Forget Me Not, Books I, II and III

Devils and Details

After watching her hold little Matthew for about three minutes, Teddi could tell Laura was in love. "He's got so much hair. It's quite adorable," she gushed, running her fingers through the curly light brown mop. But her expression turned somber as she said, "I'm just happy to be out of that house. Anthony is drinking even more."

"Why don't you leave him?" asked Teddi with a sigh.

"It would kill my parents. His parents. Despite the fact that I wasn't the most sought after girl at Miss Carrington's, my family name, well, it made my marriage to Anthony sort of a royal wedding."

"Who cares about all that?"

"I know you don't care, Teddi, but my mother and father mean a lot to me. You don't have to worry about that now, do you?" Laura snapped.

"No, I don't," Teddi bit back.

Laura sighed. "I'm sorry. It's just that I love him so much. I just keep waiting for him to come around."

"I'm sorry, too," said Teddi. "Hey, would you mind coming with me to my grandmother's? Liza's coming in a couple of days, and I've been meaning to get something out of the attic and bring it back before she gets here."

"I'd love to see your grandmother, but is that uncle of yours going to be there?" she asked, rocking the baby.

"Most likely."

Laura snorted. "Would it be rude of me to pretend I don't see him?"

Teddi shrugged. "It's fun to be rude every now and again. Anyway, I don't think you have anything to worry about. He doesn't speak to me, so why would it be different for any of my friends?"

***

Matthew squirmed in Teddi's arms as Laura pulled Teddi's car in front of the Donovan house.

"He needs his bottle," said Teddi. "I'll have to go put one on the stove before we look upstairs." Richard's car was thankfully nowhere in sight. It was odd. Teddi could not remember the last time she'd seen or spoken to her uncle, but between her grandmother and Gertrude's constant complaints, she knew he was still lurking around the shadows of Brookhurst.

After Matthew's bottle had been made, and he was firmly planted in Gertrude's arms, Teddi and her old school chum climbed the three flights of stairs to the attic. She was shocked to find things so altered. The curtains she'd had hanging had been taken down. The pillows along the window sill were stuffed into a dark corner, and her mother's paintings were no longer hanging on the far left wall.

"It's different. It used to be cozier," remarked Laura, putting her handbag down on the window sill.

"My uncle must have been up here. I hope he didn't burn my mother's work."

"A lot of other people live in this house. It could have been your aunt or Gertrude or even your grandmother."

"My grandmother has been up here three times since I was twelve."

"Well, maybe she was missing you and so..."

"And so she decided to take down all my things?" Teddi swept her eyes over the room, looking for evidence to confirm what she was almost completely sure of. She spotted a small stack of two different sized boxes, and behind them, covered with a white cloth, what appeared to be a stack of paintings. "He's definitely been up here," she said, approaching the boxes. She removed the uppermost box from the stack. It was file-shaped. She opened the lid. "Medical files? What is my uncle doing with medical files?" She pulled one out. "Clay Abernathy," she read the name on the first file.