Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage by Howeler Lisa R

Author:Howeler, Lisa R.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2023-12-05T00:00:00+00:00

13

The parking lot of the Brookstone Methodist Church was packed by the time they arrived. Lucinda had said Derek was a popular man, but Gladwynn hadn’t realized how popular. Of course, it may also have been because those who knew him in his previous life had now learned of his passing and were curious why he’d passed away so far from home.

She and Lucinda passed a few television cameramen on their way into the church, ignoring a reporter who asked how they had known Derek and if they’d been shocked to know who he really was.

A reporter holding a microphone and speaking into a camera asked the same question Gladwynn had in her mind as they walked up the sidewalk toward the front stairs of the church. “Derek Thornton moved to this quaint, rural community four years ago, but what would make the former CEO of a multi-million-dollar hotel chain leave his company and move 600 miles away, changing his name and assuming a quiet life in a retirement community?”

“Why indeed,” Lucinda whispered as they stepped into the lobby of the church, which was filled to the brim with residents – some looking to say goodbye to Derek and some possibly there just to see the drama that might unfold. She leaned close to Gladwynn. “We might not even be able to find a seat.”

A hand waving at the back of the church caught Gladwynn’s attention as they entered the sanctuary. She nodded toward the hand. “It looks like Doris saved us seats.”

The seats weren’t close enough to the front to get as good of a look at the family as Gladwynn would have liked but she could see several people sitting up front, most wearing black. A couple of the women were wearing large black-and-white hats like she’d see the royals wearing at the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middelton.

Michael Thornton sat at the front of the church next to one of the women in the hats. The entire family looked out of place in the small church with its white walls, tall stained glass windows and dark wood pews.

The woman next to Michael looked like a model on the front of Vogue. Her jet-black hair was pulled back tight and tucked up under the hat, where, Gladwynn imagined, it was held together in a bun. The woman’s chin and pert nose were pointed upward, her lips pressed into a thin line. Dark eyelashes, very possibly fake, draped over narrowed eyes. Everything about her body language screamed her discomfort with being there. Very little about her showed any grief.

Next to the woman that Gladwynn had guessed was Michael’s wife was another woman with red hair. She looked at her gold watch and pushed a strand of her hair back from her face. As Gladwynn glanced down the row she could only see the backs of heads until she came to the end of the row where a woman with short dark hair dabbed a tissue at the corner of her eye, her shoulders drooping.

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