Page 142 of These Summer Storms

The siblings all shared a look. Whatever this was, it was uncharted territory. And while no one at the table would call it growth…it wasn’t nothing.

She pressed on. “But I will not stand by while you all hold him up like he was a hero. Franklin Storm wasn’t a hero. And that’s thetruth.”

Sam dropped his cards and leaned back in his chair. “Yeah, Mom. We know.”

“Some of us more than others,” Greta added.

“If you’re making T-shirts, Greta, I’ll need one,” Alice joked, and they all snickered.

Everyone but Elisabeth. “There’s nothing funny about it.”

“We know that, too, Mom,” Emily said, quietly. With grace. Too much of it (it must have been the candles). “But he was still our father.”

Elisabeth’s whole body went quiet at the words, as though there’d been frenetic chaos in her head that was now just…gone. And all four of them knew instantly that whatever was about to happen would be unforgettable.

What they could not have known was that it would be irreversible.

“Do you have other things you’d like to say?” Emily prodded, and it was like watching a lion tamer. Terrifying. “Other truths?”

“A lifetime of them.” Elisabeth considered her children, one after another. Landed on her only son. “I don’t care for Sila, Sam. You’re better off without her.”

Sam’s brows rose. “I’m afraid you’re oh-for-two on surprises, Mom. No one cared for Sila.”

“Not even Sam, it turns out,” Alice said, dryly.

“But it feels good to say it, doesn’t it?” Emily asked Elisabeth.

“Stop treating me like a child, Emily,” Elisabeth said. “I see what you’re doing. I won’t be tricked into talking about my feelings.”

“No one is tricking you into—”

“Oh, please.” Their mother turned on her youngest. “Your dream isfor me to unravel.” She stood over the table, looking at each of the children. “I’ve noticed it all week. Sam in the kitchen, Greta during the presentation of your father’s idiotic game, you while we planned for the funeral. Claudia got me high, for God’s sake!”

“Once again, that was a miscommunication,” Claudia replied from her place on the couch. “I’m really very sorry, Elisabeth.”

Elisabeth waved it off. “I just wish you would all stop asking me if I’mokay. Alice couldn’t even let me get through the goddamn funeral without running me down to ask me. I amfine.”

“Oh yeah, you seem it,” Sam said, heavy with sarcasm. He could always get away with it when the rest of them couldn’t.

“I only asked because I heard you talking to Mike, and it sounded—” She stopped when her mother whipped around to face her.

Everything about Elisabeth tensed, and they all noticed. Alice had overstepped.

“Whatever you heard—it wasn’t what you think,” Elisabeth said. “And it certainly wasn’t your business.” Apparently, there were some truths that were not for this storm. These Storms.

“What happened with Mike?” Sam asked, looking to Alice.

“Nothing,” Alice said, suddenly wanting very much to keep whatever secret she’d stumbled into. She reached for the deck of cards in front of Emily, who set a hand on top of them before Alice could take them.

“No,” Emily said, and everyone looked, finding her perfectly calm. The youngest Storm looked to the oldest. “That’s a truth that needs to come out.”

Something flashed on Elisabeth’s face, there and gone almost instantly. But they all saw it.Shock.“You know.”

Emily nodded. “I do. He told me.”

“Mike?”

“Dad.”

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