Enter, Night by Michael Rowe Page B

continued implacably, “as my son
is
dead, I can only do one thing—the right thing. And that is to take you into my home and extend to you all the privileges of a daughter-in-law, if only for Morgan’s sake. You will live here at Parr House as long as you need to. Morgan has already been enrolled in the town high school, and instructions have been given to the administration that any harassment of her based on any . . . past questionable history involving her birth, Jack’s death, or Jeremy’s perversion, is to be dealt with immediately and harshly. When she has graduated, I shall see to it that her university tuition is paid for and that she is properly prepared for life in the way that you ensured my son, Jack, would never be when you got pregnant and ruined his life.”
    “Mrs. Parr—”
    Adeline raised her finger to silence her daughter-in-law. “I’m not finished. In return, you will conduct yourself respectfully and respectably in and out of this house. You will stay out of my sight except for mealtimes, at which time we will all be together. You will defer to my wishes at all times, especially with regard to Morgan’s upbringing while she is under my roof. Unlike you, she is a Parr by blood rather than by convenience.”
    “By
convenience
?” Christina practically shouted the word. “I was
pregnant! We were in love! You forced us to leave here! You threatened my family! I never saw my father again because of what you did to us. He died while I was in Toronto, and he’d been dead for six months before I even found out he was gone! And for what? Jack and I loved each other. We have a beautiful daughter—your granddaughter—and we were happy. We had everything before he died. And when he did, I had nowhere else to come except back to the Landing.”
    “Don’t raise your voice to me, Christina. You and Jack made your own choices. If you find my conditions too arduous,
Mrs. Parr,
” Adeline added, putting a vicious accent on the marital title she clearly felt Christina was unworthy to bear, “you may leave my house and fend for yourself. You will be entirely on your own, as will your daughter.”
    From outside, Christina heard the Chevelle’s doors slam shut, and the sound of Jeremy and Morgan’s feet on the gravel of the circular driveway in front of Parr House.
    “Do we understand each other, Christina? Be quick. I hear Jeremy and Morgan coming back in from the car. I warn you—be very, very careful in case you’re thinking of making a scene in front of your daughter and my son. I can make life even more difficult and painful for you than it is right now. Believe me. You have no idea the scope of my influence.”
Oh, but I do,
Christina thought, feeling fresh hate and fresh desperation in equal measure.
I do. I felt it fifteen years ago, and now I’m feeling it again tonight. Nothing has changed. Nothing.
Her vision blurred.
    Adeline’s pale, hard face swam. Christina brushed the tears away with the back of her hand, realizing suddenly that this particular die had been cast the moment she’d first heard that Jack had been killed on that highway back in February. The rest of this drama was a matter of everyone playing their assigned parts, particularly Christina, at least until she could figure a way out, back to the city. Any city. Anywhere but here.
    “Yes,” she replied.
    “Yes
what,
Christina?”
    “Yes, Mrs. Parr. We understand each other.”
    “Good. Oh, and Christina . . . ?”
    “What?”
    “You may call me Adeline. After all,” she added, the mockery in her voice both cruel and unmistakable, “we’re
family
now.”
    When Morgan and Jeremy came through the door, laden with suitcases, the sight of Adeline smiling beatifically with her arm around Christina’s shoulders greeted them.
    To Morgan it looked as though her mother had been crying. With the trusting innocence of her inexperience and tender age, she assumed that her mother and grandmother had been discussing her father.