The Legacy, Caroline Bond [popular books to read txt] 📗

– and admitted yet another breach into their relationship.

As if summoned by the memory, a message from Lisa pinged into Megan’s in-box. It was uncanny how she was always – just there.

Megan read the text. It was another offer of help. More kind, unsentimental words. In her current vulnerable state, she felt pathetically grateful, and conflicted. It should not be Lisa who was there for her. She should be sharing Jonathan’s death with her family – with his family.

But none of them understood.

None of them had been there at the end.

None of them comprehended the full extent of the impact of MND on Jonathan.

None of them knew what had been going through his mind in the last few months of his life.

None of them could answer any of her questions.

But Lisa could.

Chapter 18

THEY RECONVENED after a comfort break, which had been prompted by Noah’s urgent need to pee and to get away from Liv, if only for a few minutes. She was relentless. As soon as they were all gathered around the table she got straight back to business. ‘I have an idea that might help us decide what to give Mum and Megan.’ She paused and Noah could have sworn his big sister looked uncertain for a second. ‘Bear with me on this. My idea is that we work out what their share should be on the basis of time.’

‘What?’ Noah’s head was banging. Dehydration and Liv’s voice were making it worse.

‘I’m suggesting we work out what to give them on a pro-rata basis.’

‘Fuck me, Sis. I thought you were a doctor, not a sodding accountant.’ She really was something when she got going.

Chloe winced. ‘Noah. Shush. Hear her out.’

Liv ploughed on. ‘I think it might be a fair way of deciding things, and it has the benefit of taking the emotion out of it. Megan is entitled to something, there’s no point arguing about that – we just have to work out what.’ She pulled a piece of paper towards her. ‘Mum and Dad were together how long?’

Noah shrugged, genuinely at a loss. It was Chloe who came to their rescue. ‘They were married in the summer of 1979.’

‘Do we know when they actually first got together?’ Liv asked.

Once again Chloe proved to be the reliable family archivist. ‘1977. Mum said they met when she was in her second year at uni, so we could check precisely, but they must have been together for the best part of forty years.’

On her piece of paper Liv wrote: Mum x 40 yrs and Megan x 5 yrs. ‘So if we used the time they each spent with Dad as the basis of our calculation, that would mean Megan would get roughly one-eighth of whatever we give to Mum, out of whatever lump sum we decide to set aside for them.’

Noah, whose head felt like it might crack in half, said, ‘You are kidding, aren’t you?’

Liv bristled. ‘I know it seems a bit simplistic, but we weren’t getting anywhere earlier; we were just going round in circles, trying to second-guess what proportion of the estate Dad intended to go to Megan and Mum.’

‘Oh, and this is your big idea?’

‘Noah. Don’t.’ Liv’s voice went up a notch.

‘Don’t… don’t me! Are you seriously equating Mum and Megan? A marriage and a midlife crisis.’

‘I’m only trying to come up with a workable solution.’

‘Okay.’ He stood up, suddenly agitated. ‘Let’s give your solution a whirl. In fact if we’re going do it, we might as well go the whole hog.’ He grabbed the piece of a paper and the pen and scored through the number five, hard. ‘Best start by being accurate. We “found out” about Megan the Christmas of 2014, but that’s not when it started. He’d been shagging her for more than a year by then, so, if you want to be wholly accurate, we owe Megan another few per cent.’

Chloe cleared her throat as if she was about to say something, but then seemed to think better of it.

Noah ignored her. ‘And, dear Sis, you’ve missed us off your list. If this is going to come down to the numbers, then you need to factor us into your equations.’ He bent over the piece of paper and scribbled their names down, then added a number beside each. ‘That gives Liv – thirty-seven; me – thirty-four; and I’m sorry, Chloe, that puts you on twenty-six, though given that your birthday is next month, Liv might be kind and let you have twenty-seven.’ He shoved the paper back across the table at Liv. ‘There! You can crunch the numbers on that for us, and we’ll see where we end up. It’s interesting to note that this impartial system of yours means you come out on top. Who knew?’ He gave a cartoon shrug.

Chloe finally spoke up, but so quietly that neither Liv nor Noah heard her.

‘What?’ Noah snapped.

She had to repeat herself. ‘How do you know how long he’d been seeing Megan for? You just said Dad had been sleeping with Megan for more than a year before we found out. How do you know?’

Liv joined in. ‘Yes, Noah, how the hell do you know that?’

Noah cursed himself for his slip. Now it would become a whole other thing. God, families were sometimes more trouble than they were worth. There was a clatter in the hall. Then another. The noise scraped across his already frayed nerves. His sisters were both staring at him. He was left with no choice. ‘Dad told me.’

‘When?’ Liv and Chloe chimed together.

‘I don’t remember exactly. One evening.’

‘Recently?’

His attempt at a nonchalant shrug didn’t quite work. ‘Does it matter when he told me?’

They both stared at him. Liv answered. ‘Yes, it does. You’re saying that you’ve known details about his affair for ages, and yet you never said anything to either of us.’

‘I didn’t think it was something Dad wanted broadcasting.’

‘So why did he tell you?’

Noah took offence at that. ‘Perhaps because he wanted to talk to somebody