Heavenstone 01 - The Heavenstone Secrets

affection was to be expressed. No wonder she was so fond of whispering. It enabled her to live just under the radar. She moved freely in and out of her own world, always shutting the door behind her so no one could enter that world or even see into it.
    I did finally. I think I always did, but, like my parents, I refused to believe in what I saw and what I heard. So, when I told Daddy that much of this was my fault, I meant it. I understood why it was, why I should have tried harder to get my parents to see as well. I was young, yes, and afraid, but as I have come to believe, we are all in a war in our own homes in one way or another, and wars cause you to lose your youthful innocence faster.
    I guess I lost mine completely the day Cassie fell on the stairs. I buried it with Cassie.
    Cassie was always so proud of how big and elaborate the Heavenstone tombstones were. They did dwarf the monuments around them in the cemetery. There was no doubt in any mourner’s mind where the Heavenstone plots were located. They could be seen practically on entering the cemetery.
    I kept thinking Cassie would have been so pleased with it all: the large crowd, the tons of flowers, the parade of limousines. The only thing that would have displeased her was where her plot was located. It was to the left of Mother’s. Daddy’s would be to the right, so that Mother separated her fromhim. It almost made me smile that day to see her coffin lowered into that plot. I imagined her screaming and complaining, insisting it was a mistake, and demanding that a new grave had to be dug immediately.
    I think there were just as many eyes on me being pregnant as there were on Daddy and on Cassie’s coffin. I could feel the questions buzzing around us just as clearly as I could have felt a hive of bees circling. Uncle Perry was right beside me, holding my arm the whole time. In the church, he held my hand, and he did so in the limousine as well.
    Some parents and students from my public school attended, but I felt they were there to gawk at me more than they were to pay respects to Daddy and Cassie. I was happy that Daddy kept the visitors afterward to a very close group of business associates. I kept thinking that Cassie would like this, at least. She had hated it when we’d had all those curiosity seekers at Mother’s funeral.
    Afterward, the house had never felt as empty. Sometimes, I would pause to listen, because I thought I heard Cassie’s familiar footsteps on the stairway or in the hallway. For days and weeks, whenever I entered the kitchen, I half expected to see her working on a meat loaf or making a pasta. I did the best I could in my condition, but Daddy now talked about hiring a cook and some maids. Uncle Perry practically moved in. He was here so often. I saw he was just as concerned about my father as he was about me. It brought me continuously back to that idea that tragedy cements a family.
    In fact, it was Uncle Perry who rushed me to thehospital the day my water broke. He had gotten to the house before Daddy, and just turned around with me in his car. Dr. Moffet was there to greet us. Daddy arrived before I went into the delivery room. He held my hand as they wheeled the gurney, but he turned down Dr. Moffet’s invitation to be in the room. I didn’t blame him. I wished I could turn down the invitation.
    The last shock came when my baby was born.
    It would have killed Cassie again. She had been so confident.
    I gave birth to a girl, not a boy.
    Daddy and I hadn’t discussed what would be done with the baby. Without Cassie around to shove reality and decisions in our faces, we both ignored the question for as long as we could. We did discuss my going to a private school as soon as I could, but the baby’s destiny was left hanging in the air just outside our lives.
    Daddy came to see me as soon as I could have any visitors after the delivery. He hadn’t gone to see my baby yet. After he was sure I was fine, he grew silent. We both did. The words hung like apples ready to be plucked.
    “Neither of us is equipped to be a mother right now,” he began. “The circumstances that have brought the child to us will always be a stain on our minds, Semantha. It’s unfortunate, and it’s not the child’s fault, but it’s there nevertheless.”
    I couldn’t disagree.
    “Obviously, although we haven’t spoken about this, I have been working on a solution. I couldn’tsee us just giving the child up for adoption to total strangers,