Count On Me

Part Four

Chapter Four

Fortunately there was school for Nate the following day. After calling work and telling them she wouldn't be in for a while, she took him to school and met with the head teacher. As he played in a room adjacent to his office, Lizzie explained all that had happened, but that whilst Nate was showing signs of being upset, most of the time he was fine.

"I feel that him being home, doing something different will make it worse, make it harder on him. Don't you think?"

The man smiled, "I agree completely. In school we pride ourselves on being a family. What I will do is call in his teacher to this conversation so that we can all be on the same song sheet if or when he gets upset. If that's ok?"

She nodded eagerly, and after giving Nate a kiss goodbye, he trotted off to class, and she welcomed his class teacher in his place.

The meeting went well, the representatives from the school being extremely helpful and supportive. Just what Nate needed. She was worried that he was going to be overwhelmed with everything that was happening. When she left, she felt confident that he was at least in a stable environment for him.

Jumping in her car, she drove across town to her sister's lawyer. Another situation that seemed almost too painful for words.

Cheryl Malone was someone that Lizzie had come across professionally; they were a similar age and had started out as bottom feeding legal eagles as roughly the same time. Lizzie had specialised in corporate law, and Cheryl had moved into family law. She'd become a partner in the small company she worked at quickly, and her office was on the top floor of a docklands office block. She was nowhere near as far up the ladder as this woman was, but that was corporate law...or rather her company. Lizzie had repeatedly begun to think that she'd made a lot of wrong choices, seeing the interior of the office she was shown to, only reinforced that.

"Lizzie." Cheryl rose from behind the desk, she was a petite brunette, yet had an imposing presence, what she lacked in height she compensated with a sense of authority.

Lizzie smiled, "nice to see you again Cheryl."

"I just wish it was under better circumstances."

Lizzie took the seat she offered and sighed, "it was a huge shock. But I'm amazed that Janis wrote a will. Someone who is..."she gulped on the emotion of that. "Sorry, she was, so disorganised, she lived day-to-day. It's not like her to be organised, to actually forward think."

Cheryl sighed, "she didn't do it that long ago. She was nervous about what would happen to Nathan."

"What do you mean? She wasn't ill."

The lawyer shook her head, "no, but she was worried about what would happen if exactly this scenario. Before I tell you all that she said, she left me this."

She passed a sealed envelope across the table, and Lizzie glanced at it, spotting her name in that familiar loping scrawl. She stifled a sob that appeared at the back of the throat. When she lifted her eyes to the other woman she gave a sympathetic smile.

"Are you ready to do this? We can do this later in the week."

She didn't answer; instead she took the envelope and slowly opened it. As she did Cheryl stood.

"I'll give you some time alone."

It took her a long moment to actually read the letter. And when she did it was through a haze of tears.