Page 120 of The Housekeeper

Chapter Forty-seven

“I really didn’twant to get into this right now,” I started, then stopped. I was trapped, and I knew it. Weallknew it. Why I hadn’t seen this coming was beyond me.

“Well?” my father said.

“Please understand that we were just concerned about your welfare…”

“She checked your references,” Tracy said to Elyse.

“I assumed you’d done that some time ago,” Elyse said to me, seemingly unconcerned.

“As I recall, you said they were impeccable,” my father said.

“They were. Whoever I spoke to at the time was exceedingly complimentary.”

“Am I missing something?” he asked.

“Just that when Jodi called those numbers again, they’d been disconnected,” Tracy said, her eyes urging me to continue.

Our father frowned. “Why would you call them again?”

“We were worried about you, Dad. Mom just died; you ran off to Niagara Falls and got married without telling us…”

“Do you even have a prenup?” Tracy asked.

“Ah,” our father said. “So that’s what this is about. It has nothing to do with my welfare.”

“We worried that you were being taken advantage of…”

“Please,” our father scoffed. “This is all about money.Mymoney. Which is mine to do with as I damn well please.”

“Nobody is disputing that,” I argued. “But try to see it from our perspective. Our mother just died—”

“So you said,” our father interrupted. “Hardly a surprise. She’d been dying for years.”

I clutched the arm of the sofa, trying not to be overwhelmed by his apparent callousness.

“Do you know how hard that was for me?” he continued. “Are you so coldhearted as to deny me a little happiness after all I’ve been through, the years I spent looking after her?”

“It’s not that we don’t want you to be happy,” I countered. “It’s just that it’s all happened so fast, and we were naturally concerned, so I rechecked Elyse’s references, and found that the phone numbers she’d given me were no longer in service…”

“So? People move. They change phone numbers.”

“So, she went to see them,” Tracy said, clearly trying to speed things along. “Tell him what you found out.”

“I spoke to Mrs. Billings,” I began, watching Elyse’s face closely for her reaction. But if she felt any apprehension about what I was about to say, she did a great job hiding it.

“Oh, yes,” Elyse said. “How is Angela? Still dyeing her hair that horrible shade of black?”

“I’m afraid she didn’t have many nice things to say about you.”

“Frankly, I’m surprised she had any,” Elyse admitted. “She wasn’t my biggest fan.”

“And yet you gave her name as a reference.”

“I gave herhusband’sname as a reference,” she corrected. “I’m afraid that Mrs. Billings and I never really got along. Poor Mr. Billings was terrified of her. He used to tell me the most awful stories, how cruel she was to him when no one was around, how his son was too weak to stand up to his wife. He said that he felt I was the only person in the world who truly cared about him, and told me that he intended to leave me a little something in hiswill. Of course, the family had an absolute fit when they found out. I’m sure she told you all about it. I also assume you went to see old Mrs. Kernohan,” she surprised me by saying.

“I did.”