By the day of Mona's funeral, Amanda and Andrew had made up. She decided to forgive him for his grave mistake. She needed his comfort and support more than anything else during this time.
When she saw how few people showed up for the funeral, Amanda was distressed. "Is this it?" she whispered, noticing all the empty seats in the church.
"Who else did you expect?" Alma asked, not at all surprised.
Amanda thought for a moment. She hadn't realized how small her mother's world had become during the later years of her life. "I don't know," she replied with a sad sigh.
With so few people at the funeral, it was hard to miss anyone in attendance. When Andrew saw Arthur Townsend, he instantly became tense. He couldn't believe his former employer had the nerve to show up. He was even more shocked when Arthur approached them after the services.
Arthur glanced at Andrew with a cold look that was instantly returned, before turning to Amanda. "I'm so sorry for your loss. Your mother was a fine woman."
The tension between the two men made Amanda feel like she was in an awkward position. She thanked Arthur briefly, keeping the conversation short. Arthur nodded and walked away.
After everyone else had left the church, the family started to leave for the cemetery. As they were walking out the door, Alma stopped. "Go on out without me. I'll be there in a minute."
Alma waited until they were outside then walked back into the vacant sanctuary of the church. Quietly, she walked over to her mother's coffin and stood in front of it.
The realization of her mother's death overwhelmed her and she felt so many conflicted emotions. She and her mother had their issues and there had been times that she had resented giving up the things she wanted because of her family, but even if neither of them showed it, she couldn't deny that they had been close, in their own way. She felt like a huge part of her life was gone, but at the same time she had never felt so much freedom.
Alma took one last look at her mother, said her goodbyes, and went outside to meet Amanda and Andrew.
At the cemetery, after the burial, the family said goodbye to the few people who were there and thanked them for coming. The last guest remaining was the family's lawyer.
Quentin offered the family his condolences and then asked, "You'll stop by my office tomorrow morning, won't you?"
"Of course," Amanda said with a nod.
"I know this is a difficult time for you, but I think our meeting will be brief. Your mother left a short will, so everything should be fairly simple and straight forward."
"I certainly hope so," Amanda replied. "Thank you so much. We'll see you tomorrow."
Early the next morning, Alma, Amanda, and Andrew went to Quentin's office to hear the reading of the will.
"I don't know why, but I'm nervous," Amanda remarked as they walked from the parking lot to the lawyer's office.
"There's nothing to be nervous about," Andrew assured her. "Your mother didn't have a lot of money or belongings or many people to leave them too. Even the lawyer said it would be short." Amanda nodded, but she wasn't any less nervous.
"She probably left everything to you anyway," Alma remarked bitterly.
Amanda turned to face her sister. "That's nonsense. If she left everything to just one of us, I'm sure it would be you. After all, you're the one who took care of her all these years."
Alma had her doubts, but she didn't argue.
"Thanks for coming in," Quentin greeted Alma, Amanda, and Andrew with handshakes. He invited them to take a seat, as he sat down behind his desk.
When everyone was settled, Quentin started to read the contents of the will. "I, Mona May, being of sound mind and body, leave this, my final will and testament." The next few lines listed a few specific items that she had left to Amanda and Alma, but it was the sentence after that that concerned the bulk of Mona's estate. Quentin continued reading, "The rest of my personal belongings, my house, and all my money, I leave to Dorothy Alice Summers."
When Quentin laid down the document, Alma and Amanda looked at each other in confusion. Was that it? Who was Dorothy Alice Summers?
Eileen sat in her room, skimming through one of the books that Cassandra had leant her. She was starting to doubt that she had recalled a past-life experience at all. Maybe Veronica was right. Maybe her dreams were just a result of her unconscious thoughts and that day in class had just brought the details back to her for some reason. In any case she was sure that the man in her dreams related somehow to Hector.
Something had bothered her when he had mentioned his mistakes and regrets. It shouldn't have. After all everyone has regrets, but it reminded her of something connected to Hector from before.
Eileen set down her book and walked across the room. Hector wasn't pressuring her to get married, so she should have been relieved, but instead she felt even more uneasy than before.
She decided that she needed someone to talk to, someone who was unbiased and someone who knew Hector well enough to give an opinion on him. Immediately she thought of Lawrence. He had known Hector for years and would know if Hector was trustworthy.
Eileen went into her father's study and looked up Lawrence's address in his address book and then took off.
As Eileen drove to Lawrence's apartment, she was convinced that he would have the answers to everything. Already she was starting to feel better.
Suddenly, a thought came to her and all of the pieces started to come together. Lawrence was the other man in her dreams, when she had to choose between the two men at the temple. As she started to think about everything that had happened recently in her dreams and in her waking life, she knew what her choice would be.
She was so excited about her thoughts that she didn't pay attention to the type of neighborhood she had arrived at. Gradually as she walked into Lawrence's building, reality crept in. When she saw the junk piled up in the hallway outside his apartment door and the man with a beer bottle in his hand passed out on the floor, she stopped in her tracks. This was the way Lawrence lived?
She felt so disillusioned. Maybe she had been wrong about
everything. Eileen turned and hurried back to her car.
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