Chapter 33 No Flowers For Claire
Lara's pov
I was making coffee when my phone rang. It was around 6:48 in the morning. I still hadn’t slept for too long. Lucas’s letter kept running through my head.
His name is Damien Otto. And I have proof.
Honestly, I was so tired of answering calls because most of the time it was either Lucas or probably someone relating to him or another prison collect call.
But something made me pick up.
Hello?
"Ms. Otto? This is Warden Patricia Holloway from Millbrook Correctional Facility."
My stomach dropped.
"What do you want?"
"I'm calling about Claire Ward. She suffered a massive stroke last night. She's been transferred to Bridmon Medical Center."
I didn't say anything.
"Ms. Otto? Are you there?"
"I heard you."
"She's in critical condition. The doctors don't expect her to recover. She's in a coma."
I stared at the coffee pot at my front and I watched it drip and drip.
"Why are you telling me this?"
"You're listed as next of kin. Her daughters are currently out of state. And her son requested we contact you."
"Lucas requested this?"
"Yes ma'am. He thought you'd want to know."
Of course he did.
Probably another manipulation or another game entirely.
"The hospital is asking about visitation," the warden continued. "Would you like to see her? Before her daughters arrive to make end-of-life decisions?"
"My last chance to what?" I asked. "Say goodbye to the woman who murdered my father?"
She was silent for a moment before she finally responded.
"I understand this is difficult, Ms. Otto."
"Do you? Do you understand that she poisoned my father for six months? That she smiled at his funeral while knowing what she'd done?"
"Ms. Otto—"
"No. I don't want to visit. I don't want to see her. I don't want anything to do with Claire Ward ever again."
I hung up,dropped the phone on the counter and turned around to find Damien standing in the doorway.
"What was that?" he asked.
"Claire had a stroke and she's dying."
Damien walked over,poured himself coffee and said,"Are you okay?"
I'm fine.
That's big news.
"Is it?"
He looked at me. "She's dying, Lara."
"Good."
Damien put his mug on the table. "You don't mean that."
"Don't I? She killed my father. Why would I care if she dies?"
"Because you're not like her. You're far better than that."
I laughed,It came out harsh.
Maybe I'm tired of being better. Maybe I want to be the kind of person who feels nothing when bad people suffer.
"Lara—"
"Why are you fighting?"
We both turned.
Ethan stood in the doorway in his dinosaur pajamas. His hair sticking up on one side.
"We're not fighting, baby," I said.
"You sound mad mama”.
Damien walked over to him. "Mommy just got some sad news."
"What news?"
I knelt down to Ethan's level.
"Someone we used to know is very sick."
"Are they going to die?"
I paused. "Yes. Probably."
"That's sad."
I pulled him into a hug.
"Sometimes it's not, sweetheart. Sometimes it's just... the way things have to be."
Ethan pulled back and looked at my face.
"You're not sad."
Kids see too much.
"No," I admitted. "I'm not."
"That's okay," Ethan said. "Bryan's grandma died and he wasn't sad either. He said she was mean."
Out of the mouths of children.
"Go brush your teeth," I told him. "We need to leave for school in twenty minutes."
After Ethan ran upstairs, Damien looked at me.
"Are you really okay?"
"I don't know what I am."
"That's fair."
I poured my coffee. "Lucas wanted them to call me. The warden said so."
"Of course he did."
"Why? What's the point?"
Damien shook his head. "He's trying to get a reaction. Trying to force you to care."
"Well, I don't."
"I know."
But he looked worried.
Like he thought there was something wrong with me.
Maybe there was.
—--
I dropped Ethan at school and sat in the parking lot for twenty minutes. I sat there and staring at the space.
Claire was dying.
The woman who destroyed my life. Who killed my father. Who turned her entire family against me.
She was dying and honestly, I didn't feel for her at all not alone sympathize with her.
My phone rang, it was a call from Veronica, I didn't want to answer it but maybe curiosity made me did.
