The Christmas Clock and A Song For My Mother - Kat Martin Page 0,77

for money.”

Marly's eyes widened. “Rose was a prostitute?”

Winnie shook her head. “Not a streetwalker, nothing like that. Rose picked up men in bars, or in the cafe where she worked, places like that. She slept with them and in return, they gave her money.”

Marly couldn't believe what she was hearing. She had never known her father's mother. Rose Maddox had died when Marly was still a baby.

“She didn't do it by choice,” her mother continued. “She was in her thirties when she fell in love with a married man and got pregnant. There was no chance of him getting a divorce. She was a poor woman even then and once she was carrying his child, he broke off with her completely. He never gave her a cent and in those days, women couldn't just go down to the welfare office and pick up a check. Even a woman with a baby had to make it on her own.”

Marly said nothing. She had never heard any of this before. She could hardly believe she was hearing it now.

“Rose was desperate. She had no way to buy food or pay rent. Virgil said there were days he went to school with nothing to eat but a biscuit made of flour and water. They lived in a tiny trailer out in the woods and he slept on the floor. He was there even when his mother entertained her men... friends.”

“Oh, my God.” She had never known much about her father, never known his secret past. “Go on... please.” Her hands were shaking; she slid them beneath the table so her mother wouldn't see.

“I think Rose did the best she could but times were hard. And as Virgil grew older, he reminded her too much of the man she had loved who had treated her so badly. Until Virgil and I met in high school, I don't think anyone had ever really loved him.” Winnie smiled sadly. “But I did. I loved him from the day I met him. And I never cared about his past.”

Marly's throat ached. “That's why you stayed. Because you loved him—and you pitied him.”

“That's right. And because of the man he was before the fire. No matter what else he was, your father worked hard and always provided for us.”

“Oh, Mom.”

“Virgil had a heart condition. You didn't know that. He was a smoker, and of course, there was all that smoke from his job. The doctors warned him if he didn't quit he wouldn't last long. I told myself it would only be a couple more years until you went away to college. You wouldn't have to deal with him then. But I couldn't leave him. I couldn't hurt him the way his mother had.”

Marly's eyes filled with tears.

“I made a mistake all those years ago. I should have left him. Or maybe if I had explained, you would have understood.”

Marly got up from her chair and her mother rose as well. Marly walked toward her, opened her arms, and Winnie stepped into them. Both of them just held on. It felt so good, so right to be there. So many years had passed. All of them had suffered so much.

There were tears in their eyes when they finally let go. “It’s all so sad,” Marly said, wiping the wetness from her cheeks.

“I don't think Virgil ever had a chance to be the man he should have been.”

She thought of the father he had been before the fire and wondered if that might not be true.

Winnie reached out and took hold of her hand. “Will you and Katie stay for Mother's Day?” Her eyes were damp, her lips trembling. “Please say yes.”

Marly's heart swelled. She didn't have to be back in Detroit until her summer school job started. “We'll stay. There's nowhere else on earth we'd rather be.”

A sob came from her mother's throat. “I love you, dear child.”

“I love you, too, Mom.”

And because she did, she would never tell her mother what had happened that last night. The night Virgil had come drunkenly into her bedroom when she was pretending to sleep and fallen on top of her. As she struggled beneath him, she'd been terrified of what he meant to do.

“I love you, Winnie,'' he had said and she realized he didn't know he was in the wrong room. “I need you. I need you so much.”

Marly had shoved him off the bed so hard his head cracked against the wall. Then he lurched to his feet,