Chapter 8 - The Trucks Arrived at Sunrise
The moving trucks arrived just after dawn.
Celeste had spent years calling the estate the heart of the Langford family.
To Everett, it had become something else.
A monument to appearances.
He sold it.
Some relatives reacted as if he had demolished a cathedral.
“How can you sell a property that has been in the family for generations?”
Everett answered:
“Watch me.”
He donated much of the furniture.
Maren kept only a few things.
Photographs.
Books.
A small wooden cradle that had belonged to Everett’s father.
Everything else disappeared into trucks.
The crystal chandeliers.
The enormous dining table.
Celeste’s formal sitting-room furniture.
Portraits of people neither Everett nor Maren had ever known.
For the first time, the house looked empty.
Everett stood in Bennett’s nursery.
The window was closed.
He walked over and touched the frame.
He remembered his son’s cold cheeks.
May you like
Then he turned away.
He never entered that room again.
