Precious Gifts Read Online Free PDF

been far more rigid with them than with her wayward stepson, but she had finally given up on him. He had become an extremely unpleasant person as an adult, and was someone to avoid. But she couldn’t avoid him now, and didn’t want to. Although he and Paul didn’t see eye to eye, he had lost his father, too. And Véronique had always been more compassionate with him even than his father, who had lost patience with him years before. He had burned his father for money, too.
    After she hung up with Timmie, Véronique called Bertie on the cell phone number she had for him. She hadn’t spoken to him in nearly a year, since his father’s stroke. And Bertie had hardly come to see him while he was sick. He always had some excuse and said he was too busy.
    Bertie answered immediately and was surprised to hear his stepmother’s voice. She told him gently that his father had died, and how sorry she was to give him such bad news.
    “I’m not surprised,” he said coolly. “Are you coming back for the funeral?”
    She sounded shocked by the question. “Of course.” He had correctly assumed that since it was summer, she was in France.
    “I’m in Chicago, but I should be back by tomorrow night.”
    “I’ll call you as soon as I’ve organized everything,” she promised, “and of course you’re welcome to come to the funeral with us.”
    “Thanks, but I’ll get my own car.” It would have been crowded with him riding with them, but she still felt an obligation to ask. She was the only mother he had had growing up, even if he hadn’t been an endearing child. He had lied at every opportunity and been nasty to his sisters. He was always making one of them cry. And there was no love lost between them now. They had all written Bertie off. Only Véronique was still pleasant to him, although she wouldn’t give him money, which was all he cared about.
    Knowing how upset Paul had been about him, she couldn’t help wondering what his father had left him in his will. He had never told her. Paul didn’t have much left, and was always short of money himself, but he still had some of the settlement she’d given him, although it had been dwindling fast. He had always lived beyond his means, making grand gestures, and he had spent too much on women. He had never changed. And Paul still had the château in France that she had bought for them and given him in the divorce. He had wanted it desperately as part of the settlement, and then had lost interest in it, as he did with everything. He still owned it, it was boarded up now, and she knew he hadn’t been there in a dozen years. She assumed he’d left it to his four children, and now the girls would have to share it with Bertie, or dispose of it together, which seemed more likely. None of them needed the headache of a crumbling château in France and all would benefit more from the proceeds of a sale, particularly Bertie. It was reasonable to believe that Bertie would receive a quarter of his father’s estate, even if all of what Paul had had come from her. Bertie was still his son, whether an admirable person or not, and the money Véronique had given Paul was his to bequeath as he chose.
    She ended the conversation with Bertie and went to bed that night thinking of all she had to do, and the funeral she had to arrange. Timmie had promised to help her. It was a strange feeling knowing that Paul was gone now. She knew she would miss him. He had been good to talk to and sometimes fun to be with even after their divorce. She was no longer in love with him, and hadn’t been for years, which was a relief. But she loved him as someone who had been important in her life. It would be hard to lose that now. She fell asleep thinking about the ten happy years of their marriage, which had been the best years of her life. No one had ever been as dazzling as Paul Parker. There would never be anyone like him. And whatever his failings, it was what his daughters were thinking that night, too.