Will and Testament // Sequel to the Rosie Grey series

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Father stared at me with wide eyes, seemingly oblivious to what he had done all those weeks ago. How could he not remember? How could none of them remember?

I rolled my eyes. "You really don't remember, do you? It was only a few weeks ago!"

"Izzy, your grandfather died when the ship sank, if anyone is to blame it's whoever didn't put enough lifeboats on the ship before it set sail," Mother said, trying to rationalise or distract me from the truth and what I already knew.

"Not that! I already know about that, I'm not stupid." I sighed, my anger getting the best of me since no one could see the truth. "Grandfather never would have gone on that ship if he hadn't convinced him to go! Grandfather said that he didn't want to go on the ship because he didn't trust it, but he went anyway because-"

"-Because I told him to," Father finished. "I convinced Father to go because I thought it was too good of an opportunity to be missed. That's what you mean."

"Finally, the penny drops! Grandfather would still be here if you had just accepted that he didn't want to go in the first place! He died because you pushed him to go where he didn't want to because you kept telling him about what a great opportunity it would be."

Father stood up and handed Uncle Matthew the ice that he had been keeping on my foot before pacing over the mantelpiece where Grandfather's portrait had been moved to. He stood in front of it and stared at it, not saying a word but just looking at the portrait in the silence that settled over the room.

A cold sensation touched my ankle and I looked down to see Uncle Matthew touching the ice pack to the bruise on my ankle. He looked up at me sheepishly, but the cold sensation from the ice brought me back to earth a little more. The anger bubbles still popped. Father hadn't even apologised for what he did, he just wandered off without even acknowledging that had been at fault.

He stood in front of the portrait with his arms folded over his chest before turning back to face me and slowly making his way back across the room. I watched him perch himself on the arm of the chair that I was sitting in, he nudged my hand a little before he sat down.

"So this is why you've been behaving the way you have? Because I convinced Grandfather to go to America?" he said.

"It wasn't just that! It was you ruining Grandfather's memorial because you would rather get into a fight with your estranged mother. It's you, not even mentioning Grandfather even though he only died two weeks ago! You just moved on and forgot about him! How was I supposed to feel? Was I supposed to just move on as you did and pretend that it never happened? That he didn't exist?"

"That's not-" he paused. "Why didn't you come and talk to us about it? We could have helped you."

"Talk to you? Every time I tried to do anything you almost tore my head off for it! Why do you think I didn't tell you that I hurt myself? Because I knew you would blame it on me as you have for everything else that's gone on recently. And I overheard you last night. I heard what you said about sending me away."

Father sighed. "I'm sorry if we made you feel like you couldn't talk to us. You never should have been made to feel like we didn't care, or that I didn't care enough. You should have been able to talk to me about all of it. It should never have gotten to the point that you felt as though you couldn't tell me about an injury."

He crouched down beside me. "As for the rest of it, I didn't mean to ruin the memorial and I wish I had known how you felt about it. The reason I haven't been mentioning your grandfather is because I didn't want to upset you, but I see now that that was a bad decision on my part and for that, I am sorry. Your mother and I discussed the prospect of sending you to boarding school for your own sake, but now I realise that the fault really rested with me. Really, Izzy, I am truly sorry that I made you feel like you couldn't trust or talk to me about what you were feeling and that I made you feel unwanted."