Stand In For My Sister As Mrs. Weston Chapter 10
After I got Darla’s retirement fund back, the way she treated me changed completely.
The cold shoulder was gone. In its place, she even started fussing over me.
Soup one day. New clothes the next.
She was so attentive it was almost unsettling.
I wasn’t fooled. I knew Jodi was behind this.
She’d been whispering in Darla’s ear, planting seeds of doubt about me.
The warmth was just a front. Beneath it, a minefield of tests lay waiting.
At the dining table, Darla placed a piece of fish on my plate with a smile.
“Try this, Beth. You used to love my honey-glazed salmon.”
I ate it and nodded, returning the smile. “Tastes exactly the same. Your cooking is as wonderful as ever, Darla.”
“You know,” she went on, “I still remember how afraid of the dark you were when you were pregnant. You always left the light on at bedtime. Once, we had a blackout, and you even cried at that time. Do you remember that?”
All of this was from Bethany’s past.
I had done my homework long before I came.
At her hospital bed, Bethany had told me every story from when she was little, piece by piece.
I had memorized everything — her every like and every dislike, all of it. Until I knew it like the back of my own hand.
“Of course I remember.” I set down my fork and let a nostalgic look settle across my face.
“And there’s more. It was pouring rain that night. To get me to calm down, you stayed by my side all night.”
I even added details Darla herself could barely recall.
All of them told to me by Bethany, smiling through tears on her deathbed.
The smile on Darla’s face stiffened for a heartbeat.
She hadn’t expected me to answer so smoothly. So flawlessly.
I looked at her and decided it was time to turn the tables.
I set down my fork, my eyes holding just the right amount of hurt.
“Darla, what’s going on with you today?
“All these questions about the past…
“Do you think… I’ve changed? Into someone you don’t like anymore?”
My voice wasn’t loud, but it landed exactly where I aimed it — clean and sharp, like a blade slipped between the ribs.
She shifted under my gaze, scrambling for words.
“Wh-What? No, not at all. I was just… making conversation.”
Flustered, she looked away, not daring to meet my eyes.
Off to the side, Raymond frowned. He had clearly picked up on her strange behavior.
“Mom,” he said, “isn’t Beth great the way she is now? She’s strong, independent. She takes care of this family and the kids so well.
“You used to say she was too soft. Now she’s finally toughened up; how come you can’t get used to it?”
His words left Darla speechless. She managed only a tight, awkward smile and dropped the subject.
Another test ended in failure.
But I knew it wasn’t the end.
If anything, my flawless performance had only deepened her suspicion.
No one remembered details from over a decade ago that clearly.
Unless they had made a point of memorizing them.
Darla and Jodi exchanged a glance, both thinking the same thing.
They needed hard proof.