“What? I saiid.
"Lara." Her voice was thick with tears. "Please. I know you hate us. I know we don't deserve anything from you."
"Then why are you calling?"
"It's Mom. She's dying."
"I know already, the warden called to inform me."
"Will you come? Please? To the hospital?"
I closed my eyes.
For what? Why would I come to the hospital? Are you trying to use me again?
"Because she's still Lucas's mother. And Ethan's grandmother."
That made me burst into laughter.
"Claire was never Ethan's grandmother. She hated him. Called him proof of my common blood, remember?"
"She was sick, Lara. The dementia—"
"Don't blame dementia for what she chose to do. She was poisoning my father long before any dementia."
"Please." Veronica was sobbing now. "I'm begging you. Natasha and I can't do this alone."
"That's not my problem."
I hung up and sat there feeling absolutely nothing.
What was wrong with me?Is it that I didnt have human feelings again?
\---
By afternoon, the news was everywhere.
"Tech Heiress's Former Mother-in-Law Critical After Prison Stroke."
"Claire Ward, Convicted Murderer, Clings to Life."
"Will Lara Otto Visit Dying Mother-in-Law?"
My assistant Sarah came into my office looking worried.
"The press is calling. Do you want me to draft a statement?"
"No."
"Are you sure you're okay? You can go home. No one would blame you."
"I'm fine."
"Lara." Sarah sat down across from me. "It's okay to have feelings about this."
"What if I don't? What if I feel absolutely nothing?"
"Then that's okay too."
But her eyes said she didn't really believe that.
At four o'clock, the security called.
"Ms. Otto? There's a Natasha Ward here to see you."
I should have said no. I should have had security escort her out.
But I said yes instead.
Natasha looked terrible when she walked in. No makeup. Red eyes. Wrinkled clothes.
Not the polished socialite I remembered.
"Thank you for seeing me," she said.
"I haven't decided if this was a mistake yet."
She sat down without being invited.
"Mom's on life support. The doctors say there's no brain activity. We have to decide whether to turn off the machines."
"That's not my decision to make."
"Lucas asked us to talk to you. He said you'd know what to do."
Of course he did.
"Lucas is manipulating you," I said. "Like he manipulated everyone."
"He said you're a good person. Better than all of us. He said if anyone would show mercy, it would be you."
I stood up and walked to the window.
"What do you want from me, Natasha?"
"I want you to tell me it's okay to let her go. I want your permission."
"Your permission?"
"She killed your father. You have more right to decide than anyone."
I turned to face her.
"Then let her die. Don't drag it out. Don't make her suffer. Just let her go."
Natasha started crying again.
"You really feel nothing, do you?"
"No," I said honestly. "I don't. Is that what you wanted to hear?"
She left without another word.
I went back to my desk and tried to work.But I couldn't focus.
Claire was dying and I felt nothing.
What did that make me?
—--
Two days later, my phone buzzed during breakfast.
It was news alert.
"Claire Ward, convicted murderer, dies in hospital at age 67."
I read it while eating my eggs, I set the phone down and took another bite.
Damien saw the notification on his own phone and looked at me.
"Did you see it?"
"Yeah."
"And?"
"And nothing. She's dead. That's good."
"Lara..."
I set my fork down.
"What? What do you want me to say? That I'm sad? That I wish things were different?"
"I want you to feel something, anything at all."
"I do feel something. I feel relieved that she can't hurt anyone ever again."
Damien reached across the table and took my hand.
"I'm worried about you."
"Don't be. I'm fine."
"You're not fine. You're shutting down."
"Or maybe I'm finally seeing clearly. Maybe I wasted too many years caring about people who didn't deserve it."
My phone rang.
Veronica again.
I answered this time.
"What?"
"The service is Friday. By 10am at Sacred Heart. Will you come?"
"No."
"Lara, please. She was still Lucas's mother."
"And he's in prison where he belongs. I'm not going to mourn the woman who destroyed my life."
