Chapter 672 Filial But Not Close
The next day, with Tony in her arms, Amelia was about to head to St. David’s Church with Oscar when she ran into Eleanor as soon as they stepped out the door.
“Lia!” Eleanor’s arms were laden with all kinds of gifts. Seeing how lightly dressed the three of them were, she guessed that they were going out. “Where are you going?”
Amelia’s eyes flickered. She smiled and said, “Why didn’t you give me a call when you’ve come all the way from Saspiuburg, Mrs. Hutton?”
“I went back to discuss the divorce, but it didn’t work out. I missed you and Tony so much. Here are some supplements from Saspiuburg for you guys.” Eleanor raised the bags in her hands. “Could you open the door and let me bring the gifts in?”
Amelia had Oscar open the door for her.
After putting the gifts away, Eleanor turned to face them. “Where are you going, Lia? Would you mind if I joined you?”
“Oscar and I plan to go up to St. David’s Church today.”
“Are you not well, Lia? Is it serious?” Eleanor asked anxiously.
Amelia shook her head. “Don’t worry, Mrs. Hutton,” she reassured the older woman. “I’m fine. I just want to pray for a friend.”
Eleanor heaved a sigh of relief. “That’s good. Let me come with you.”
Her inclusion made the trio a quartet.
As soon as the four exited the elevator, they saw two familiar silhouettes, the Hutton siblings, standing before the elevator doors.
Eleanor scowled.
Amelia Hutton approached them with a frown. “Why did you come to Tayhaven without telling Sean and me, Mom? We were so worried about you.”
“Go home,” Eleanor said tartly. “I have settled here.”
Amelia Hutton took a deep breath and willed herself to calm down.
She then walked up to Amelia Winters and Oscar and greeted them politely, “Hello, Amy. Hello, Oscar.”
“Good to see you here at Tayhaven too, Amelia,” Amelia Winters responded in kind.
Amelia Hutton gave her a lingering, meaningful look. “Can we talk, Amy?”
“Oscar and I are going to church. We can talk when I get back if you don’t mind.”
Amelia Hutton glanced at Oscar surreptitiously, and a plan hatched in her mind a moment later. “Do you mind if Sean and I tag along, Amy?”
Amelia Winters fell silent.
Eleanor pulled her daughter away. “Stop pestering us. Return to Saspiuburg with your brother. Your father and I are destined to get divorced, not to mention that it doesn’t help that he’s trying to avoid having to face me. I just need to split my time between these two cities for two years, and my marriage will have broken down enough for me to ask the court for a divorce.”
Amelia Hutton clenched her fists although the smile remained on her face. “Sean and I are just worried about you, Mom.”
Eleanor scoffed, “If you were worried about me, you wouldn’t have taken your father’s side and tried to bring me back right now.”
Amelia Hutton was dumbstruck.
And so, the original family of three doubled in size.
Oscar sat in the driver’s seat of the first car, while Amelia was seated in the back seat with Eleanor and Tony in her arms. Craning to look at the car tailing theirs, Amelia remarked, “Your children love you, Mrs. Hutton. You might as well clear things up with them. Of course, this is only my advice. You don’t have to take it.”
Eleanor lowered her gaze as she tickled Tony.
Amelia watched her. She sighed inwardly but did not say much else.
The four of them arrived at St. David’s Church in silence. Amelia Hutton and Sean pulled up next to them as soon as they exited the car.
Oscar carried Tony with one arm and held his wife’s hand with his other hand as they ascended the church’s famous flight of stairs with Eleanor and her children in tow.
Amelia Hutton reached out for her mother’s hand. “Let me help you, Mom.”
Eleanor glared at her wordlessly.
After the prodigious feat of climbing five hundred steps, the party gasped for air for a long time.
“Why would they build a stupid church so high up?” Amelia Hutton grumbled under her breath.
“Watch your tongue!” Eleanor reprimanded in a low voice. “We’re in the House of God, Amelia!”
Amelia Hutton pouted in response to her mother.
The six entered the church. Amelia Winters and Oscar fell into prayer almost immediately upon sitting on the nearest pew. Amelia Hutton, however, took her mother aside. “You’ve caused enough trouble, Mom,” she whispered. “Come back to Saspiuburg with us at once. Nobody’s going to treat you like family while you’re here.”
Eleanor gazed at the family of three who was offering their tithes. Her throat felt a little dry.
“Look at her, Mom,” Amelia Hutton said in an attempt to be rational. “She already has her own family. She doesn’t need your maternal love anymore, but Dad and us two still need you. Come home without causing trouble, will you?”
Eleanor withdrew her gaze. “Return to Saspiuburg with your brother, Amelia,” she repeated, looking irritated.
“Do you know that Dad is sick because of you, Mom?” Amelia Hutton cried anxiously.
Eleanor’s steely gaze finally quivered.
“Dad was admitted to the hospital three times while you were away, Mom,” Amelia Hutton pressed on. “The doctors say he’s depressed and overworked. If this continues, the chances of his cerebral hemorrhage will increase to eighty percent. You and Dad have been married for over thirty years, haven’t you? Are you really cruel enough to turn your back on him?”
Eleanor glared at her daughter. “Tell me, Amelia,” she asked through gritted teeth, “are you here to appeal to me in your father’s place?”
“Ask Sean if you don’t believe me, Mom.”
Eleanor turned to her son, who nodded in affirmation.
“Dad coughed up blood yesterday. I think we all know the one thing that will mend his heart. Dad still loves you, Mom.”
