Garden of Shadows by VC Andrews

Author:VC Andrews [Andrews, VC]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: horror, Fiction, General, Good and evil, Suspense, Horror tales, Family secrets, Suspense fiction, Family, Sagas, Wife abuse, Horro fiction
ISBN: 9780671729424
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 1990-11-15T06:00:00+00:00

"You will transfer one million dollars into a trust fund for each of our sons until they reach the age of eighteen."

He nearly jumped out of his chair. "What?

You're mad. Why would I do that?"

"So that they will have some control over their lives and not be totally under your thumb," I said, stating the obvious.

"I would never do that. It would be a foolhardy waste of money. What would boys that age know about handling such a fortune?"

"You will do it and it will be done immediately.

Put your lawyers right on it and have the documents ready by the end of the week. They will be given to me for safekeeping," I said, waving the air like he often did to indicate I would tolerate no more discussion on the subject.

"A million dollars each?" He was facing the unavoidable fact that there was little he could do about it.

"Consider it . . . a fine," I said. He stared at me, with not so much a hateful look on his face as the look of a man who realized, perhaps for the first time, that his antagonist was formidable. I think that in his strange way, he even respected me at that moment, even though he hated everything I was demanding.

"Is there anything else?" he asked, fatigue and defeat in his voice.

"Not at the moment. We both have enough to do. I suggest we get started."

I'll never forget how I felt when I pivoted and started out of the library. It was as though I were leaving him in my wake, in the shadow I now cast.

For the first time, my tallness didn't bother me, for I felt I had fulfilled my height. I had rescued what could have been a very sad and tragic time for me and I had even benefited from it. Malcolm, who had always gotten his way and had always gained from whatever he did, had had to give. He was losing more than I was.

I stepped out into the foyer and looked up the spiral staircase toward the Swan Room, where Alicia waited to learn her sentence and her fate. It wasn't Malcolm who went up and told her; it was I. I was the one who started up the stairs; I was the one who carried the news and the orders. I was the one who would cause things to happen, people to move and to change. I was the one who would shift the shadows and the light in Foxworth Hall. I would close doors, open windows, put lights on and put lights off. I would decide when the sunlight could be permitted to enter and when the shades would be drawn. I would dole out happiness and pleasure, sadness and pain the way a maid served soup.

I opened the Swan Room door without

knocking. These kinds of indignities were mine to impose now at will. Alicia, who had just taken a bath and washed her beautiful hair, quickly wrapped a towel around herself and reached for her robe.

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