Page 62 of More Than Anything

“Very well. Mom, why didn’t you tell me?”

There was silence until Beverly finally said, “Tell you what?”

“About the company.” More silence, and Avery was getting pretty ticked off. “Mom, Jason’s here.”

“Jason? JasonDavidson?”

“Yes, JasonDavidson. He’s going to be staying with me since he doesn’t have a job.”

“Doesn’t have a job? Did he quit?”

In that instant, Avery understood: His mother knew nothing about what was going on, and he didn’t know how to tell her, so he decided he’d just lay it all out. “Yeah. Ben let most everyone go because he said he couldn’t afford to pay them.”

The quiet was deafening until Beverly said, “Is this some kind of joke?”

“Mom, Jason drove all the way here from Clarksville. Does that sound like some kind of joke to you?”

He could hear her sputtering on the other end of the phone. It got quiet again, and then she growled out, “Well, you can be sure I’m going to call your brother right now and talk to him!”

“I’d suggest you do that.”

“You may have to come back here and knock some sense into him.”

“No, Mom. I won’t be coming back. My life’s here now. There’s nothing for me there. If Ben’s ruined the company, that’s his problem, not mine.”

Beverly started to cry and, much as Avery hated it, he wasn’t going to cave, no matter what. “Oh, son! You can’t mean that! It meant so much to your dad!”

“Then he should’ve made provisions to leave the whole thing to me. Ben’s a kid, and he’s never going to be anything but a kid. He’s always gotten whatever he wanted, from the bikes to the cars to the school to the company to my wife.”

“There you go again! You can’t keep blaming Ben for…”

“Know what, Mom? I’m not. I’m blaming you for taking up for him every time he screws up. You find out what’s going on with the company, but don’t call me to tell me because I. Don’t. Care. Not kidding. Not my problem.”

“But Avery…”

“Bye, Mom.” He hit END and let out an angry sigh. Nothing had changed; nothing ever would. The best thing he’d ever done was to leave Clarksville?he’d known it all along, and the current situation just reinforced what he already knew. Now he was away from it, and he had his trust fund money. Ben couldn’t get to that. And he’d never been happier to be away from them.

He found Jason and Lydia still in the kitchen, laughing and chatting as Jason helped her clean up. She was asking him questions about Avery when they were boys, and Jason was gladly telling all kinds of stories on Avery. “I just talked to my mom.”

Jason spun around. “And?”

“I’m convinced she knew nothing about this.”

“What’re you going to do?” Lydia asked him.

“Nothing. He made this mess, he can sit in it. I’m not taking care of it for him. But do you have any idea what happened?” he asked Jason.

“I’ve heard rumors.”

“And?”

“Shannon.”

Avery scowled and nodded. “Doesn’t surprise me at all.”

“Your ex-wife?” Lydia asked, her brow wrinkled.

“Yup. I’m guessing he gave her full access to everything and she spent every penny they had, then started on the company funds until he didn’t have money to keep the place running,” Avery explained.