Chapter 6 - George’s Secret
Evelyn stared at him.
“You what?”
“I ordered Dylan’s and Lauren’s stones.”
“Why?”
George sat down slowly.
Two weeks earlier, Dylan had come by while Evelyn was volunteering at the library.
He had brought the first draft of the property-transfer idea.
Not the final deed.
A proposal.
Dylan said the house could become “productive family capital” instead of sitting unused until George and Evelyn died.
George had thrown him out.
The next day, Lauren called and said something worse.
“She told me we were being selfish because eventually they’d inherit it anyway.”
Evelyn’s face tightened.
“You still didn’t tell me.”
“I thought I could shut it down.”
“How do gravestones shut anything down?”
George looked ashamed.
Maple Ridge already contained four adjoining Whitmore family plots.
George and Evelyn had purchased them twenty-five years earlier after George’s parents died.
The children knew the plots existed.
George called the monument company and ordered simple pre-need stones for Dylan and Lauren.
Birth dates.
Blank death dates.
“I wanted them to see how it felt.”
Evelyn stared at him.
“To be treated like they were already dead?”
“Yes.”
“That is insane.”
“I know.”
“And you didn’t tell me.”
“I knew you’d stop me.”
“I would have.”
“Exactly.”
George had been told the monuments would be installed that week.
He had no idea Dylan and Lauren had independently purchased matching stones for their parents through the same monument company.
Because all four occupied adjoining family plots, the cemetery had scheduled installation together.
George had gone to Maple Ridge intending to confront the children later.
Instead, Dylan and Lauren called that morning and demanded their parents meet them there.
George assumed they had somehow discovered his stunt.
They hadn’t.
Each side had arrived planning to shock the other.
Evelyn sat back.
The entire cemetery scene suddenly looked less mysterious.
And more disturbing.
“Our family bought four gravestones to scare each other.”
George gave a miserable nod.
Evelyn stood.
“You don’t get credit because their behavior was worse.”
“I know.”
“You tried to manipulate them instead of telling me what was happening.”
“I know.”
“And you let me stand there believing some stranger had ordered those stones.”
George looked down.
“Yes.”
For the first time since Dylan slammed the nursing-home papers into George’s chest, Evelyn felt betrayed by someone other than her children.
She picked up her coat.
“Where are you going?”
“To Rosa’s.”
May you like
“Evelyn—”
“I need one night where nobody in this family decides what I should know for my own good.”
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