"What about closure? Don't you want closure?"
"I got my closure when the judge read the verdict. Goodbye, Veronica."
I hung up.
Damien was still staring at me.
"You're really not going?"
"No."
"Not even for them? They're suffering."
"They should have thought about that before they helped Claire destroy me."
I stood up and cleared my plate.The conversation was over.
\---
That night, Ethan asked about it at bedtime.
"Mommy? Tyler said he saw on TV that a lady died. He said she was related to us."
I sat on the edge of his bed.
"She was married to someone I used to know."
"The man in the orange clothes? From the trial?"
"Yes. His mother."
"Are you sad she died?"
I looked at my seven-year-old son. His innocent face and his honest eyes.
"No, baby. I'm not."
"Is that bad? To not be sad?"
"Sometimes people do things that make it hard to feel sad when they're gone."
"What did she do?"
"She hurt people I loved. So I don't miss her."
Ethan thought about this.
"Okay. Can you read me a story now?"
Just like that, very simple and easy.
Kids don't complicate things the way adults do.
I read him two chapters of his favorite book. Kissed his forehead. Turned off the light.
"I love you, Mommy."
"I love you too, sweetheart."
As I closed his door, I thought about what he'd asked.
Is it bad to not be sad?
No.
Some people don't deserve grief.
—--
It was 2am in the morning, I couldn't sleep so, I gave up trying to sleep and went downstairs and made tea.
I sat at the kitchen table in the dark and thought about Claire.
She died alone in a hospital. No family at her bedside. No one holding her hand.
And I felt nothing.
I tried to summon something. Anything.
Guilt for not caring.
Relief that she was gone.
Satisfaction that justice was served.
But there was just emptiness where those feelings should be.
Did that make me as cold as her?
Or did it just make me human?
Claire took everything from me. My father. My marriage. My sense of safety.
She smiled at my father's funeral knowing she'd killed him.
She tried to have me killed in a car accident.
She orchestrated fake photos to destroy my reputation.
She turned her entire family against me.
Why should I waste tears on her death?
Some people don't earn grief.
Some people just earn indifference.
I finished my tea and went back upstairs. I climpbed into bed next to Damien.
He rolled over, he was still half asleep.
"You okay?"
"Yeah."
He pulled me close.
"I love you."
"I love you too."
He fell back asleep within minutes.But I lay there awake, thinking about Lucas.
His mother was dead now. His sisters were broken. He had nothing left.
Nothing but time and rage.
That made him more dangerous than ever.
\---
The next morning, another letter arrived.
I saw the prison envelope in the mail stack.
This time I opened it immediately. I stood right there in the kitchen and tore it open.
Lara,
I heard about my mother. Veronica called and told me.
You didn't come to the hospital. You won't go to the funeral.
I'm not surprised. I don't blame you.
She destroyed everything. I see that now. She destroyed you. She destroyed us. She destroyed her own life.
But she can't hurt you anymore.
Now it's just you and me.
And the truth.
Did you get my last letter? About Damien?
About the hotel?
I meant what I said. I have proof.
And I'm going to make sure you see it.
Because you deserve to know who you're really living with.
Who's really raising our son.
Or is he even our son, Lara?
Count the dates again.
Think about that night.
And ask yourself why Damien has never told you the truth.
The letter ended there.
I stood in my kitchen holding the paper.Claire was dead.One of the Ward was down.
But Lucas was still out there, still writing and manipulating me.Still trying to destroy my life from behind bars.
And now with Claire gone, he had nothing to lose.
No mother to protect, no family reputation to salvage.
Just revenge.
I looked up.Damien was upstairs getting Ethan ready for school.
I could hear them laughing about something.
They sounded so happy.
So normal.
Like a real family.
But Lucas's words echoed in my head.
Ask yourself why Damien has never told you the truth.
What truth?
What was Damien hiding?
I folded the letter and put t it in my purse.
I needed answers.
And I was going to get them.
Even if those answers destroyed everything I'd built.