He Priced Me At A Penny So I Married Another Chapter 10
“Before your mother died, she even asked me in private if Derek’s family looked down on the things she was leaving because they weren’t worth much.”
“She wanted to give you the money left over from her treatment. I told her to take care of herself first. She was afraid that after she was gone, you’d move into someone else’s home and get mistreated, with no one left to call.”
I covered my face with the scarf.
Derek had only visited my mother briefly once, near the end of her hospital stay.
I didn’t want her to worry, so I often brought things to the hospital room that he had given me before and said Derek had just bought them.
My mother believed me. Lying in that hospital bed, she held my hand and smiled.
So in the end, with what little strength she had left, she was still trying to prepare a home that would welcome me.
Carol drew the curtains.
“Your mother slept in this room, too. When you were little, you used to complain the bed was too small and insist on sleeping sideways. You shoved her all the way to the edge, and she spent the whole night with her arm around you to keep you from falling.”
I shifted farther onto the bed to make room for her.
“Sit with me for a while.”
She sat down and pulled the blanket up to my shoulders.
I slept until afternoon. When I woke up, the moving truck was already unloading downstairs.
Everett brought a tailor who specialized in restoring old textiles. She studied the tear carefully and tried bringing both sides together.
“It can be reinforced, but the original stitches can’t be restored. We’ll need to add a backing, or the tear will keep spreading.”
I turned over the corner of the quilt and carefully cradled the half of my name my mother had left behind.
“Patch it like that. Leave the rest of the thread exactly as it is.”
Everett knelt on the floor, repacking the dust bags, not noticing the bits of cotton stuck to his cuff.
That was when the doorbell rang.
Carol opened the door. Mrs. Lawson walked in, holding a new display board.
“Lydia, I’m here to correct this. Look—I took off the one cent. We’ll cover the wedding and the down payment, and we’ll post a new notice on the community page. Everyone will know the Lawson family is serious about you.”