“What the hell is this?” I gasped.
“What’s wrong?” Rich asked and stepped inside.
I looked at him with sheer shock and pain. There were boxes scattered around the living room with more stacked in the kitchen. The walls were bare. The trinkets and other signs of home were all gone. It was nothing but a few pieces of furniture.
I walked into the kitchen and it was the same scene. All the appliances were gone from the countertops. The cookbooks that had been on the shelf in the corner were gone. Those were my mom’s cookbooks.
“What the hell is going on here?” Rich’s voice revealed he was just as horrified as I was.
Dad popped in from my old room. “Oh good, you’re here,” he said with a smile. “I have a few boxes for you guys. Stuff you left in your rooms. If you don’t want it, you can donate it.”
“What is going on?” I asked. “Why all the boxes?”
“Because the cleaners said it was easier to do their job if all the clutter was put away,” Stacey answered. “We gave away a lot of stuff. We didn’t think you would want it.”
“Didn’t you already give away everything?” I snapped. “The moment you moved in here you cleaned out everything my mother touched.”
“Thea, that’s enough,” Dad scolded. “You were told your mother’s things were available for you to go through.”
“After she went through them and decided what was valuable enough for her to keep,” I said. I glared at Stacey. Rage burned deep in the pit of my stomach. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stop myself from hating her. I absolutely loathed the woman.
“Why are you packed up?” Rich asked the obvious question.
“We’re moving,” Dad announced.
“Dad!” Rich and I exclaimed.
He looked happy. My heart was shattering while my whole world blew up in my face. I didn’t feel like crying. I felt like screaming. I felt like ripping Stacey’s hair out. She was ruining my father’s life and, in turn, my life. Rich’s life. We only had one parent left in this world and she was stealing him right out from under our noses. It was unfathomable. She was the worst person in the world to be paired with him.
“I told you this was probably going to happen,” Dad said.
“You didn’t even talk to us,” I said. “She interrupted our conversation.”
“It’s official,” he said. “We’ll be putting the house on the market as soon as the house is empty. The movers will be here next week to pack everything up and take it to Calgary. Stacey and I are leaving this week. I thought you knew all this.”
“How could we possibly know?” I asked. “We’ve both been calling you the last two weeks. The last we heard you were considering the idea. You didn’t say you were actually moving.”
“And selling the house?” Rich asked. “You’re actually selling the house?”
I looked at Stacey. She had a smug expression that I wanted to slap off her face. “Your father and I are ready to start a new life together with a clean slate.”
“You mean without pesky children getting in the way of your plans,” I shot back. “What about his health? You can’t just erase it. He needs to be under the care of a good doctor. He’s not a young man. If you want to get up and move across the country, you should look for a man closer to your own age.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m going to get those other boxes from the other guest room.”
“You mean Rich’s room,” I shot back.
“Dad, why didn’t you call me back?” Rich asked him.
“Or me,” I said. “We’ve been worried about you.”
“I didn’t get any messages,” Dad said. “Stacey told me she let you both know we were leaving this week. I thought I would have heard from you sooner.”
“Because we didn’t know,” I said with frustration. “Stacey didn’t tell us shit. You know we wanted to talk about this.”
“Thea, I appreciate you’re upset I’m selling your childhood home, but it’s time for us all to move on. You guys have your own lives. I’m ready to move on with mine. I’m in this house with a ghost. It’s time to go.”
I shook my head. “You love this house,” I said. “You had so many plans you wanted to do when you retired. Why would you want to give up all of this? What about us? Your family, Dad. We are your real family. We aren’t going to walk out on you or abandon you. We will always be here when you need us. What are you going to do when you’re in Calgary and get sick? How can we help you if you’re gone? Do you truly, honestly believe Stacey is going to be there for you?”