Page 12 of The Dancer and the Dark
Not an allowance. Not health insurance. Not even the cell phone that she’d paid for on their plan.
Chloe left anyway, and despite their lack of support, she managed. Sure, she had to rely on her friends for a lot, but she wasn’t too proud for that. What shewastoo proud for was asking her parents for a damn thing.
I’m sorry, Chloe. He didn’t survive.
She should mourn. She should cry. There should be grief.
But how did you mourn a relationship that already felt dead?
They’d renovatedthe kitchen even though neither of them cooked.
“It looks good,” Chloe said. “That refrigerator is huge.”
“The real estate agent recommended it.”
Chloe turned to her mother. “Are you moving?”
“We were. We were going to downsize. Now?” Her mother shook her head slightly. “I don’t know.”
Clara Brown-Reardon was wearing a neat grey suit and going through the cards attached to the flowers and ferns that were starting to deluge the house. She wouldn’t wear black until her husband’s service, but then she’d wear grey, navy, and other muted colors for around a year after. That’s what she’d done when her own mother died at age sixty-five from a massive and very unexpected stroke.
And now she’d lost her husband to a heart attack.
“Did Dad know—?”
“No. He had a stress test three months ago with no signs of disease. There was no reason to do an angiogram.” She blinked. “There was noapparentreason to do an angiogram.”
Because there had been a reason; her mother just hadn’t known it.
“Mom, if he wasn’t showing symptoms—”
“I’m very aware that this isn’t my fault.”
Are you?Chloe would never say it out loud.
Clara set down the stack of envelopes. “I’m surprised your boyfriend isn’t with you. He seemed very… attentive.”
Attentivewas her mother’s way of saying possessive.
“He’s coming tonight. I told him to finish his business in New Orleans before he came out. He was in Paris a couple of nights ago, then he had a meeting in New Orleans, then he was heading home. I didn’t think there was any reason for him to cancel the meeting since it was complicated to set up.”
“Very practical.” Clara nodded, seeming to approve. “I’m surprised the Vecchio boy didn’t come with you.”
“He’ll be here with Gavin.”Because the sun would burn him up. Oh, by the way, did I mention my first boyfriend is a vampire now? No? And my current one is too.“My friends Zain and Audra were fine driving me over here.”
Chloe had forgotten what it felt like to hide so many things from regular people. Most of her friends in New York were either vampires, vampire adjacent, or theater people who never questioned anyone who only came outside at night.
“Do you want me to call anyone?” Chloe looked around at the perfect palace where she’d grown up. Other than the kitchen remodel, not much had changed. “Did you call everyone back East?”
“I called your aunt Sunny, so your father’s entire family knows. God knows that woman loves to share dramatic news.” Clara pursed her lips. “I shouldn’t be ungracious. Auntie Sheila is already making arrangements to fly out. She’ll get in touch with everyone on my side.”
Her mother had been born in Nashville, the daughter of a math professor at Fisk University and a schoolteacher. Her father was from Georgia, the first in his family to go to college, though Chloe’s grandfather had been a well-known pastor in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Her parents had met at UCLA medical school and made their home in California ever since; all of Chloe’s cousins were from back East, and she barely knew them.
Clara looked up and crossed her arms over her chest. “There’s not much to do right now.”
That was her mother’s worst nightmare. Dr. Clara Brown-Reardon was a singularly busy person. Work, school committees, alumni associations, professional women’s associations. Chloe couldn’t remember her mother ever being idle.
“Are there any pictures you want to look through?” Chloe tried to remember the last funeral she’d attended in her family. It had been for her father’s oldest brother, who’d died in a car accident a few years before. She’d barely known him, but her parents had requested she attend. “When Uncle James passed, his kids put together that beautiful slideshow with all their—”
