CHAPTER TEN: A PHONE CALL
"Spring, you've got a phone call." Grandfather Eugene's maid, Mrs. Walmsley, greeted me with the telephone when Claude and I came home to do our math homework. "It's from your father."
My heart dropped to my knees. "Jeremy Danielson?" I asked, weakly, and Mrs. Walmsley nodded.
"Yes, dear... I'm afraid he has some bad news." Mrs. Walmsley pressed the phone into my hand and shut the door behind me.
"Hello?" I asked, coldly, following Mrs. Walmsley into the kitchen area. "What do you want?"
"Spring." The cold, angry man that had refused to see me off to Virginia was replaced with a sniveling, sobbing wreck who could barely speak my name. "Spring... You've got to come home."
"Why?" I asked, bitterly.
"Baby Brandon..."
"What did you do to him?" The words flew out of my mouth even before I'd had a chance to think them through.
"I didn't do anything," he pleaded. "Brandon is sick. We need you."
"What about Claire?" I asked, sighing heavily.
"She left," he replied, through his tears. "I need you to come home."
"Did you even stop to think that maybe I liked it here with my real family?" I asked, angrily. "You told me when I left that - "
"Forget what I said when you left," he interrupted. "I was angry, and hurt. Right now, your baby brother needs you, Spring." He hung up with a slam and I stared at the phone in my hand.
"What's wrong?" Claude asked, pulling his math book onto the kitchen table and opening it to the right page.
"My fa - my adoptive father wants me to come home, for an emergency. My baby brother is sick," I explained, loud enough so that Mrs. Walmsley could hear.
She sighed, shaking her head. "Mr. Eugene won't let you go back to that man," she said, clucking her tongue.
"Spring? What's going on?" Claude asked. "What's happening?"
"My adoptive father, Jeremy Danielson Jr., wants me to come back home," I admit, shyly.
Claude's face turned ashen white. "Spring, you can't go back to that man," he said, reaching for my hand.
"I'll be back, Claude... I might even bring baby Brandon with me. His mother abandoned him, and I know how much my adoptive father hates babies. I'll probably be able to talk him into letting me take Brandon back with me." I said, knowing in my heart of hearts how foolish the thought was.
Claude took my hand in his. "I really like you, Spring... I don't want you to get hurt."
I smiled at him and shrugged my shoulders. "You've got nothing to worry about. I'm not going to let Jeremy Danielson get to me."
***
"I'll be back, I promise, Grandmother." I said, standing in the train station with my grandmother. "I'll try to bring Brandon with me, too."
"Just don't let him hurt you, Spring," Grandmother said, clinging to my hand. "If he tries anything, call us and Geoffrey will be on his way to bring you home."
I nodded, smiling at my grandmother and giving her a kiss on the cheek. "I'll do just that, Grandmother."
As I turned to get on the train, I thought I saw someone familiar, lurking in the shadows.
Shaking the odd thought out of my mind, I found my seat and gave the conductor my ticket.
***
When I stepped off the platform, my adoptive father was waiting for me, holding little Brandon in his arms.
When he spotted me, he offered me a weak smile, whispering something into Brandon's wispy blond curls.
"Hello," I greeted him, formally, setting down by bags by my feet. "How have you been?"
"I've managed to hold up," he explained, sounding so different then the man he'd been before. "I've missed you, Spring. We all missed you."
I rolled my eyes, startling him. "Even Claire?" I asked, raising one eyebrow, following him to his car.
"She...we were both troubled, Spring. I was wallowing in my guilt over our affair, and your mother's death..." he murmured, as if his mumbled semi-apology would wipe the slate clean.
I paused, remembering the pain his hands and cold, harsh words caused. "I'm not ready to forgive you, yet," I replied, as coldly and firmly as I could. "But I'll be there for Brandon. Hopefully he won't suffer some of the pain I've endured."
My adoptive father hung his head as he opened the back seat door, fitting the baby into his car seat and buckling him in.
"Claire left this for you," he said, as I climbed into the passenger side seat, handing me an envelope. "She wanted me to give this to you."
I opened the envelope and pulled out a note from my wicked stepmother. My mother's diamond and gold charm bracelet fell onto my lap.
Dear Spring,
I'd like you to have this bracelet. I know it once belonged to your mother, and that it's not mine to give you in the first place, but I hope you'll take it as a token of forgivenss.
I can't stay here any longer, and I know I won't be back when you come home for Christmas.
I'm sorry for the pain I caused you. Your father and I were never a compatible match. It's too bad we both realized it too late.
I know you'll care for Brandon as if he were your own.
Please forgive me,
Claire
I folded up the letter and stuck it in the envelope, clasping my mother's bracelet onto my wrist, surprised by Claire's strange letter.
"Spring, I wasn't completely truthful to you," he said, softly, as he pulled out of his parking space.
"What do you mean?" I asked, holding my wrist protectively to my chest, as if he'd try to take Mommy's bracelet away from me.
"Claire didn't run off," he sighed, miserably. "She committed suicide."
"What?!" I asked, shrilly, startling my baby brother into tears.
"She was unhappy with her life, and our marriage, and she shot herself," he said, sadly, reaching back to give Brandon a pat on the back. "I told your grandparents shortly after you left, but asked them not to tell you."
I stared at the bracelet and the envelope. "So it's just you, me, Brandon and Mommy's ghost."
My father's head snapped up, startled, and bore his icy blue eyes into mine, but not a word was passed between us. I just sat back in my seat and closed my eyes, pressing my forehead against the cool window pane.
************
TBC
Alex