The Ghost in the Basement by Sue Fineman

Author:Sue Fineman [Fineman, Sue]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Published: 2012-02-20T05:00:00+00:00

Maggie was also a wife and mother, but Eleanor made sure that wasn’t mentioned. The only thing of importance to Eleanor was that Maggie was her daughter.

Billy threw his flowers at the headstone and ran away, and Donovan knew he had some serious damage control to do.

Hannah opened her arms and Billy ran into them.

“What’s wrong?” asked Pop.

Donovan walked up. “Maggie’s headstone doesn’t have Kane on it, and it says beloved daughter.” It was a slap in the face of a sensitive kid.

“Billy, it wasn’t your mother’s doing,” said Hannah. “Someone made a mistake when they ordered the stone.”

Billy kept his face turned away, but Donovan knew he was crying. His tears were always just under the surface when Maggie’s name came up. She’d rejected Billy to spite Donovan, and in doing so, sliced this boy’s heart into little pieces.

Donovan shared a long look with Hannah. “The headstone is another dig at me. Eleanor blamed me for not making Maggie happy.”

“Oh, please. People are responsible for their own happiness. You can’t make someone happy if they’re determined to be unhappy.”

Did Maggie enjoy being unhappy? At times it seemed that way. Blaming him for things seemed to give her a sense of self-importance, and Eleanor encouraged it. Maggie had never experienced a sense of accomplishment for a job well done. She’d never had a job, didn’t care about the house, and didn’t like being a wife and mother. The only thing she did well was shop.

Maggie had always bought whatever she wanted without a thought for the cost. Sixty-dollar bras she wore once or twice, two-hundred dollar dresses she wore once, if at all, too many shoes to count, and things she bought only because she thought they were pretty. Things she never used or wore. When she died, there were still price tags on many of her clothes. Since he didn’t have receipts, he didn’t know where they came from or when she bought them. He ended up selling or giving away things he was still paying for.

He kept a few of Maggie’s things for Billy, but Donovan didn’t want any reminders of his failed marriage. One of these days, he’d have to go through the box of pictures and find some for Billy, but he hated to do that. His son didn’t need any reminders of his mother. All he remembered of Maggie was the pain of her rejection.

There were some good times, but there were so few of them. She had never wanted Billy. How could anyone not love Billy? He was a perfect baby who didn’t cry much, a child who soaked up love and attention and gave it back tenfold, but Maggie was too selfish to love anyone but herself.

He looked at Hannah, who was still hugging his son, and what he felt for her was nothing like he’d felt for Maggie, even in the beginning. Maggie was beautiful, a living doll who made him proud to be in her company. But the beauty wore thin when he realized that was all she cared about.

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