“I remember her.” Frank spoke softly, as we sat down on the grass in front of Laura’s tombstone.
“You knew her?” I asked. I knew they’d known each other but I didn’t want to let on how much I knew. Better to play dumb than get him suspicious.
“Yeah, I knew her and your Mom when they lived together. I had no idea she died. They always invited me and my family over for dinner parties and such. You were a baby back then. Was she your aunt?” He gave me a sympathetic look, flicking the ashes off his cigarette.
“No. Mom’s lover. My second Mother in a way.” I chuckled.
“Oh. Oh my god Lana I’m so sorry.”
“It’s fine. We weren’t too close, I was still small when she passed.”
“Still, it can’t be easy.” He said, blowing smoke from the side of his mouth.
“I manage.” I shrugged.
“If I may ask, how did she pass?”
My heart dropped a little bit. Of course you can ask, she’s your Mother.
“Lung cancer.” I pointed to the cigarette in his hand. I’d tried off and on to get him to stop smoking but in the end he would do what he wanted anyways. Normally I wouldn’t care, but the fact that lung cancer is in his genes makes it all that worse. And me all that more responsible if something happened to him because I knew.
“Oh. So that’s why you’re so persistent with the smoking?” His eyes widened.
“Yeah.” I mumbled, trying my best to sound as upset as possible.
“Well. I’ll try to quit then.” He smiled, flicking the cigarette into the bushes and reaching forward to peck my cheek.
“Don’t try, do.” I laughed.
“Alright, Alright. You nag.” He rolled his eyes and chuckled.
I stared at the bouquet of roses we left Laura. On the tag I secretly wrote, ‘From your Son and Daughter, I’m so sorry about everything.’ The roses would wither within two weeks but I had this secret hope that the message would reach her wherever she was and she’d forgive me.
They say the dead see everything. If her spirit was still around somewhere she’d know about the sexual relations between Frank and I, as well as the dead librarian that became of them.
“So, what’s the plan?” I turned to Frank.
“The plan?”
“Lucas. Miss Trevor. Mom. Missing girls. Mafia.” I sighed.
“Honestly Lana, I want to stay out of it. I don’t want you getting hurt. We’ll just have to hope the cops eventually catch on.” He shrugged.
“That’d be a cowardly thing to do Frank. And what about my Mom? We can’t let her keep seeing Lucas’ Mother.” I bit my lip.
“Well, then let Gerard and I take care of this. You stay out of it. I don’t see Lucas’ Mother posing a threat either. Your Mom is perfectly capable of handling it herself.”
“How could you say that? She has no idea what’s going on in that side of the family. I’d be letting her walk into a battlefield unarmed. And what could you two possibly do about the Lucas situation?” I furrowed my eyebrows at him.
“I don’t know Lana! I really don’t. Do you want me to do something or not? I’m NOT letting you get mixed up in that again. Listen to me for once and just leave it.”
