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Mother
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2021-02-25 04:58:01“We were so relieved to hear that you weren’t harmed, particularly when we learned of the disaster at sea. Such a tragedy. Thank God you were all safe.”
Meg cleared her throat. “Would it be possible for Bertram to join us? I want to say what I have come to tell you only once.”
“Well, as I said, he’s resting….”
“Wake him,” Charlie said, and his tone was enough to make Mildred recoil slightly, something Meg didn’t think she’d ever seen before.
“Very well,” Mildred said. “Just a moment.”
Charlie stood as her mother rose from her chair to go find her uncle, and Meg felt ill. He reclaimed his seat as soon as it was polite to do so and rested his hand on her arm. “It will be all right, darling. You’ve nothing to be afraid of.”
“I don’t want to see him. I don’t want to smell him. I don’t want to hear the s
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“What’s past is past?” Meg asked, struggling to keep her voice down. “No, what’s past is present, Mother. It continues to follow me around everywhere I go. Every time I close my eyes. Every time I lay my head down to sleep. You can’t honestly think that, can you? That I should simply forget what’s happened to me here?”As Meg’s eyes bore holes through her uncle, without looking up, he quietly said, “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”She couldn’t quite believe her ears. She looked at Charlie and saw his jaw set in such a way she knew he was doing his best not to fly out of his seat and knock her uncle into the next room. “Don’t you dare!” Meg said, her tone menacing. “Don’t you dare sit there and make it seem like an accident. Like you didn’t mean to come into my room night after night to torture me, to make me feel helpless, to invade my personal space, my own bo
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Meg’s tears had dried up by the time her mother finished speaking, and even though the reasoning seemed sound, Meg didn’t think it was much of an excuse. Her entire life she had been of the opinion her mother was also evil, just like her uncle, and she wasn’t able to budge her stance one bit based on these remarks. “Mother, we’ve decided we will marry before my birthday on one condition, and one condition only.”Mildred’s face perked up just a bit as she turned to face her daughter. “What’s that?”“You will testify to what you witnessed the day Bertram took advantage of me, just before I left to board Titanic.” The woman was already shaking her head back and forth. “If you want to show me that you truly do care about me, then you will do this. Otherwise, we will wait, and you will get nothing. And you can rest assured there will be no more wire transfers of funds from the Ashtons.&rd
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That explanation made the rage well up inside of Meg again. “She needed help—so you dropped everything to help her? Where were you when my uncle was carrying me up the stairs?” She was shouting now, and she glanced back at Charlie to see he’d taken a few steps in her direction. She shook her head at him to let him know she was all right.“I tried to follow him, I really did,” Ezra said, moving closer to her himself. “Your mother stopped me. She said… she said if I did anything to intervene, she’d let my father go. Meg, what was I to do? My father was so ill. He needed the money he earned here to pay for his medication. Now… he’s on his deathbed, Meg. If I had tried to stop your uncle, my father would be out on the streets and likely dead.” He had tears in his eyes; his voice was imploring. He looked the picture of a son in misery, unable to help his father.“So you chose to leave him behind
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