Jake waited until they’d finished their main course before broaching the subject of Molly Parker. Ever since reading Jesse’s will, even though they’d never met, his mother had taken an instant dislike to Molly. He’d wondered, more than once, if she was a little angry at Jesse for not telling her about the girl he’d spent the summer with eight years before.
Jake watched his mother carry an apple cake and bowl of whipped cream to the table. After the huge meal they’d just finished, more food was the last thing he needed. “Before we eat dessert, I want to tell you both something.”
His mum frowned as she slipped back into her chair. “Is everything all right?”
Jake hesitated. She still wore her grief as a cloak of anger, and in the months since Jesse’s death, he’d witnessed a marked change in her as she fell from a place of hope into the depths of despair. The kind of despair he’d struggled to claw his own way out of. “I’ve been talking to Annabelle. Molly Parker’s turned up.”
“What do you mean?” she asked. “Here? In Clifton Falls?”
He nodded. “She met with Annabelle a few days ago.”
Her frown deepened. “I don’t understand. That woman didn’t even bother to attend Jesse’s funeral but turns up when there’s money coming her way. Who does that?”
“Molly Parker, apparently,” his father said without an ounce of emotion.
She turned to her ex-husband. “And you don’t have a problem with that?”
“Well, we don’t know the details, do we?”
“Dad’s right,” Jake said. “And letting our imaginations run wild about her relationship with Jesse is counterproductive, don’t you think?”
“I’m not imagining. I’m surmising. There’s a distinct difference.” She stood and picked up a small box of tissues from the sideboard before returning to her chair. Even now, the tears were never far away, and Jake seldom knew how to comfort her. “Have you met her, Henry?”
“Me? No. Why would you even ask me that?”
“You’re the executor of Jesse’s will. I thought she might have already been in touch.”
“What? And you think I’d keep that to myself?”
With her nose in the air, she broke away from her ex-husband’s gaze. “Honestly, I’m not sure what to think anymore.”
“Okay, settle down.” Jake raised both hands. He’d been fighting to keep the peace between his parents for months, and despite his understanding of the grieving process, he was tired of it. “Annabelle passed on my details, so I’m expecting Molly to call any day. If she doesn’t, I’ll contact her. I’ll let you both know as soon as I hear anything.”
A tissue clenched in one hand, his mother folded her arms across her chest. “Tell me again what your brother said about her.”
Jake rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. Their father was the only one Jesse had confided in when he changed his will. And while Jake had wanted to find out more about this woman who’d been living in New York, an opportunity to talk freely about her never really arose in the weeks leading up to his twin’s death—apart from once—and that conversation had been lacking in any detail. “Dad?” He glanced at his father. “Jesse confided in you more than he did me.”
“Look, we’ve been through this already.” His father sighed. “They met when Jesse was living in Tulloch Point, struck up a friendship over that summer, and he wanted to acknowledge her in some small way after he’d gone.”
“And he never saw her again?” his mother asked.
“No. Well, not that I’m aware of,” he replied. “Apparently, she’s been living somewhere in the States.”
“Do you think they stayed in touch?”
“They weren’t friends on social media,” Jake said. “I checked.”
“Well, they must have been friends at some stage,” his father added. “More than friends, I suspect. You know what Jesse was like. He loved the ladies.”
“I don’t understand how you can be so matter-of-fact about her, Henry.” His mother lifted her water glass and took a sip. “That girl broke our son’s heart, and knowing you, you’ll still welcome her with open arms. This whole thing makes me sick.”
Jake glanced at his father, expecting a reassuring response, but the older man remained silent. Despite their divorce, his parents still bickered like they did when he was a teenager. It was one of the reasons he’d vowed never to marry when he was younger.
But now, Jake wasn’t so sure. Losing Jesse had put a kink in his ambitions, and the thought of going through life without a wife and children now seemed a foreign concept.
His mother turned to him. “And what did Jesse tell you?”
Jake thought back to that cool, late spring day. He’d found Jesse resting in the media room, meters from where they now sat. His twin seemed in an especially poignant mood, and it had broken Jake’s heart to see him so accepting of his fate.
