Tea for Three (A Mulberry Lane Novel, #1)

Prologue-1

Prologue

Sarah Gardner

Three weeks earlier, November 23rd

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SARAH WATCHED AS A white butterfly landed on her husband’s casket as it was lowered into the ground. She couldn’t believe it. Adam was dead. His heart had failed him in his sleep, and he never woke up.

The butterfly idly flapped its wings—one, two, three—before slowly taking flight. Sarah sat up straight and rubbed her left wrist with her hand. She felt for a pulse and breathed a sigh of relief when she’d found it.

Sarah could still remember the feel of Adam’s skin when she rolled over for a cuddle. The morning alarm was yet to go off, and she’d woken from the sun’s rays pushing through the curtain. His skin was cold—like ice. Only it didn’t melt like ice.

Just the year before, Adam had insisted on planning their funerals. The idea came after their youngest child was born. He thought it the prudent thing to do. “We don’t want to burden the kids with having to make decisions about our funerals,” he’d said. It was what Adam had to do when his own parents died ten years ago. It was a car accident that took them; sudden and unexpected. He didn’t want Liam, Noah, or Zoe to go through that. So the Gardners met with their insurance company, updated their wills to include funeral arrangements, and even went as far as choosing their caskets. Well—Adam did. Not Sarah. It felt macabre and unnatural to her.

It came as a surprise to Sarah how easily one could buy a casket. She ordered Adam’s online from Costco. During the planning phase, Adam had scoured the internet to find affordable but ‘stylish’ caskets and showed Sarah the impressive range that Costco had online. “See?” he had boasted. “Take a look at this one, Sarah. It’s perfect. I told you! People waste money when there’s just no need to. We all still end up six feet under—fancy casket and all. Those funeral guys are all crooks!”

Adam meticulously jotted all the details down in the Moleskine notebook she’d bought him for Valentine’s Day earlier that year. If Sarah had known he was going to use it for that specific purpose, she’d have just given him a stack of cheap composition notebooks.

He’d kept the notebook in the top right-hand drawer of his desk. “If anything ever happens to me,” Adam said, “open this drawer, and you will find everything you need.” So when the time came to plan his funeral, Sarah opened the top drawer. There it was—just as he said it would be. Adam was always so organized. So much more than she ever was.

Sarah flicked through the pages and ran her fingers over the ridges of Adam’s heavy handwriting. Item 1345273 - The Hampton Casket by Prime - Costco.

She turned the computer on and went on the Costco website. On the search bar, Sarah typed in the item number and hit enter. Sarah’s eyes stung as she read through the product description. For the price of $999.00, Adam would be buried in a casket made of Poplar wood finished with a mahogany gloss. Tears streamed down her face as Sarah continued to read. The casket had a light cream velvet interior.

It had started with a small chuckle. Sarah wiped her tears and smiled. Trust Adam to find a casket that had an adjustable eternal rest bed (both head and foot) and included a matching pillow and throw. Her chuckle turned into a laugh. Hours later, she was still laughing. And when the babysitter returned home with the children, she’d found Sarah laughing hysterically in the study—on the floor. The poor girl called her mother, who then called 911.

The event must have been traumatizing for the babysitter because, after the funeral, she resigned. Immediately after. “There’s no good time to tell you,” she’d said. “So I’ll just go ahead and say it.” And so she did. She’d said it and ended with, “I’m so sorry for your loss, Mrs. Gardner.”

That night, Sarah found herself without both a husband and babysitter. One might joke that they’d run off with each other; sadly, that wasn’t the case. It was funny, but not funny. No.

Despite her mini-breakdown however, Sarah had to give it to Adam. His forward planning had helped her get through the toughest challenge of her life to date. The funeral had been well-attended and if Adam could see how many people were at his own funeral, he’d have been pleased and would have given a toast. Thank you all for coming.

Back at the house, everything was perfect—as far as funeral receptions went. From where she sat, Sarah looked around for her children. She had no idea where they were. But she could hear them and took comfort in knowing they were, at the very least, safe at home.

Charlotte, Adam’s cousin and their closest family member in the county, had catered the event. She was the owner of a small cafe in Willow Oaks, which was the next town up from Carlton Bay. If it wasn’t for Charlotte, Sarah would not have known how to cater for a funeral reception. “I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Charlotte had said when Sarah told her that Adam had specifically wanted her to cater at his funeral. Sarah had even asked if she wanted to read his notebook. Charlotte—bless her sweet heart—had declined.

With everything being managed by Charlotte and her staff, there wasn’t much that Sarah had to do. She performed her widow duties as best as she could by sitting, listening, and nodding when people offered their condolences even if they all said the same things. “He will be missed. Adam was a great guy. Everyone loved him.” Unfortunately, to Sarah, none of what they said mattered. Adam was gone. He didn’t run away with the babysitter. He died and left them for good.

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