“Week?” I squeaked out. “That’s fast. Let’s just see how it goes.”
“Okay.” He nodded like I was delusional but that he’d appease me for now. “Happy wife, happy life.”
“Please don’t say that.” My stomach flipped in what must have been rebellion and fear.
“Anyway, Dante’s waiting for me in the car.”
“Next time, just have him come in.” I shrugged.
“We need alone time, Morina. We need to appear as a couple.”
The charade seemed ridiculous. “I wish I could understand why you think so. People get around these wills all the time. We just get married but live separately and do what the will says word for word, not vow for vow. This isn’t really death do us part.”
He hummed but straightened his tie and didn’t agree with me. The man didn’t want to concern himself with more conversation and bickering.
Fine by me. “Look, I’ll text you and we can iron out details.”
“You really going to do that this time?”
“Of course.” I put my hand to my stomach to try to contain whatever energy Dante had told me about. I needed to research it more.
“I’m going to do everything in my power to have this go on without a hitch.” He nodded and stroked one fingertip down my cheek. “You’re a good girl, Morina. I want this to work out for both of us.”
Then his touch was gone. And, spinning on his heel, so too was he.
The breath I didn’t know I’d been holding whooshed out of me.
“What the fuck, Grandma?” I said it to no one, or maybe the house, just in case she was there.
Bastian had looked at me like we could do this, like I could be a partner in this with him. I wanted to believe him but there was no actual way I could be that person. He came from that questionable background. Yet, my grandmother trusted something about him or about his father enough to try to place us together.
I sighed as I went back to the bedroom I wasn’t sleeping in. I’d decided the food truck was a much better fit for me after grandma passed. I had never enjoyed staying with her anyway. Now, it just felt wrong. I came here every day to straighten up and get the mail. Then I jetted off to work and to volunteer.
Now, I sat on the corner of the spare bedroom bed and stared at the white envelope. Her chicken scratch wasn’t at all ornate. I didn’t expect any hidden treasure when I opened the envelope.
“Morina,
You’re reading this and so that means I’m haunting you. Or trying my best to do so.
Jesus, I hope I went fast and didn’t make it too gory for you.
Anyway, straight to the point: you’re marrying Bastian because it’ll keep you alive and it’ll keep our town alive too.
Mario and I did a fine job keeping our business under wraps. I had ties to him and to a couple people in Ireland. They won’t keep the partnership thriving, Morina. They don’t care like they used to.
They want the oil and the ports and to expand it into our city. Ronald, that crochety old man is just chopping at the bit to get his hands on these shares. And oil refineries everywhere want in.
Bastian may want that too. I’m not sure. He seems to have other ideas. I want to trust him, but it’s our town, Mo.
We have to be sure.
Six months isn’t that long. See if he cares about that port enough to clean up what his family dirtied, what all the families and syndicates want to dirty.
This was the only thing I could come up with. It protects you and the town for a time.
You’ll have to figure out the rest.
You get on a surfboard and go with quick decisions every day. Remember that. You can do that here too.
Oh, Mo, you’re mad at me. I know you are. But you’re strong like your father was. Surprised that I’m complimenting him? I hated him at the end, but he charmed anyone who met him before that addiction. And I’ll say he loved you and your mother. He stuck with her always and I think he taught the whole town to surf. He always said to be quick and commit on the surfboard. He was something before those drugs took them both away. We have to forgive them for their addiction, right? Charm and strength with that Bastian man on your arm will be enough, I think.
Go to the company. See his vision. Take the time to see if you believe in him. If so, give him the shares for all I care.
Your marriage will protect you. It makes you a wife of a mafia king. As long as he’s in power, you’ll be safe, Morina. I needed to do this for you as much as for the town. He’ll protect what’s his even if he has no interest in you whatsoever. It’s a pride thing. Men measuring their dicks and all that.
As for you, this city is what you love. I didn’t want to ruin what you loved without giving you a chance to save it. I kept it going for you. I don’t care about the money. I care about the people here and about you most.
I did all this for that very reason.
Well, and because I wanted you married, of course.
You can be a non-committal little brat sometimes. So, here I am pushing you over the edge in death. Here’s to hoping you follow those vows you say to him and don’t part until death.
Don’t be so scared to commit, Morina. I wonder if you’re so scared because you lost your parents at the end or because you had to lose them over and over. I’ll never forgive them for that, you know? I’m hoping I get to smack them both now that I’m dead.
Just remember, not everyone is like them. Look at me. I only left you in death.
Hopefully just like Bastian.
Til death do us part, right?”
Sincerely,
The grandma that haunts you
* * *
“You want me to burn down your house, don’t you?” I asked her as if she was sitting across from me. “You want me to burn this letter too?”
God, she was such a controlling witch sometimes. I loved her and hated her so much all at the same time.
I hated that she’d left me with this huge burden.
I crinkled the letter as one tear fell onto it. “I just hate that you left, Grandma.”
The waves crashed down on the beach in their familiar rhythm. If there was one thing I’d committed to, it was the water.
I threw on a bikini and grabbed my board in a frenzy, leaving the letter behind. I wanted nothing to do with the burden it brought to my life. I wanted to catch the water, to ride what should’ve been unrideable. I ran into the ocean like it was the center of gravity and dove in, letting the cold rush all around me.
Water flowed over my face and combed my hair back. It smoothed my hot skin, cooling it, and fought me just enough to show who was in control. This is what I’d married. I’d belonged to the waves since I could remember. This was where I worked hard enough to forget everything else in my life.
I’d forget how I felt when my parents would leave yet again on another quest to find themselves. I’d forget about a bad date or a lost friendship. I’d forget about the time my grandma sat me down and said mom and dad weren’t coming home: their bus had crashed into a wall in an unknown city.