Page 102 of January
“She wants everything. She said she’d fight.”
“Fightyou?”
“Fightus. This stuff is half yours.”
“Yeah, but I’ll do whatever you think is best. My half of the money will just go into savings.”
“Will you give her some?”
Jolie sighed and said, “I don’t know. Maybe. Not all of it, though. Not even close. Willyou?”
“No,” Kyle replied, picturing the hatred on her own mother’s face when she’d told Kyle that she’d never wanted her at all.
“I wish I had your backbone.”
“Jolie, she doesn’t deserve any of it. Grandma didn’t want her to have it.”
“Did you figure outwhyyet? You’ve been reading the journals.”
Kyle stared out at the back garden and thought about how to tell Jolie the truth. Lying wasn’t an option, but this would be a lot for Jolie to process. She knew that much because she was still processing it herself.
“Yeah, I found out. Are you sitting down?”
CHAPTER 28
“So, how did she take it?” Melinda asked.
“Better thanIdid, but she wasn’t the one in the womb at the time,” Kyle replied, biting into her shrimp.
“How are you still doing with it?”
“I’ve mostly tried to put it behind me. Did I tell you that they had a video recording of my grandma going over the will? I’ve never even heard her voice. I’ve seen a few pictures, but that’s it.”
“Did you watch it?”
“No, the lawyer just mentioned it. But I think I might ask him for it. It’s hard, though, knowing I’d be watching her and she’s not here anymore. I can’t talk to her.”
Melinda took a sip of her wine and said, “It might still help, hearing her voice, just seeing her like that.”
“Probably. But tell me about work today.”
“It was work.” She shrugged. “I did the food tour, the Garden District tour, and the cemetery tour. Tips were great, though. Some guy gave me fifty bucks.”
Kyle cleared her throat and said, “He did, huh?”
“Jealous?” Melinda teased.
“Only if you’re going out with him tonight after you say goodnight to me.”
“I wasn’t planning on saying goodnight to you at all,” Melinda replied. “I know we’ve been staying at my place a lot, and I don’t mind going to yours tonight, but–”
“I’m sleeping on my grandma’s bed in one house, and the other one has no furniture?”
“Right. But I wouldn’t mind sleeping out in the garden again,” Melinda suggested.
“We didn’t really sleep, did we?”
“Will you stay over again?”