Eleanor’s face contorted into a mixture of resentment and anguish.
Amelia Hutton was about to say something to break her mother’s prolonged silence when her brother took her hand and shook her head warningly.
In the distance ahead of them, Amelia Winters and Oscar were bowing before the looming figure on the cross. Upon obtaining a rosary from the silent attendants, they exited the building.
“Mrs. Hutton,” Amelia Winters called.
Eleanor brightened up at once. “Have you already prayed?” she asked with a radiant smile. “I have a prayer or two of my own too, on top of one for you and Tony.”
Amelia Winters shook her head. “No need, Mrs. Hutton. We are praying on behalf of a friend.”
“If God is particularly receptive to prayers from this lovely church,” Eleanor remarked cheerfully, “I will ask that you be blessed with another child. Tony needs a younger sibling. You will not be alone if you have a couple more. I’ll be glad to care for them when they come! I will take care of everything for you; you’ll never be tired.”
Amelia Hutton’s scowl did not improve when she heard that.
“It’s Amy’s decision whether or not to have children, Mom,” Amelia Hutton butted in exasperatedly. “Why don’t you let them decide if they want to?”
Eleanor glared at her daughter. “I’ll pray for you, Lia,” she continued softly. “While I’m still young, I can help you raise another grandchild I’ll be proud to call my own. I regret not being there when Tony was born. You must have suffered, child. I’m sure it wasn’t easy.”
Ignoring the silent protests of her children, Eleanor followed the Clintons into the hall. Amelia Hutton stomped her feet in noiseless frustration, while Sean smiled awkwardly.
“Don’t mind her, Mrs. Clinton,” Sean said apologetically. “You have always been the most special one to Mom.”
“I understand and appreciate her kind gestures,” Amelia Winters said indifferently.
Oscar put his arms around his wife’s waist and moved her to the side to face the Huttons directly across from them. The five adults seemed to be taking opposing stances, no one taking a step forward.
Eleanor handed a bundle of maternity clothes to Amelia Winters. “Here, Lia. Take this with my sincerest wishes that you would be blessed with another child very soon.”
Amelia Winters received it with a smile. “Thank you, Mrs. Hutton. But we are not thinking about another one for the time being.”
The smile on Eleanor’s face faded slightly.
“But if I do get pregnant,” Amelia Winters added quickly, “you’ll be the first one to know about it.”
Eleanor’s smile returned at that.
After having a meatless lunch in the church, they retired to the private chambers for some more prayer and contemplation before rising to leave at five in the evening.
Amelia Winters had Oscar hold Tony when they arrived back in the city before turning to Amelia Hutton.
“Didn’t you want to talk earlier, Amelia? There is a pastry place across the neighborhood with great cheesecake. Can we sit there and talk?”
Amelia Hutton nodded.
“Don’t say anything foolish, Amelia,” Eleanor reminded her daughter anxiously, “or I’ll be angry with you.”
Amelia Winters reassured her, “It’s all right, Mrs. Hutton. I also happen to have something to say to Amelia.”
Unable to stop that, Eleanor allowed the two younger women to walk away from her.
The two Amelias crossed the street to the pastry shop and ordered some tarts they had never seen before.
Amelia Winters gave half of her rhubarb pie to her companion. “Try some. I think it’s the best rhubarb pie I’ve ever had.”
Amelia Hutton took a bite and went straight to the point. “Let Mom go, Amy. You already have a family. If you take her from us, the Hutton household will cease to exist!”
Amelia Winters smiled.
“It was not my intention to bind her to me, Amelia,” she said crisply. “I have even less of an inclination to reconcile with my biological parents. I’m doing fine without them as you can see. Though I often wondered if my life would be more peaceful if the Hutton family never announced its presence in it, the answer I always arrived at was a definite yes. However, it is strictly out of consideration for your mother’s care and love for her daughter that I do not object to her visits to me. She is not as impulsive as I thought despite our long separation. Though I admit that I am the daughter of the Hutton family, I cannot simply see any similarities between us to indicate any bond by blood.”
Amelia Hutton stared across the table in distrust, plainly believing that it might all be an act.
“What’s the matter? Do you think I’m being hypocritical?”
“The Hutton family is a wealthy family in Saspiuburg,” Amelia Hutton said. “Are you really not moved by her pleas?”
Amelia Winters smiled and took her time carving herself a slice of cake with elegant dignity. “I might have been eight years ago. Do you think I’m interested in the Hutton family’s property now?”
Amelia Hutton fell silent. With the power and status of the Clinton family looming over theirs, there was no need for the younger Mrs. Clinton to covet the property of the Hutton family like a pug sniffing hopefully for scraps.
“I will try my best to persuade Mrs. Hutton to go home, Amelia,” Amelia Winters announced with as much sincerity as she could convey. “Maybe she and I are fated never to have that bond she wishes we shared. Even if I were to become her daughter again, I couldn’t treat her like you do. I can be filial, but I won’t ever be close to her the way she wants.”
Amelia Hutton looked at her deeply before sighing slowly, a significant burden off her shoulders. “I hope you meant what you said, Amy. In fact, from the first time I met you, I thought that you and I would hit it off. But I have to stand by my father. I can’t let my family fall apart.”
If the Hutton family collapses, my pocket money will go up in smoke along with it.
Amelia Winters nodded.
After clarifying the one thing they met to discuss, the women had nothing left to talk about.
“Go back now,” Amelia Winters said at last. “It’s not often that you and your brother come to Tayhaven.”
Amelia Hutton agreed after thinking about it.
