Brendan made a strained noise, shifted in his seat as if feeling the growing discomfort of a pressure sore.
Meredith attempted to clarify and chose to do it in the manner of a patronising and overworked headmistress talking to an idiot child. ‘The house is half Alex’s, dear.’
Laurie’s jaw tightened. Ah, now she saw. So that’s what this visit was all about. Had they left her alone to come to this conclusion by herself and when she didn’t, decided to chivvy it along into the open? She felt hurt that this had been the reason for their calling on her and that helped to shift the track of any potential response from emotional to rational. When she spoke it was as Laurie De Vere, solicitor, armed with more clear facts than muddying sentiment.
‘I’m sorry, Meredith, but you’re wrong. The house is all mine. When Alex and I took out the mortgage, we did it as what’s called joint tenants, which means that if one of us were to die, the whole house would automatically be the property of the other. It works both ways: if I’d died first, then the house would have been all Alex’s, not half my mother’s.’ Her unapologetic answer served to inflame Meredith, if the way she put her mug back on the coaster was anything to go by. Then she rose to her feet and stared down at Laurie, as if to intimidate her.
‘So that’s the way you’re going to play it is it? Don’t you think that Alex would want to see his sister have her dream wedding day and be set up for life? She’s his family.’ Meredith turned to her husband for backup. ‘Brendan, say something. Don’t leave it all to me.’
Brendan got up then, eyes cast downward, less comfortable with the confrontation but engaging nonetheless.
‘You’ve inherited a lot of money from our son, Laurie. I know there was his life insurance and his pension, and the car insurance will pay out if it hasn’t already. And you’ll no doubt use that money for a life with another man . . .’
Laurie stood then; she wasn’t going to be peered down on or spoken to like this. ‘Whaaat? Brendan—’
But Brendan was determined to finish. ‘It’s what Alex would have wanted – to see his sister secure.’
How do you know that, Laurie wanted to retort. Alex wasn’t fond of his sister at all. Naomi was eight when he left home for university and he never went back to live there. He found her empty-headed and selfish and told Laurie on more than one occasion that blood was their only tie. If she hadn’t hooked up with his best friend, he wouldn’t have had any interaction with her outside the obligatory family get togethers. Indeed, he couldn’t understand what Jefferson saw in ‘the vacuous brat’ as he called her. He rolled his eyes a lot when he heard the latest news about the wedding from either his parents or Jefferson, who didn’t seem to have much say in what was happening on his big day.
Laurie opened her mouth to quote Alex: that if Naomi wanted all the preposterous bells and pricey whistles then it was up to her to pay for them, not his parents, but Meredith rushed in to the space to take over where Brendan had left off, her voice becoming louder and yet more wavery with each word. A furious shake of her limbs accompanied her speech as if the effort of talking like this sent tremors through her sinews. It had all been building inside Meredith for a while, Laurie guessed. That’s why they’d stayed away, stoking the fires of this passive aggression until it was finally ready to be unleashed.
‘It’s cruel that you’re denying his only sister. We are all devastated by what has taken place and by rights – both moral and legal – you should see that it is only fair his family isn’t left high and dry. You have benefitted far too much from his death.’
Laurie felt the first rumblings of her own anger building, an emotion which had filled her after the accident, packed her to the gills, only for it to ebb away violently, leaving her hollow, reeling. At least when she was angry, she had energy, she could function but when it moved out of her, it took her focus with it, left her wilted as if she had no bones to scaffold her. But now it was mounting again. When she answered, her voice was calm, totally at odds with what was happening within.
‘You think I’ve benefitted from having my heart ripped out? Do you think I want to be here without him?’
‘You’re a young woman. We know it’s unreasonable to expect you’ll spend the rest of your life without someone else,’ said Brendan, intimating that she had their grudging permission to move on, so long as she tipped up the money instead of spending it on holidays to the South of France with young gigolos.
‘Meredith, Brendan, I haven’t scooped out the contents of Alex’s bank account. The money I have is what the insurance companies paid out on policies we set up to ensure each other’s security. It means that I, as the woman he was going to marry, wouldn’t have to worry about the mortgage and paying bills on top of the heartache of losing the love of my life, of having my future with him taken away from me.’ She fixed Meredith with her soft, bright eyes. ‘I can’t imagine what it must be like losing a son but I know your heart must be breaking. Mine is too, I feel empty inside without him.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Alex and I were planning on giving Naomi a thousand pounds for a wedding present and I had every intention of honouring that. If you want it in advance, I can write you a cheque now, but I repeat our finances were jointly set up to pay for our security, not to blow on your daughter’s extravagances.’
The last three words seemed to play over and over in the silence that ensued and became colder and more insulting with each echo. From the slapped look on her once future in-laws’ faces, Laurie knew she had stepped over an invisible line. Meredith’s neck was blotchy with rage and her mouth ironed flat into a grim line.
‘Yes, I’ll take the cheque now,’ she said, words ground out between her teeth.
Laurie crossed to the drawer where she kept, among other things, a cheque book and card for an account with no money in it, a cancelled passport – because she’d lost it and then found it after it had been replaced, a purse with a hundred pounds in it and a fake Rolex in a fake Rolex box bought from a Turkish bazaar. Her ‘stupid drawer’ as Alex called it: her attempt at foiling any burglars who might be satisfied enough with the contents to cut and run rather than ransack the house in search of further treasures. She felt Meredith’s eyes like knives in her back as she opened it.
Laurie made a mental note to transfer some money to cover the sum and avoid bouncing a cheque on them. It was the only account she had a cheque book for and she couldn’t remember when she’d used it last. She wrote it, ripped it from the book and held it out. No, she’d make them come over for it, she wouldn’t deliver it as well.
With little compunction, Meredith did just that – marched over, snatched the cheque, spat out a thank you and, with Brendan close behind, she strode out of the house she thought of as her son’s, where Laurie now resided as an illegal squatter. Until the front door slammed, Laurie had no idea how much her heart was racing, whatever her outward composure may have conveyed. She sank onto the arm of the sofa and tried to fathom what had just happened. Well, she wouldn’t be going to Naomi’s wedding, that was for sure. That let her off the hook, seeing as she wouldn’t have felt comfortable watching the groom vow to love and cherish Alex’s sister, etc., knowing what he’d said he wanted to do to his fiancée. She felt gloom envelop her like an uncomfortably heavy garment. There would be no coming back from this, which was beyond sad because she had liked Meredith and Brendan. They had welcomed her into their home, given her a template for proper close family life; she’d had barbecues in their garden, she’d loved sourcing unusual presents for them at Christmas and birthdays and never minded when they popped round. She’d anticipated the joy they’d feel when she had a baby, knowing they’d be hands-on grandparents – all now dashed against the rock of cold hard cash. She had more money than she knew what to do with, it was true – and much more to come from the car insurance settlement – but it was all sitting in an account because she didn’t even want to think about it yet. Money she had in place of the love of her life.