Page 47 of Shameless

Perhaps my sister had made her sound like a horrible person.

I said, “Yes, of course.”

Britney then asked, “Do you need to sit down, ma’am?”

My mother’s face was white. Britney took her hand, and everyone sat except me.

I knelt in front of her and wondered what was going on. “Everything okay, Mother?”

The Duchess Caroline raised her blue eyes as she studied Britney’s clothes. “Bernadette believes you left because you want nothing to do with our family.”

All my life, my mother had always worn the best. I tensed. “I don’t want to finance gambling and shopping. I always intended to fix the mess you left of the estate without funding more waste.”

My father coughed and asked, “Is that what you think of us?”

Confronting what was wrong was how you fixed it. Mrs. Norouzi’s words to Charlie years ago had haunted me. The time had come to listen.

I nodded to the man who was wasting his inheritance and said, “It’s what I saw when the nanny wasn’t able to drag me away.”

My mother’s face went red. “We weren’t the best parents to either of you, but everything is different now.”

Britney pressed her hand on my arm. She was strong. There was a secret.

I narrowed my gaze. “How?”

My mother held my father’s hand. I crossed my arms as I’d never seen them touch.

“Your father…” Then my mother started gasping.

I understood. As she needed a moment, I said, “Catch your breath. Father, what’s going on?”

My father nodded. “I’m dying. You’ll be duke within the year.”

I froze, having no way to process what he’d said. Neither one of them ever lied. My chest caved in, with a feeling that I’d let them down entirely.

“What? How?” I asked.

“Colon cancer,” my father said.

Britney rubbed my mother’s arm and asked, “Isn’t there treatment?”

My father’s lips thinned. “Nothing works. I’ve accepted I lost the bet.”

Everything in my life was wrong. I should have come home. I should have been a better son. I knew my duties were more though I’d assumed if I made enough money, then I’d be in the position of control.

My shoulders slumped as I said, “I shouldn’t have quibbled.”

My mother shook her head. “You were being honest. And it’s true—we generally ignored your existence in our day-to-day lives, so we had no expectations.”

She was being kind. My heart thumped.

My father then said, “It’s your sister who’s gambling now, it seems.”

I met his gaze, ready to do what they needed. “What do you mean?”

My father said, “She wants to take over for me.”

Laws and money were both on my side.