Being able to spend the holidays with them and stay for so long afterward was already a rare treat.
To ask for more would be greedy.
It had only been a day since the couple left, but Geneva found the sudden silence in
the old house unsettling.
She had lived like this for years, but now...
It just goes to show, it''s easy to get used to the good life, but hard to go back.
After tasting the joy of having her daughter and son-inw around, how could she endure the cold loneliness again?
"I can''t take it," the matriarch dered, shooting up from her seat. "I''m going to Pinehollow!"
Neely looked at her with resigned helplessness. "Don''t be ridiculous. Madge is still out of town on business. What are you going to do in Pinehollow all by yourself?"
"I can''t I go see Norris? Or... I could go meet Madge! The point is, I can''t stay in this house a minute longer!"
Neely sighed. "Norris is out from dawn till dusk, busy with his teaching duties. I heard he''s taking on extra responsibilities this semester. If you go see him now... won''t you just be adding to his troubles?"
"I won''t bother him! Can''t I just stay at his ce? I could even cook for him and wait for Madge to get back..."
"Oh, you. At your age, you''re acting more and more like a child,pletely unable to be without your kids."
Geneva huffed. "I don''t believe for a second that you don''t want to go too!"
Neely was speechless.
Fine, he did want to go.
"If the mountain won''te to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain," she said. "Are youing with me or not?"
Neely remained silent.
The next morning, the matriarch got up, had breakfast, and immediately started sighing dramatically again.
Her husband, however, was perfectly calm, wearing his reading sses and scrolling through something on a tablet.
She sat beside him, uninterested in what he was doing, her eyesnding on the fruit bowl on the coffee table, which only made her think of Madge again.
A wave of longing and sadness washed over her.
Unable to stand her mncholy, her husband simply handed the tablet to her. "Here. Pick one you like."
"What?"
She took it suspiciously and saw the screen was filled with listings for beautiful vis and houses.
"This is..."
"Weren''t we nning to buy a ce in Pinehollow?" Neely said. "If our daughter can''te to Lumina City, we can just as easily go to her."
"It just hadn''t found the right property, which is why we held off. But a couple of days ago, my assistant called and said he found a few suitable options for me to look at."
He pointed to the screen. "These three all look quite good. They''re fully furnished and move-in ready. So, the decision is yours."
Geneva shot him a look, but her face instantly broke into a wide smile "Why didn''t you say so sooner? You let me mope around for two days.. This one is perfect! This vi is in Madge''s neighborhood!"
Neely nced down. "I knew it..."
"If you knew, why did you even ask me?"
nose. "I was just
He rubbed his no
worried that we old folks might cause friction living too close to the
younger generation, Are you surene
you don''t want to consider the others? These two aren''t far either, just a fifteen-minute walk
"You said it yourself, a fifteen-minute walk! You call that not far? I trust Norris isn''t some difficult person. We''ll get along just fine, I guarantee it. No friction whatsoever!"
"Alright, this one it is! I''ll have someone start the paperwork immediately," he decided, pping his knee.
The thought of living in the same neighborhood as her daughter instantly chased
away all of Geneva''s gloom, and she feltpletely refreshed.
Just then, a housekeeper came in to report that Kathleen was at the gate, and asked if she should let her in.
The old couple exchanged a nce.
"No. Tell her to leave."
"But..."
"What is it?" Geneva asked.
"Miss—uh, Kathleen said that Teague wants to divorce her."