The Amber Stone Read Free Page A

upon Bess’s death. Nobody knew that Teresa would give all the money back to see Bess alive again.
    Instead, some people thought that Teresa had taken advantage of Bess. That she may have pushed her down the stairs, instead of Bess collapsing after her heart attack. Others thought Teresa had convinced Bess not to take her regular medication and that may have killed her. Teresa had her own questions and suspicions. Bess shouldn’t have been as sick as the coroner deemed. She hadn’t sensed anything wrong. But now she doubted herself. She wanted to bring Bess back so that the whispers could stop, so that she wouldn’t keep wondering where things went wrong.
    She wanted her life back. She’d been a part-time herbalist and piano teacher, but after getting the inheritance, she’d been forced to stop when a number of students, and not so close friends, kept asking for loans and financial assistance.
    Now she spent her time volunteering at the nursing facility. She hadn’t touched any of the money yet. Wasn’t sure she ever would. She didn’t feel she deserved it, but couldn’t reject the offer of a friend. But her concerns about Valley Ray had started with Bess and grown because of the two people at the nursing facility, but the supplement company wasn’t important right now.
    Teresa looked at the ambulance, hoping her cousin would be okay. She remembered the last time she’d followed an ambulance to the hospital. Only a few days later she was driving behind a hearse.
     
    ***
     
    “At least she’s okay,” Jessie said as she, Teresa and their eldest sister Michelle, sat in Rolland’s Café three days later. Jessie was treating them to lunch at a place that had once been too pricey for Teresa’s budget, though Michelle had frequently visited the place. The food was always excellent and served in an atmosphere of eclectic class. The restaurant had chrome booths furnished with red cushions. Jessie’s husband, Kenneth, was the CEO of a large electronics and software company and was a favorite customer, so any time she visited she was given the best booth—a place with a large window overlooking the main street that was well lit, but tinted, free from prying eyes.
    After the rescue, Teresa’s whole body still ached. But she didn’t complain because she knew her sporty sister would just remind her that she was out of shape. She’d briefly been able to see Louisa at the hospital and speak to her aunt. “Aunt Margaret said it was just an accident,” Teresa said. “But I know it wasn’t.”
    “Didn't she get the memo?” Michelle said.
    “Memo?”
    “Yes, black girls don't commit suicide.”
    Teresa frowned. “You have a sick sense of humor.”
    Michelle sipped her drink without apology. “I know.”
    “I wonder why she did it,” Jessie said.
    Teresa could speculate. She could understand the deep well of loneliness that could grip someone. It had gripped her after Bess’s death and nearly choked her after the death of her parents.
    They’d had kids later in life, so they were an older couple. But their illness had seemed so simple. She'd cared for the family before whenever someone fell ill, so nothing warned her that that night would be different. That it would be the last time she'd speak to them. She still saw her parents in her dreams, but they never faced her, as if they blamed her too.
    She’d punished herself after her parents’ and Bess’s deaths by never indulging in speaking about her pain. Instead she smiled. She smiled through everything. “You’re the heart of the family,” her father liked to tell her. “No one wants to see you sad.” So no one ever did. She pretended that the rumors about Bess didn’t hurt, laughed away criticism about her natural remedies and indulged her sisters’ teasing about making strange potions, even when they tore at her heart.
    “There was a strange man who was there,” Teresa said, almost wondering if she should. “He knew her.”
    “That’s no