Whispers of Destiny: His Belated Love novel Chapter 75

After hanging up the phone, Rosemary called the cops, and sure enough, the boys in blue showed up in ten. They got the scoop and shooed the landlord and her posse away.

As the grumbling faded into the distance, so did Rosemary’s sleepiness. She plopped down cross-legged on the couch and fired up a website to hunt for a new pad.

Tonight's face-off made it crystal clear – she was done living here.

Just as she spotted a decent place and was about to dive into the details, her phone buzzed – it was an unknown number from overseas.

Rosemary didn’t have pals abroad, and in the past, she might have written it off as a scam and hung up. But this time.

She stared at the digits and got deep in thought until the call was nearly dropped. Then she slid to answer, "Hello?"

Larry's voice came through, familiar yet foreign, "Rosemary, it’s Dad."

She’d had a hunch. Irritated, she cut to the chase, "What do you want?"

"If it wasn’t for getting Mom’s stuff back, I wouldn’t have even bothered picking up!"

Steaming, Larry had to take a few deep breaths to keep his cool, "Your sister called me yesterday, and it seems she’s got a thing for Martin. Find a good time to set up a dinner, and get them to meet."

Rosemary stayed silent; she had figured it was something like this.

Thinking he had a shot, Larry started to work his angle, "Look, I know you’ve been through a lot, but you and Stacey are blood sisters after all. You might have married into the Templeton family, but for that Mr. Templeton, you’re just a rag – easy to toss aside, right? But with your sister marrying Martin, she could have your back and make sure you’re set for life even if Mr. Templeton is hell-bent on divorcing you."

Rosemary cut to the chase, "Give me Mom’s things."

"I’ve brought all that stuff to Mystoria. International shipping’s a pain, what if it gets lost?"

What stuff? The sellable bits were sold, and the rest were trashed!

"Then we’ve got nothing to talk about."

Click. She hung up. But Larry was on the line again in a heartbeat.

"I’ll send it. Get on with the introductions; your sister can’t wait."

This time his voice was cold, laced with disgust, not even pretending to be nice.

After a pause, Rosemary asked, "Where were you the night Mom had the accident?"

"I’ve told you a million times, your grandma felt sick, so I went to see her."

"You left at eight but didn’t get to the old house until eleven."

The Chambers' place was just a half-hour drive from the old house. Rosemary remembered clearly that her mom’s accident happened after nine; she was in a speeding taxi that crashed into a parked truck.

Lights were half off because of the roadworks, which made the visibility poor. The truck was illegally parked without lights on, so both drivers were at fault.

But Mom usually drove herself. Around that time, Larry had a project near her workplace, so he always drove there and offered to pick her up.

Except that night – and Mom had the accident!

Larry, furious, spat out, "The cops said it was an accident, and you still won’t let it go. What, you think I killed your mom? If you hadn’t upset your grandma that day, would she have felt sick? If she hadn’t, wouldn’t I have picked up your mom? If anyone’s to blame for your mom’s death, it’s you!”