The View from Alameda Island - Robyn Carr Page 0,61
our divorce is pending, since you’ve been served divorce papers, we can’t live together. It just wouldn’t work. And on advice of counsel, I’m not leaving.”
She looked shocked. “You never put the house in my name, too?”
“At first I just didn’t because it made no difference—neither of us would have singular properties. It’s a 50/50 state and that’s the way it is because there’s no prenup. But I brought this house to the marriage and you left,” Beau said.
“Well, I’m coming home,” she said.
He leaned slightly, spotting the suitcases behind her. Two large and one carry-on size. “I’m sorry, Pam. No. You left. You had a flat in the city. And I told you several times, I’m done with this arrangement.”
“And where am I supposed to go?”
“Back to your city flat, I suppose.”
“I let it go,” she said.
“Before making arrangements for your next residence?”
“I don’t have to make arrangements to come home to my house!”
“Not your house, Pamela. It’s where I live, it will be community property.” He glanced over her shoulder to the newish BMW in the drive. “Just as your car will be community property. And your other assets.”
“My car will not be community property!” she said, sneering. She tried to push her way in and he blocked her. “God damn you, let me in. You can go to a hotel. Or your mother’s. Or go to the goddamn rectory for all I care.”
“Mom,” Drew said from behind her. “Stop it.”
Beau hadn’t seen him arrive. Since Pamela was parked in the drive, he’d parked in front of the house next door and had silently approached. “Drew!” she said. “Sweetheart, tell Beau this is my house and I’m coming home!”
“Pam, don’t put Drew in the middle of this,” Beau said. “It’s not the boys’ problem, it’s ours. Let him be.”
“But I want to come home and live with my son,” she said.
“I’ll take you down to the restaurant and we can have a cup of coffee or ice cream or something, talk things over, then you have to leave,” Drew said. “This is Beau’s house and he’s been really fair.”
“I don’t want an ice cream,” she snarled. “I want this house! How can you take his side? What’s he to you? He’s not your father. I had to beg him to take me on with two little boys but he was never your father. He can’t—”
Drew took a step toward her. “He wanted to adopt us, me and Michael, but our dads wouldn’t give permission. My ‘dad’ didn’t even come to my graduation.” He shook his head. “Mom, Beau is right. You left. I asked you not to leave—I had a feeling it was going to be the last time. You can’t just keep changing your mind.”
“Drew, you don’t have to—” Beau was going to say, Fight my battles, but he was cut off.
“Don’t get sucked into pity for poor Beau,” she said. “You have no idea how difficult and complicated marriage can be!”
Drew chuckled, but without humor. “Don’t I? I’ve been watching you and Beau since I was just a little kid and, Mom, I think everything in your life is complicated and difficult. I’m sorry it is. But this isn’t your house anymore and I’m not going to be quiet while you beat up on Beau. Beau’s been a good dad. And you don’t want to live with me. If you wanted to live with me, you wouldn’t have left.”
“Seriously? You’re taking his side? Over your own mother? This...this...stepfather who doesn’t care about his own wife?”
“Pam, don’t...”
“Yeah, I am,” Drew said. “Do you need me to help you get those bags back in the car?”
“Where do you expect me to go, since I’m denied my home?”
Drew stiffened and put his hands in his pockets. “I know you have somewhere to go. You probably have a lot of places you can go. But you gotta stop being so mean and so unfair. Beau was always good to us, good to all of us. I love you, Mom, but sometimes I really don’t like you.”
“Drew!” she gasped. “How can you say that? To me?”
“Michael might let you sleep on his couch,” Drew said.
“You are so ungrateful, Drew,” she said, turning on him now. “After all I’ve done for you, you side with the man who’s throwing me out in the street? He was a lousy husband, a useless stepfather, an unfaithful—”
“Come on, Mom,” Drew said, taking her arm. “Let me help you get these bags back in your car.