BellaOHOT Chapter 4
At first, being “just friends” with Mortimer was difficult. I had to force myself to remember that he wasn’t mine, that Dorothy was his wife… and their son, Trent, was his progeny. His heir.
I’d never thought about it that way - that Cassandra should inherit the Goth estate never occurred to me. Despite what his mother may have thought, I was no gold digger.
But looking at my daughter, it was hard to deny that she was Mortimer’s. She had his eyes, deep and intense.
She was his, and it became more apparent with each passing year.
At first, I was worried that news would reach Cornelia’s ears, and she would know that the child I raised was her grandchild. I don’t know what feared me the most - the thought that Cornelia would come down on me for reforming my friendship with Mortimer, or that she might decide to steal my child from me.
They were unfounded fears, it seemed, for Mortimer was true to his word. Cornelia never bothered us. In fact, she she died just before Cassandra’s sixth birthday.
I heaved a sigh of relief when Mortimer came to tell me the news and hugged him tightly. For a moment, we both clung to each other, willing to forget for a few brief seconds that we were separated by more than just his mother.
“Good night, Uncle Morty!” Cassandra called from behind us as she headed off to her bedroom.
Her innocent words pulled us apart. “We ought to tell her the truth,” I said after an awkward silence filled the empty space around us.
Mortimer was silent still. “I’d like that,” he said at last. “But I have to tell Dorothy first.” He grew thoughtful and then said “I don’t think she will understand, Bella. It might mean the end of our marriage if she thought I was unfaithful.”
His words pained me. Mortimer had been faithful to Dorothy all this time. We’d never once given in to the feelings that always swelled around us whenever we were together. But his wife …
Dorothy was beautiful, intelligent woman. She reminded me a lot of old Cornelia, in that she was strong-willed and knew what she wanted and how to get it. Unlike Cornelia, however, she was not a cruel woman and had welcomed me into her life as “Mortimer’s friend” without so much of a thought to it.
She trusted her husband, and it was possible that telling her the truth now would break that trust, as Mortimer feared.
Our children innocently complicated things once Trent started school. He and Cassandra became friends while riding together on the school bus.
How could anyone not look at Trent and Cassandra and simply not see the resemblance?
Even Mortimer saw it, as he stood there the first time Trent brought Cassandra home from school with him. It disturbed him so much that he left the house at a run.
Down the hill, to the Pleasant Rest cemetery, where our romance truly began. Once there, he called me, begging me to come and see him.
“Tell me, Bella,” he asked… “why have you never found someone else?”
I was shocked, both at seeing him so upset and by the question. “I … I … ” I stammered.
“It would make things so much easier,” he rushed ahead without my answer. “If you weren’t single… I could tell Dorothy that Cassandra is mine…” he turned his eyes towards the shadow of his home on the hill above us. “If she looks closely enough at them, she will surely know.”
“Do you want me to date someone else, Mortimer?” I asked him in a soft voice filled with pain.
“I … no…” he answered. “Not really.”
“But it would still be easier, wouldn’t it?”
He nodded, and so did I. The truth was, there was someone… a young man I’d met recently while at the grocery store. He was good looking and charming, and looked a little like Mortimer with his dark hair, though his eyes were green.
His name was Don, and if Mortimer thought it help matters if I were not single, I might just give Don a call… though I doubted I could love anyone the way I did Mortimer.
Mirrored from Third Time's the Charm.