What Remains Read Free

that long.  It would be a necessary sacrifice she was willing to make for her future.
    All those years of struggling as a single mother and full-time student would actually amount to something besides guilt over not being there for them, not providing enough, not being the emotionally steadfast mother in the white SUV and velour jumpsuits who baked cupcakes for the class and helped with homework; the sort of mom who tucked them into bed every night after a well-balanced meal straight from the pages of a Rachel Ray cook book.  Instead they got one or two hours a day with overstressed woman constantly rushing between classes and work to fix beanie weenies and ramen noodles for dinner, a mom who wore holey jeans and a hoodie as she rolled up late to PTO meetings and basketball games in a beat up economy car with a bumper sticker that read, Honk If You Love Milton .
    Yet, despite the trials and tribulations they endured as a single parent family, she considered those years the jewels in her crown, the treasures of her life.  It hadn’t been the same since her last child, Lynn, had left to attend college a year ago.  The painful silence that came afterward was spent watching old black and white movies and crying herself to sleep just before dawn, only to wake up after a few hours to numbly head to a job she hated.  The loneliness and loss of self that comes with an empty nest had taken their toll on Tessa.  She found herself sinking into a state of apathy that tore away everything that ever mattered to her.
    Somehow she had worked her way through it and managed to resurface to the land of the living.  The acceptance into the graduate program at UMass had been a huge catalyst for her rebound, as well as the job offer from Mr. Richards as a live-in maid.  The way everything just sort of fell into her lap led Tessa to believe the opportunity had been divinely sanctioned.  So with renewed vigor, she cleaned up her act; lost the weight she had gained from her nightly visits with Ben and Jerry, and listened to hours of motivational tapes until she felt brain-washed enough to be passionate about life again.
    It was indeed time to let her children go pursue their own dreams without concerns for their mother weighing heavy on them.  Tessa was determined to piece together some semblance of a future without them.  She owed it to them for sticking by her side through everything, and never complaining.
    Finally, feeling her eyes close from sheer exhaustion, she reminded herself now was not the time to wallow in regret.  Four-thirty would be here soon, and in just a few short hours she would meet this Vlad the Impaler and face whatever was to come.
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Two

     
     
     
     
     
    Arriving at five: thirty precisely, Tessa Maguire was thankful she had left early.  The rural two-lane road twisted and turned, making it difficult to maneuver in the dense early morning fog.  Twice she had passed the entrance to the estate assuming it was a cemetery because of the gothic iron fence that seemed to go on forever, and the dramatic gates that were obviously locked and flanked by massive stone gargoyles.  Finally on the third pass, she decided to take a chance and pulled up to what looked like the entrance to purgatory, and found an ornate brass plate embedded in the masonry with the words, Collins’ Estate.  A call box was directly beneath it.
    Rolling down her window and pushing the button marked ‘call’, Tessa held her breath and waited for someone to answer.  Although a voice never appeared, after several moments, a loud buzzing sound was heard, and she watched as the gates rolled back and she spiritually prepared herself for the attack that was surely forth coming from a pair of hell hounds.  They never appeared. 
    In the rearview mirror, Tessa watched them close behind her, which was a little unnerving.  Her trusty Volkswagen had gotten her out of a lot of tough spots, but there was no way it could burst