The Blanchard Witches by Micah House

Author:Micah House
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9798985607581
Publisher: Micah House
Published: 2021-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter nineteen

Howard’s Quandary

In the days following Yasmine and the others’ return, life began to fall back into something resembling normalcy at Blanchard House. Nacaria, Xander, and Cassandra went back to their estate, Oleander, in Charleston. Artemis continued occupying herself with matters at the restaurant. Demitra immersed herself in a few cold cases the police department handed her which had stalled in their investigations, including the robbery case she’d previously declined. Jerry was busy as ever at his own job, but at night he had taken to whisking Demitra away for dinner out in order to lessen her time at home where Beryl’s absence was hard to ignore.

Howard remained distant since discovering the Blanchards were in fact his very own family. Arielle was running the office without him as day after day he had failed to show up to work. But on day four she was taken by surprise when he came through the office door.

“Hello stranger!” she said excitedly, hopping up from her desk.

Making a disapproving face, Howard replied, “I see you’ve gotten comfortable during my little rest.”

Arielle was in a very loose cotton tank top and her pants, if you could call them pants, were wide-legged, cotton pajama bottoms with yellow ducks on them. She was wearing no shoes at all, but Howard spied the tail-end of a furry unicorn slipper sticking out from behind the desk. She wore no makeup and had her red hair clipped to the top of her head. It did not appear she had even brushed it that morning.

“Well, yeah. By day two, I just figured if you weren’t showing up this week, I’d be comfortable. Clients only come in by appointment, and I saw my clients already. I had to cancel all yours. And I don’t have to look pretty to input data and answer phones.”

“I understand,” he nodded. “But tomorrow let’s try to put some effort in again. I will be here from now on.”

Arielle walked over to him and looked her boss in the eyes. “You all right? You’ve had quite an adjustment to make.”

“I’m fine. Nothing to adjust to. I am still who I was last week. I am Howard Caldwell, representative of the Blanchard estate and several other prominent Alabama families. Nothing has changed.”

He walked toward his office, stopping to pour himself a cup of coffee at the little kitchenette in the corner. Arielle followed him. “Everything has changed, Howard! You are a Blanchard! Doesn’t that mean something to you?”

“Of course, it does,” he replied. “But I have spent 50 years being plain Howard Caldwell. I think it’s best I just keep being him.”

“You have to face the truth. You can’t ignore it,” Arielle remarked.

Howard whirled around gruffly, something she had never seen him do. “I can do whatever I want. My life is the same one I had before. I am the Blanchards’ friend and representative and that is all. I don’t want to talk about this again, Arielle.”

“Yes, sir.”

“See if you can get the appointments back for tomorrow that you canceled.

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