was going to pay for it with.
The hotel had cost her entire credit card balance, which she had left on it, to be able to get away.
They were actually going to call the police on her if she didn’t come up with the money.
Making them a deal about the sale of the house, she was able to get away with more than half the bill still waiting to be paid.
Beth was very proud of herself for knowing how to make people do what she wanted them to do.
It was well past midnight when she went to her bedroom.
Of course, it was a mess having packed her bags in a hurry to get to Helen before Serenity did.
She always had to be first at anything that she did between her and Serenity, and the death of her sister was no different.
Wishing that she’d stayed home instead of going to Ohio for her dying wish, Beth was going to get that back, too.
Her time was very precious, and she was going to make sure her sister knew that she’d been first in that, too.
“What was I thinking?” Sometimes things in her head would get all messed up, and she’d have to rethink her thoughts.
She’d had that trouble since she’d been a child, and it had only gotten worse as she got older.
Sometimes when she drank too much, she’d lose whole days of thoughts when she was at home.
Rubbing her forehead, she tried to remember the last time she spoke to Helen. “Oh yeah, Helen is dead, remember?”
She’d been talking to herself as well. Not that she’d answer herself, well, sometimes she did, but it was because there was no one around to give her the answers that she wanted.
Beth sat down in the living room and tried to think about what she’d been talking about.
It wasn’t until she was in her bedroom again that she realized that she didn’t know the date either.
Pouring the rest of her wine down the sink, she decided that if she was going to get the money from Serenity, she was going to need a plan.
First and foremost, she was going to need a gun.
She wouldn’t actually kill her sister, but she’d use it to get what she wanted, or she might have to.
As soon as the thought was out of her head, she rubbed her forehead again.
Something wasn’t right in her mind, and she didn’t know what was wrong with her.
She found herself in her bedroom again, not knowing how she’d gotten there.
She knew that she’d walked, but other than that, she didn’t remember anything.
Getting ready for bed, she put on her gown and decided that she just needed to rest. It had been a long two weeks in Ohio, and she just needed to rest. As soon as she laid her head on her pillow, she remembered how the family of Savages had treated her.
“They didn’t ask me to stay after what Serenity had said to her about the funeral.
There was no way she was going to get away with that.
” After thinking over what had happened to make her come home, she couldn’t remember if it was Helen or Serenity who had treated her so badly.
Tomorrow she was going to make herself a doctor’s appointment to see what was the matter with her.
Mostly, she tossed and turned all night.
As soon as she thought that she was comfortable in one position, she’d have to turn the other way so that her arm wouldn’t fall asleep.
The pain of it kept her awake for most of the night.
Finally getting up, she noticed that the clock said it was ten-thirty.
She’d never slept that late in her life and couldn’t believe that she’d done it tonight of all nights.
Not that she could remember what was so special about today.
It took her most of the rest of the morning to clean up her room.
She was just putting away the clothing that she’d brought to Ohio with her when she realized that she didn’t know if she was packing or unpacking.
Giving up, she made her way to the kitchen again to see what sort of things she could get to eat.
There wasn’t anything she wanted in the house, so she ordered out again.
Beth wasn’t having a good life right now.
Calling the doctor for an exam, she was able to get in today.
She didn’t know what was wrong with her, but she had a feeling that Helen had given her something.
She was ready to go in when they called and told her to go to the X-ray department for a CAT scan of her head.
Nervous now, she made her way there and was seen right away.
She’d never been fond of closed places and wasn’t happy that she had to do this right now. As soon as she was brought out of the machine, she was free to go home. The doctor she was told would talk to her in a couple of days.
“This is Serenity’s fault, you know.” They, of course, had no idea who that was, and she let it go. Some people were too stupid to know that she had two sisters. Then she remembered that one of them was dead and wasn’t able to remember which one. “Something is wrong with me.”
She started crying then, and they helped her to a chair.
There really was something wrong with her, and she didn’t know what it was.
If Serenity had given her something, she really was going to kill her.
This was so unfair that she wanted to find her right now and tell her off.
Then kill her. She’d done this, and there was no way she was going to get by with it.
Going home, she got lost twice. Afraid that she was going to have an accident and end up in the hospital, she finally got home about an hour later than she normally would have.
The people at the hospital were so nice to her that it had her crying again.
No one was nice to her, not even her own sister.
Serenity was just about the worst sister in the world.
~*~