The Arrangement [Box Set] Read Online Free PDF

biggest bed she’d ever owned. It had a down featherbed, down duvets and pillows, everything was the best, selected from the fanciest stores in town just that day.
    Walter whispered in her ear.
    —I know it’s already been quite a day, but I have one more surprise.
    April’s heart started beating, and she didn’t know if it was excitement or worry. It really had been a big day for her.
    Walter turned on his bedside lamp and handed her an envelope.
    —What’s this?
    —Just open it.
    She ripped it along the serrated opening tab and took out a brochure. It was for a school, a boarding school.
    She felt tears filling her eyes. Oh no, she was going to ruin this too. It was probably one of the best schools in the country. She knew that, and yet she just couldn’t trust it.
    —They’re too young, she said and burst into tears.
    Walter sighed. —You know, nothing’s ever right for you, is it?
    —Walter.
    —No, April. I mean it. Everything I do, and it’s never good enough.
    —That’s not it at all, Walter.
    —Yes it is. I could bring a hundred other women here and they’d all thank me for it. They’d kill to be here, to be in your position. Look at this place. It’s amazing. And now I’m showing you a brochure for one of the best preparatory schools in the country and you haven’t even looked inside it but already you’re fighting it.
    —It’s in Greenwood Springs, Walter.
    —That’s barely two hours away.
    —They’re four and six years old. They’re too young.
    —Herb’s kids went there at that age.
    —I don’t care what Herb’s kids did.
    —Pete’s and Frank’s too. And they’ve all turned out to be shining successes.
    —Oh, Walter, please don’t do this. They’re just babies. They need us. I need them.
    —It’s already decided, April.
    —What do you mean, it’s already decided? They’re our kids.
    —It’s already decided. Now please drop it.
    April’s head was swimming. How could this be? How could he be taking her babies away from her? How could it already be decided?

IX
    A PRIL SPENT THE NIGHT WATCHING the girls sleep. They had their own rooms of course but they’d wanted to spend their first night in the new house together so they were both in Lucy’s bed.
    Lucy was the older of the two, named for April’s mother.
    April thought of her mother and what she would have done in a situation like this. She often found that she thought of her mother when her back was against a wall. If nothing else, at least her mother had been a survivor. And despite all the hardship they’d gone through she’d always managed to pull her family through it together.
    There were periods when April and her sister had been taken into public care but their mother fought tooth and nail and always, always found a way to get them back to her. April didn’t know if she had the same strength of purpose. Walter was signing her babies up for boarding school and she was just letting it happen. She knew her mother wouldn’t have stood for it. She took out her mother’s earrings and looked at them. They made her feel closer to her mother. She wished she could call her up on the phone and talk to her. She wished she had any family, somewhere in the world, that she could call up but there was none. Her sister, Kathy, she didn’t even know where she was. After their mother died they’d each gone their separate ways and had never managed to get back in touch. Well, that wasn’t strictly true. There’d been a few quiet phone calls, usually from police stations or motels, but they’d frittered out since April’s marriage. Kathy had picked up on the fact that Walter didn’t like her calling and had fallen out of touch with her sister. April wished now that she’d maintained the connection.
    She looked at Lucy sleeping so peacefully, and at little Mary next to her, and she prayed for them. She prayed for their future, and that they wouldn’t end up as alone and helpless as she was.
    Then she started to