Restoration [Shawn Mendes] AU

Chapter 14

Michelle opened her eyes as the sun shone through the family room windows. She had fallen asleep briefly, sitting in the overstuffed armchair with her feet propped on the coffee table in front of it. Once again, she seemed to only be able to doze off when she wasn't in her bed, the bed she had shared with Robert. She only went to her bedroom to take a quick shower in the bathroom or to get dressed, and she never went into Beau's bedroom anymore...not since the night she sat on his bed praying for her husband and son to come home. She wondered if she would ever be able to go into those rooms without thinking about her late husband and son. Feeling like this at the beach house was one thing, she didn't even want to think how she was going to deal with walking into her brownstone in Boston. She couldn't even think about that right now. She just had to keep moving forward, day by day dealing with all the things that came with the loss of a spouse and a child.

The flurry of activity for the memorial was over, the Stevensons had left yesterday, her friends had also driven back to Boston late yesterday afternoon and her father had contacted one of his Harvard law school buddies to handle the myriad legal documents that come from the death of a spouse. Michelle was at loose ends at this point in life, not sure what her next step would or should be, but first and foremost she had to start getting the legalities taken care of.

Her attorney, Richard Morrison, Esq., had FaceTimed her yesterday, to give her the status on when they could expect the death certificates to be issued for Robert and Beau. He had filed the paperwork and attached copies of the files and written statements that were provided by the Coast Guard and law enforcement. It was unusual to have no bodies for a county coroner to issue death certificates for, but it sometimes happened with soldiers, and it happened with most of the people who had died in the World Trade Center on 9/11, so there were a few more hurdles in these situations before the state signed off on the legal documents. Until she had the death certificates in hand, there was nothing she could do about their will, Robert's life insurance policy, the mortgage on their home or anything that they held jointly, or transferring things over to her name. She could continue to pay all their bills online from their joint account, so at this point there was no reason to return to Boston until then. She had made her decision to remain in Chatham with her Gran, at least for the duration. She'd just take it one day at a time and see how things went, giving herself some time to grieve and slowly get her bearings.

"Sweetheart, are you sure you don't need us to stay a few more days?" her mother asked, pulling Michelle out of her deep thoughts.

Michelle shook her head, "No mama, you and dad have been absolutely the best throughout this whole awful ordeal, but you can't stay here and babysit me. I love you both so much, you will never know and I appreciate your offer to stay longer, but I want you to go back to Montreal and get on with the business of living. I know life is different now for all of us, but we have to keep doing the things we did before Robert and Beau died, not just stay stuck. So to do that, you and dad have to go home, Stefan needs to get ready for his freshman year at Harvard in a few weeks and I'm going to take some time with Gran to figure out what my next step should be."